Why Little League?

I "inherited" a 45 year legacy of Little League affiliation. The area of our district is heavily affiliated with Little League.

Little League is the McDonald's of youth baseball. I cannot say whether I would actively seek to join LL if I were an independent, as I've never administered an independent league and do not know the challenges they face which LL might remedy.

Many aspects of LL are administered well on paper. Little League Baseball Inc. has developed some good guidelines. We've read about a lot of abuses, but remember that they are the exception rather than the rule, as is true in all sports programs.

My largest complaint with LL is that there isn't much follow-through. For example, Northampton is a two-charter league (East and West). We have a smaller population of other towns which are single-charter leagues because they lie on their applications. This means we spend more $ than they do, and it also means that with a smaller population base (much smaller - Northampton is a center of activity for colleges like UMass and Smith College - a demographic that tends to have very few children). Needless to say, having to split our talent pool in half, we look less than sharp on All-Stars, and talent varies greatly between divisions (ie: East can only draft East kids, if that is where the majority of talent lies, West can look less than great in the playoffs). For 5 straight years, West dominated East. The past 2 years, East has dominated West and looks to continue to do so for at least another year or two. If we could draft all kids under 1 league, the talent would be more evenly distributed, meaning better games.

I support the LL program, but not blindly. At times that places me at odds with Regional, who expects us to goosestep to the tune they call. So long as your local administration is dedicated to providing the kids a safe, instructive and fun league, affiliation isn't important.