Special LL waiver???

I'm not disagreeing, but why 9-12s? Why not 0-8 or 13-18?

See, we do agree that the problem is when the rules are stretched just because of the AS tournament. Reduce the value of the tournament and you'll immediately reduce the numner of cheaters because there'd be no reason to cheat!

You're an adult and know there's no way to only keep the good things and get rid of the bad in anything. I just like to try to be realistic about it and never accept it but not let it drive me to drink either.

I don't know how long ago you left here, but Orangevale has had a fantastic LL program for quite a few years and with the growth in Folsom, it is becoming a very huge sports area too.

I lived in Orangevale from 82-86. When the street lights, stops signs and developments started coming we left for the green grass of Rancho Murieta. Unfortunately, had I known what it was like to try to raise kids this far out in the boonies, I would have never moved!

When we left my boy wasn't even a year old and the last thing on our minds was baseball. When my son was 10, we met some old friend at a tournament and it turns out the dad was the president of the OV LL. When he saw my son play he couldn't believe it and asked how he had gotten so good compared to all the other kids.

When I told him he had played in the Major Division since he was 9, he couldn't believe it. In OV, no 9's or 10's play in the Majors. He called me a few days later and said he had hatched a plot that included getting tacit approval of a waiver from our district to theirs from the two DA's.

The reason was that we were on the fringe of both districts, and all I would have had to say was that going to OV would have been much easier on the family. After a couple weeks of thinking about it, we decided that he would be better off staying with his friends, so we turned sown the offer. BIG MISTAKE!

When my son got into HS and we really started having major problems with the program, I tried to convince my boy that since baseball was such an important part of his life, he really ought to transfer before it was too late. This time it was more his choice, but it was basically the same thing. He's basically a pretty shy kid and didn't want to have to make all new friends at a new school. Besides, at the time Folsom was a D2 school and played in the weak Foothill league while our school played in the area's strongest league.

I tried that for two years and finally, this year he decided he had enough and since he'd be driving, he'd make the move to Folsom. After all, they've grown so much, they'll not only be a D1 school, but even as a D2 school they've been kicking some serious butt up here for a couple of years now, and we lost Woodland and Yuba city out of the Delta league and guess who we're picking up? Jesuit and FOLSOM!

So, off I go going through the red tape to get this done and what do I find out? We can move him, but since he played on the V last year, we need a waiver from the old HS coach. I go to the coach and he has the audacity to laugh in my face and tell me the only reason he brought my son up last year was so he couldn't transfer without losing a year of eligibility without a waiver, and he wasn't going to sign it!

He says my kid is the best player in his program and doesn't want to lose him to another team in the same league! So there I sat with my teeth in my mouth, my chin on the floor and tears in my eyes because that SOB had me but the short hairs!

Yep, I've made some pretty bad decisions as a parent, but the one not to let him take the waiver was the absolute worst one and as long as I live I'll never forget myself. Had he done that, his baseball friends would have been the same kids that are in HS now, and he would probably have gone there as a freshman.

But I was stupid and didn't do my homework on my son's future! That's one reason I try my damndest to warn other people that the same thing could happen to them. Mine isn't a one in a million stry either. It happens all the time, all over the country!