re: Little Leaguer Killed by Pitch

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He should go to Frasch and watch some 12 year olds today. Any of five teams out there could handle most JV's, or at least give them all they want.

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you got some shitty JV teams over there, then.

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perception bias

and most LL players are shite. the good kids play on travel teams

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Talent is diluted. I imagine travel or select teams are what your average Dixie or LL team looked like 40 years ago. My first Dixie Leage tryout there were over 50 kids trying out for 15 spots. Now, there are teams for every kid.

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Yea but only the good ones get on the best travel/select teams.

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Exactly what I stated above. Reading comp. Learn it.

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I am not saying "your" time didn't have the best LL's, because honestly I don't give a shite. But your logic is flawed here.

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This was never stated. Again, you don't possess the ability to understand what you read. Select teams are similar to LL or Dixie teams of decades ago.

In all honesty kids playing on a little league field shouldn't be bunting just as pitcher shouldn't throw curve balls. If you're playing on a little league diamond it should be about basic fundamentals. A kid shouldn't be allowed to bunt until he's mastered basic hitting.

Save bunting for high school and american legion ball.

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learning to bunt is part of learning the fundamentals, no?


fwiw we learned to bunt at 8 years old against live pitching.

obviously it wasnt something we mastered at that age, but it wasnt that hard to do

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Eight year olds bunting? That's just a waste of time. I mean do you really think it' a good idea to teach 8 year olds how to bunt? Your coach was pretty stupid for wasting time on teaching 8 year olds how to bunt.

Bunting does nothing for teaching kids how to hit live pitching. A lot of 8 year olds still have problems making contact and not bailing out of the batter's box.

I knew a guy who played high school ball against Ken Griffey Jr in Cincinnatti. No scout gave a shite about bunting even in high school ball.

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Ha-ha. Kids should be taught how to properly swing a bat and make contact consistently. Bunting is a waste of time for kids. Tell the coach he's not a neighborhood Jim Leyland. No one gives a frick about bunting at that level of ball.

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First, 8 yo did not play LL back in the day. We played lot ball from 7 yo to 8 yo with no adults around. Every day. All day. We went to LL at age 9 or 10.

By then we were so skilled we did not have to learn how to bunt. We just needed to know how far you wanted us to roll the ball.

By age 11 we didn't shag balls in batting practice in front. We caught them at opposite hip by moving our arm behind our backs.

By 12 when playing IF in batting practice you fielded a grounder on your knees and threw a laser to first just to show off.

By 13 most OF could do the behind the back catch in practice. You caught the ball by letting it fall past your head into your glove which was placed just above your butt.

Of course, we didn't do this stuff in real games. Except for one. If you were an IF and got a sharp grounder you took 1, 2, 3, 4 crow hops waiting for the batter to get closer to first base. And then fired the ball to get him by a step. That was my specialty. It was great fun.

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I am around kids baseball more than anyone on this site. I know that it was the coaches fault.

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here we go ..

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Ah, so that explains why so many Latins exploded into the Majors in the 80s? It was because they were in Academies in the 60s? Really?

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that was timing due to interest

just like how we realy didn't see a ton of euros hit the NBA until the kids who were youths at the time of the 92 games grew up

now i don't know why there was an explosion of interest, but that's all you're talking about

if academies/training wasn't beneficial, then why does the MLB rely on them so much now?

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When baseball was introduced as an Olympic sport the USSR freaked out and hired a bunch of US minor league coaches to come and teach 14-18 y.o. Soviet athletes to play the game by the time they were 22. They couldn't do it. The Soviets and the U.S. coaches gave up the project as hopeless.

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but it's taken in japan and latin america, so i don't see how this one example invalidates anything

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I can't prove it, but it seems to me that more freakish accidental deaths in LL have occurred in the last 30 years than in the previous 30. I'm not sure why.

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availability of information

You wouldn't have heard of this 30 years ago.

and your points have been laughable throughout this entire thread