All-star/TOC manager/coach selection

[Ursa Major]

Socom, getting back to the original topic, I agree that your letter to the league was very well written. There's nothing wrong with saying you'd only be interested if your kid is selected, though in many leagues (including our own league) the manager expressly is given the right to add his own kid as a 13th player if not otherwise selected. While some fathers would be willing to manage if their kid is passed over, there's nothing wrong with saying that you'd rather not spend the endless time away from home at practices and games if it also means you're away from your own kid as well. Also, even if you don't have the political clout to get selected this year, getting your name and interest out there in most instances gets people thinking about you next time around - it's sorta like running for President of the US. No one should be offended that you politely asked, and in fact you might be offered a chance to coach on the team even if not named as manager, so long as you can convey that you're putting your hat in the ring as a way to help, rather than because you have a zealous desire to run the operation.

Side note: after UMinor's first year in 11-12 y/o ball, the manager and only official assistant left, as their sons had aged out. I'd been assisting them and so applied to be the manager the following year because it wasn't clear that there would be enough applicants to manage, but the board elected to give the slot to a lower level manager whose kid was moving up. He brought his own assistant with him, and I contacted them and offered to assist as well, which they accepted. The board members later told me that they'd held their breath wondering if there'd be lingering resentment, but it turned out that the two guys were wonderful coaches and people, and I was happy to let them deal with the bureaucracy while I just did the instructional stuff with the kids. We had several great seasons at that level and the next level, and we've remained good friends ever since. Sometimes it's better to NOT be King....

[azmatsfan]

You're correct, technically you are not supposed to but there's ways around it. In our league the Allstars pratice under the disguise of a travel team. They don't fool anybody though. Everyone knows what's going on. Does anyone know if the district officials check for this kind of thing? Is it even enforceable? Are their penalties?

It's my understanding that as long as the AS rosters aren't announced and when the travel team plays they can't wear anything identifying themselves as being associated with that Little League. A couple years ago a likely AS manager put a travel team together of the best 11/12 year olds to play a couple tournaments before AS was announced. But playing on that team didn't guarantee a spot on the AS roster.

[mellowthunder]

All Stars rosters are not annouced until June 15th which is after TOC. Technically you are not supposed to be having organized AS practices until after TOC is complete.

You're correct, technically you are not supposed to but there's ways around it. In our league the Allstars pratice under the disguise of a travel team. They don't fool anybody though. Everyone knows what's going on. Does anyone know if the district officials check for this kind of thing? Is it even enforceable? Are their penalties?

[TexAg]

Our All-Stars and TOC are announced at the same time...15 June. Our playoffs don't even end until the 14th.

[Standballdad]

All Stars rosters are not annouced until June 15th which is after TOC. Technically you are not supposed to be having organized AS practices until after TOC is complete.

What Real Green Said.

[real green]

We don't do it for Majors division, only Minor A (9/10) and B (7/8). Out of curiosity, let's say you won the league because you had 3 10u All-Stars, but then they were pulled from the team prior to TOC to prepare for All-Stars. How does that work?

All Stars rosters are not annouced until June 15th which is after TOC. Technically you are not supposed to be having organized AS practices until after TOC is complete.

[TexAg]

That is odd, my son plays in District 56 (So Cal) and its always the top 1 or 2 teams that go to TOC from league play. The best players from the league go play All-Stars after TOC. TOC is "Tournament of Champions" not "Tournament of All Stars" (TOA)?

We don't do it for Majors division, only Minor A (9/10) and B (7/8). Out of curiosity, let's say you won the league because you had 3 10u All-Stars, but then they were pulled from the team prior to TOC to prepare for All-Stars. How does that work?

[CircleChange11]

We won state and beat the "All-Star" team the only two times we faced them in tournaments, once by run rule. Needless to say, my tenure as president of the league came to an abrupt end.

I'm on the other side of the situation. Our LL uses the travel team to "prepare the All-Star team for tournament play" throughout the season, but doesn;t have to designate the All-Star players before the season begins ... stating the the "travel coaches" picked the travel team. The LL will switch out the 11th player to one from the LL to show that the TB team and the LL team aren't "the same".

When the league changes it's schedule, the TB team has to cancel or reschedule a tourney/DH. Next yeaqr the league wants the TB teams to turn the money raised into the league and the league will dish out the money upon request. It is simply amazing that the league thinks that other grown men will adhere to this, as if we trust anyone with the kid's/team's money.

IMHO, this really is the formal process to try and get our LL All-Star teams far advanced in the playoffs now that most other communities have their best players out of the leagues playing travel ball.

Next year, the travel teams will not require, nor prohibit, travel balls players to play little league. Quite frankly, doing so eliminates travel team practices, and I'm one of those coaches that thinks practices are as, if not more, important than games.

I think the adults pretty much get in the way of player development continually, because adults have conflicting goals. The one thing I do know if that all of the adults want to control the money, the schedule, the roster/lineups, etc. They are lots less concerned with the kids enjoyment, the kids safety, etc.

I'm decided to simply control what I can control. I'm going to take the 12U travel team and teach them as much as I can, get high quality game experience, and just have fun being 12 and learning the game of baseball. All of the other "adult issues", I have no interest in.

[Standballdad]

I'm honestly not sure what the LL regulations are (if there are any), but District 42 in SoCal allows leagues to select players from the entire division to represent their respective leagues in TOC play. Last I know of at least 3 of the teams did this, my son's, his best friend's, and a team we played with all their different uniforms.

That is odd, my son plays in District 56 (So Cal) and its always the top 1 or 2 teams that go to TOC from league play. The best players from the league go play All-Stars after TOC. TOC is "Tournament of Champions" not "Tournament of All Stars" (TOA)?

[TexAg]

I'm honestly not sure what the LL regulations are (if there are any), but District 42 in SoCal allows leagues to select players from the entire division to represent their respective leagues in TOC play. Last I know of at least 3 of the teams did this, my son's, his best friend's, and a team we played with all their different uniforms.

[Encinitas]

We were fortunate to win the League title back to back in 2009-2010 so we went to TOC two straight years, and it was a blast for us. The layout is just like all-stars where you switch back to 9 hitters instead of batting the whole order. The first year in TOC we won the first 5 and lost in the title game. Since my top 4 guys were all 11 I was hopeful we could draft well enough to get back and we did. The second year we won them all and won TOC championship. For whatever reason our LL district back in San Diego North County area had 14 teams. Many LL districts only have 5-8 teams I am not sure why ours never split up, but the point is you had to win a bunch of games to win TOC (or all-stars).

[JJA]

Ahhh, never heard of that before. I don't know if we do that or not. As of now my kid's team is in first place, but who knows how the end will be after the season is over. Cool idea though!

That's what we do in our area. First place team in the league gets to continue on to play teams from other local leagues. It's pretty fun. I actually like it better than all-stars.

[clayadams]

Tournament of Champions

The winning team of the league enters the TOC to compete against other leagues winning teams. It's not supposed to be an All Star team.

Ahhh, never heard of that before. I don't know if we do that or not. As of now my kid's team is in first place, but who knows how the end will be after the season is over. Cool idea though!

[real green]

What is "TOC"? A term I'm not familiar with.

My young 'un was chosen to try out for the all-star team. This will be my first experience with it. The Athletic org also runs a travel team, and they're pretty good. I'm wondering if the all-star team is also gonna be mostly made up of the travel team like y'all mentioned.

Tournament of Champions

The winning team of the league enters the TOC to compete against other leagues winning teams. It's not supposed to be an All Star team.

[real green]

Fair enough. I'm guessing it's still my lack of experience in the world of youth baseball. It's ironic that last year all I heard about was the drama that came with TB (and I see it or hear about it with certain kids/parents and teams), but in my limited experience, LL has been WAY more dramatic than our TB team.

Our LL has over 700 players.

TB is one team compared to a league.