Little League Softball World Series

[sevensdad]

So the Southwest team from New Mexico just won the Little League World Series last night with an impressive run total of 67-5 throughout 6 games in the tourney.
Ordinarily I would find this impressive but, that team was actually the Albuquerque Stingers 12u club team that were the " all stars" of that district. I may be the minority but, I thought Little League was the "everybody gets to play and have fun league"?
Little League was fun at the time and if any of you saw the game the Southeast girls were laughing at the end which proved to me they were actually little league girls! That was what it was supposed to be about...
Clearly the NM team trophy hunted and the fact the announcers and ESPN had no clue is laughable... oH well may be the minority but, thought that was classless..

[NumeroUno]

I see that stuff all the time and I really don't think these coaches understand that it is not right to do that. I know in mens fast pitch if your up 5 runs and someone lays down a bunt the next batter gets it in the head.

You see that all the time with high school coaches running up the score. It is so classless but I really believe they don't know any better

[Battle]

In one game his team was up 11-0 in the first inning and he was still stealing and bunting throughout the game.
I thought that the NM coach was a total asshat.

Would you have felt the same way if the other team came back in the 3rd, after NM took out their pitcher, and scored 11 to tie?

[fastpitchdad05]

In one game his team was up 11-0 in the first inning and he was still stealing and bunting throughout the game.
I thought that the NM coach was a total asshat.

Would you have felt the same way if the other team came back in the 3rd, after NM took out their pitcher, and scored 11 to tie?

Nope. We'd be too busy watching the pigs fly.

Seriously though, this was obviously not the case of one fairly capable team pummeling another where "anything could happen, even with an 11-0 lead".

[PDad]

So the Southwest team from New Mexico just won the Little League World Series last night with an impressive run total of 67-5 throughout 6 games in the tourney.
Ordinarily I would find this impressive but, that team was actually the Albuquerque Stingers 12u club team that were the " all stars" of that district. I may be the minority but, I thought Little League was the "everybody gets to play and have fun league"?
Little League was fun at the time and if any of you saw the game the Southeast girls were laughing at the end which proved to me they were actually little league girls! That was what it was supposed to be about...
Clearly the NM team trophy hunted and the fact the announcers and ESPN had no clue is laughable... oH well may be the minority but, thought that was classless..

LL only restricts players during All Stars from also playing on non-LL teams. It is not uncommon for players from the same league to form a travel team in hopes of developing them to make that magical run to the LLWS. They play travel year-round with the exception of All Stars.

Problem is, playing multiple sanctions at the same time circumvents the pitching limitations meant to protect the kids' arms.

[shockcoach]

LL only restricts players during All Stars from also playing on non-LL teams. It is not uncommon for players from the same league to form a travel team in hopes of developing them to make that magical run to the LLWS. They play travel year-round with the exception of All Stars.

Problem is, playing multiple sanctions at the same time circumvents the pitching limitations meant to protect the kids' arms.

They no longer restrict players from playing for other leagues during All Stars.

[soupy62]

So the Southwest team from New Mexico just won the Little League World Series last night with an impressive run total of 67-5 throughout 6 games in the tourney.
Ordinarily I would find this impressive but, that team was actually the Albuquerque Stingers 12u club team that were the " all stars" of that district. I may be the minority but, I thought Little League was the "everybody gets to play and have fun league"?
Little League was fun at the time and if any of you saw the game the Southeast girls were laughing at the end which proved to me they were actually little league girls! That was what it was supposed to be about...
Clearly the NM team trophy hunted and the fact the announcers and ESPN had no clue is laughable... oH well may be the minority but, thought that was classless..

Is the winner of every tournament execpt ASA Nationals or PGF Trophy hunting? This isnt a jab at you by any means! I just see that term used alot and its normally a negative statement. Im just wondering what tournaments are OK to win without someone saying a coach is trophy hunting?
I guess what im saying is in most cases (but not all) the winner of any tournament probably didnt get enough competition. Would a great Cali team that works hard and passes up the other teams be expected to say to their team "we are to good and could possibly win a National Championship so we are going to play up and finish in the middle of the pack"? If a team follows the guide lines or rules set fourth by Little League as far as staying within boarders for players and they are able to pull something like that off shouldnt it be celabrated instead of condemed?

[BigPeaches]

A quick search of USSSA's website will tell you that they are registered as a 14U team with a record of 63-11 and have recently won a 16U tournament, but elected to play down and beat up a bunch of 12U little leaguers. The team that won it last year, from Illinois, did the same thing.

Yeah for them.

[softballfan33]

Is the winner of every tournament execpt ASA Nationals or PGF Trophy hunting? This isnt a jab at you by any means! I just see that term used alot and its normally a negative statement. Im just wondering what tournaments are OK to win without someone saying a coach is trophy hunting?
I guess what im saying is in most cases (but not all) the winner of any tournament probably didnt get enough competition. Would a great Cali team that works hard and passes up the other teams be expected to say to their team "we are to good and could possibly win a National Championship so we are going to play up and finish in the middle of the pack"? If a team follows the guide lines or rules set fourth by Little League as far as staying within boarders for players and they are able to pull something like that off shouldnt it be celabrated instead of condemed?

The difference is that LL is by definition an ALL-STAR TEAM. ASA, PGF, USSSA, USFA, TCS, IFA, etc are all known as TB play in some form or fashion. However, where I come from, LL all-star (or Pony or whatever all star is in your area) means that kids are divided equally in a draft format onto different teams or something similar and then play league play. The winning team's coaches then pick different kids from the league teams to make up an all-star team. Sometimes only one kid from each team but a group of allstars based on the players performance during the season.

Now I can imagine a way to make this work - spread the girls from one travel ball team around the entire league, keeping enough of them on a single team with the main coaches to win league, play the league out and then pick up each of those girls to put them back together. I guess you could call this an allstar team, but I doubt this was the way it was done.

I won't go so far as to say trophy hunting, but I will throw out there that I don't think this was in the spirit of the bylaws of the LL charter. However, they found a loop hole and that is the way it played out. Suspect that this will happen next year in other areas of the US and eventually the LL will just become another TB forum.

I honestly hope that I am wrong, as this is one of the last places that true rec ball exists in our area for any kid to play softball outside of TB programs. Not all girls want to play full time softball but enjoy it during it's season.

[Trophy Hunter]

They can still enjoy playing during the season, but they probably aren't going to win the LLWS. It's kind of like if you work part time, you probably arent going to make it to CEO.