from The EAGLE-TRIBUNE
article printed January 21, 2006
R-B league aims to ease the transition
By J. Tilman Cormier
Correspondent,
Some local youth baseball players should get the full treatment this season.
The Riverside-Bradford Baseball League in Haverhill is adopting a new format for a portion of their season to give players experience with PONY rules. According to the league's player agent, Colin LePage, the primary goal is to acclimate the players to a larger diamond while incorporating significant baseball strategies not currently used.
The RB League is concerned with the large number of players who quit the game for good after age 12. Weaning the players into larger fields is the most difficult aspect of transitioning to the Haverhill Senior League. At that time, players begin competing on regulation fields, the distances of which are 60 feet, 6 inches from the mound to home plate and 90 feet between basepaths. Currently, the 12-year-old players still use the distances of 46 feet for the mound and 60 feet for the basepaths, which is the same field size as the 8-year-olds. The change in the Senior League is so dramatic that it intimidates many players. "Half of the players quit right then and there," said LePage. "They don't play baseball anymore. We don't cut anyone and we want everyone to play."
His proposal is for the pitcher's mound to be increased to 48 feet and the distance between the bases to 70 feet. This expansion allows all facets of the game to exist, including runners leading off bases, pitchers holding runners on, stealing at any time, and catchers forced to be on guard at all times.
There are no city fields currently cut to those dimensions, however. The RB League has been working with Haverhill's recreation director, Vinny Ouellette, regarding that problem.
This might be as good a time as any to rectify that, however. According to Ouellette, since the modified softball leagues are no longer operating, the softball fields should be available more often. These fields appear to be best suited to accommodate the PONY dimensions, and it is feasible. "There doesn't seem to be an issue on the softball fields," said Ouellette. "They have a skinned infield already and a portable mound could be used."
Two afternoons of instruction and scrimmages were held last fall to gather feedback on the program. Although the only concern by the parents was the plausibility of implementing the program, LePage was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the players, including those who called their experience in the scrimmages 'the bomb' and 'sweet'. "We're trying to teach the whole game," LePage added. "Otherwise the kids plateau. On base, they would be in a track meet stance until the ball crossed home plate. This way, the game is live the whole time." The intention is to incorporate the PONY dimensions and rules approximately halfway into the season.
Although only a relative few players in a league that exceeds 900 players aged 5-12 years old travel in July to Cooperstown, N.Y., for the annual penultimate national 12-year-old tournaments, the R-B league's new format will also give the players experience with the same format that is utilized in the Cooperstown Dreams Park games.
These tournament games are played on fields with the larger dimensions, and many other teams from around the country play on these field sizes all season. The Cooperstown tournament is usually flooded with juggernaut teams from such baseball gold mine states as California and Texas. According to LePage, many of those teams are put together strictly for this tournament.
The R-B league insists on maintaining their roster as a regional league team in order to provide their own local players with this unique experience. LePage said that they have been attending this tournament for eight years now. Their players will now have the experience and instruction with regards to the PONY rules.
