Winning 41-0: 10u Little League All Star Game

[Anonymous]

A friend’s kid was playing 10u Little league all star game not in this area and the final score after 3 innings was 41-0. One team scored 16 runs in the first inning, 15 runs in the second and 10 runs in the third. The winning team was actively stealing and advancing multiple bases all game. It’s a double elimination tournament so having more runs doesn’t matter.

I have my own thoughts but curious what other people think.

[Anonymous]

No sympathy. Don’t want to get your ass kicked? Play defense. Both teams were “all stars”?

It appears they had a three inning mercy rule, I guess for situations like this.

[Anonymous]

Name the league.

[Anonymous]

I think the coach should end stealing when up by 20. Have some class.

[Anonymous]

This is why they have the mercy rule, even for all stars. Not sure what else there is to say about it. My son did all stars for the first time this year (also 10u) and there were definitely some lopsided scores, though nothing that bad. When the kids are taught to hit and steal bases whenever they can, I don't think they just turn it off. Even at all stars, I think there can be a wide range in terms of how well the team plays defense (i.e. some large leagues have a big pool of players to choose from and can be very selective for their all star team, where other leagues might be small and not have that advantage, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A friend’s kid was playing 10u Little league all star game not in this area and the final score after 3 innings was 41-0. One team scored 16 runs in the first inning, 15 runs in the second and 10 runs in the third. The winning team was actively stealing and advancing multiple bases all game. It’s a double elimination tournament so having more runs doesn’t matter.

I have my own thoughts but curious what other people think.

I think the winning team should have been batting from the other side after reaching like 20 runs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A friend’s kid was playing 10u Little league all star game not in this area and the final score after 3 innings was 41-0. One team scored 16 runs in the first inning, 15 runs in the second and 10 runs in the third. The winning team was actively stealing and advancing multiple bases all game. It’s a double elimination tournament so having more runs doesn’t matter.

I have my own thoughts but curious what other people think.

I think the winning team should have been batting from the other side after reaching like 20 runs

OP here. That’s what I think too. When my boys played all stars the coaches on all the teams we watched all stopped stealing when we were up by 10 and played station to station. After the first inning end the score was 16-0 so was surprised they didn’t tell the players no more stealing, no tagging up. And up by 20 telling them to switch hit.

[Anonymous]

Did the run differential matter? But even so, that's just bad sportsmanship to run the score up like that. But what can you do? Have each kid strike out?

[Anonymous]

I have to say, if this is your standard all start team with all the coaches kids and friends on there and not the kids who deserve to be then, oh well. Hope it was worth it! They got beat by a better team of real "All Stars" and weren't playing Daddy Ball.

[Anonymous]

Don't stop hitting, but only advance station to station. No stealing, no advancing on a passed ball.

[Anonymous]

That is unfortunate. I think they do have to play 3 full innings for the game to be a run rule (or go over time).

I’ve seen some LLAS games like this for sure. To have the boys stealing or advancing on passed balls or WP is really really shameful IMO. I’ve never seen a coach allow that when up by 10+ runs in LLAS.

Beyond that, it is hard. It isn’t really ethical to ask the kids to strike out on purpose. Most LLAS teams should be able to make routine plays so the opposing team has to have been really really poor defensively for the score to get that bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to say, if this is your standard all start team with all the coaches kids and friends on there and not the kids who deserve to be then, oh well. Hope it was worth it! They got beat by a better team of real "All Stars" and weren't playing Daddy Ball.

It isn’t always that, though. Our district has some large leagues (with a lot of talent to choose from), but also some small leagues that can barely even get a team together for AS. Usually those games result in really lopsided scores

[Anonymous]

Terrible. My son’s 10u team lost 19-0 last weekend. Other team was still stealing. It’s crappy coaching imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to say, if this is your standard all start team with all the coaches kids and friends on there and not the kids who deserve to be then, oh well. Hope it was worth it! They got beat by a better team of real "All Stars" and weren't playing Daddy Ball.

It isn’t always that, though. Our district has some large leagues (with a lot of talent to choose from), but also some small leagues that can barely even get a team together for AS. Usually those games result in really lopsided scores

You can't really be an All Star team if you can't make an out though. Come on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did the run differential matter? But even so, that's just bad sportsmanship to run the score up like that. But what can you do? Have each kid strike out?

At the older ages, I’ve seen coaches have a savvy kid (often their own kid) get caught stealing or stepping off a base on purpose (as a mercy). I think this can be hard to do in a dignified way with younger kids…they may not understand, and may be done in a way that embarrasses the other team even more.