Baseball league for a newbie (9 yo)?

[Anonymous]

My son is 9 yo (3rd grade, Arlington) and has expressed an interest in playing baseball in the spring, even though he's never played baseball before (his current sport is soccer). Probably because he has fun going with me to Nats games and watching on TV. Looking at LL and Arlington Babe Ruth, I get the sense that at his age group everyone has baseball experience already and the games wouldn't be that friendly to a complete novice. Is my assumption correct? Is one league better than the other for learning from scratch? Or is it just a bad idea overall?

[Anonymous]

Yes, third grade is considered “late” to start, but there won’t be kids that are much much better than him at that age. Just work with him (play catch) and he should be fine! My 12yo had kids who were new to the game last year when he played 50/70 (essentially the last year of little league).
Both ABR and little league are good organizations, but ABR has a draft starting at that age, so you may prefer that versus getting added to an established team. Little league is also a dying organization in Arlington (fewer teams year to year and ABR is much more popular).

[Anonymous]

My boys started at a Babe Ruth league at age 10. Total newbies. They made progress over the season and put a lot of work in outside of practices. Now they are hooked!

[Anonymous]

What? No! Little League is made for 9 year olds. Even if the other kids “have experience” they’re not exactly Aaron Judge out there…

My kid started baseball in 2nd grade. Little League. It didn’t take him long to catch up (and then surpass) the T-ball kids.

[Anonymous]

I think trying little league would be great! In my experience, age 9 is a little bit later than other kids typically start, but at that age there is still a wide range of abilities so it's fine. We are in Fairfax County so no direct experience with Arlington LL or Babe Ruth but our LL experience has been very positive.

Also FWIW my DS had friends start this year at age 10 and while they were definitely weaker players at first, they enjoyed it and improved a lot of the year.

[Anonymous]

Not too late to start in a rec league, at all. My sons both play, and plenty of kids started a bit later. He will probably be a little behind but not embarrassingly so. Most 9yo’s are not very skilled.

I would do a few things to prep though (as time allows, no need to go crazy):

- teach him a few basics/rules of the game- where the 9 fielding positions are located, 4balls/3strikes, 3 outs in a inning, how to get outs (catch the ball or force out etc). Just so he isn’t going in totally blind, or if the coach says “go to 2nd base” he knows where that is. Easiest way is to watch a bit of baseball on tv, a baseball video game, book or even draw a diagram or similar.

-practice catching and throwing a little. Just play catch in the yard or similar for 10min a few times a week (more, only if he wants). He will likely catch on very quickly (a lot more quickly than kids who start at 5-6 years old). Start with basic catching and throwing closer up, then maybe work towards throwing him low popups or rolling him grounders. Again, no need to spend a ton of time. If there is any fear of the ball, use a wiffle ball, tennis ball or soft baseball to start out.

-if you want, throw him a basic batting practice (underhand is fine) at the park or have him hit off a tee. You can use soft core balls of various types for safety (you’ll probably need to stand pretty close, and no need to invest in any other items like an L screen). Honestly, at age 9 it is usually kid pitch with a ton of walks so there won’t be many hits from any of the kids anyway (lol). Plenty of time to work on batting if he decides to play a 2nd season.

He will have fun trying it out. Rec leagues are fun and all the kids bat/play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, third grade is considered “late” to start, but there won’t be kids that are much much better than him at that age. Just work with him (play catch) and he should be fine! My 12yo had kids who were new to the game last year when he played 50/70 (essentially the last year of little league).
Both ABR and little league are good organizations, but ABR has a draft starting at that age, so you may prefer that versus getting added to an established team. Little league is also a dying organization in Arlington (fewer teams year to year and ABR is much more popular).

Why is Arlington LL dying? Genuinely curious about this comment and I have no skin in the game.

What makes Arlington Babe Ruth more desirable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is 9 yo (3rd grade, Arlington) and has expressed an interest in playing baseball in the spring, even though he's never played baseball before (his current sport is soccer). Probably because he has fun going with me to Nats games and watching on TV. Looking at LL and Arlington Babe Ruth, I get the sense that at his age group everyone has baseball experience already and the games wouldn't be that friendly to a complete novice. Is my assumption correct? Is one league better than the other for learning from scratch? Or is it just a bad idea overall?

9 is the tail end of the window.
In my opinion, by 10 a "solid" player is expected to be able to:
make a catchable throw from shortstop to 1st with 50%+ accuracy
make almost all routine ground ball plays
catch most pop-ups and weak hits to the infield
make the occasional play on a line drive or hard grounder or diving play
make contact with the ball most of the time and hit the ball well enough to get on base 1/3 of the time
develop enough plate discipline to draw their fair share of walks
steal 2nd base with enough regularity to be a threat
bonus if you can pitch at least one good innings.

[Anonymous]

We had kids playing their first season every year up through senior babe Ruth (13) If they know the rules, can take direction and are a bit athletic it’s fine! We did ABR and Little League and preferred LL. ABR has their house travel team which makes for more lopsided teams/competition IMO

[Anonymous]

Why does Arlington have LL and Babe Ruth?

What's the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, third grade is considered “late” to start, but there won’t be kids that are much much better than him at that age. Just work with him (play catch) and he should be fine! My 12yo had kids who were new to the game last year when he played 50/70 (essentially the last year of little league).
Both ABR and little league are good organizations, but ABR has a draft starting at that age, so you may prefer that versus getting added to an established team. Little league is also a dying organization in Arlington (fewer teams year to year and ABR is much more popular).

Why is Arlington LL dying? Genuinely curious about this comment and I have no skin in the game.

What makes Arlington Babe Ruth more desirable?

Lots of reasons:
— Abr started offering free tball a few years back so there are roughly twice as many kids playing Abr vs little league at the younger ages.
— little league is obsessed with all stars (or at least all the volunteers are). There was a major rift in the organization and half the exec board left last year because they were fed up with hearing about all stars (and all of the shady politics of adults acting badly associated with it). Consequently there are very few volunteers affiliated with little league versus Abr. The organization is so cliquey that there aren’t very many new people volunteering. In a few years, there won’t be anybody left to run the organization.

[Anonymous]

My son started LL (in DC) at 9 (spring of 3rd grade). It was fine. He is still playing several seasons later. Try to figure out what league the local kids at school play in. I think it is hard to start much after 9 (but have seen some kids do it).

[Anonymous]

I think it's sad that this is even a question! Not everyone finds their 'thing' at age 4! Have a blast with little league, OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, third grade is considered “late” to start, but there won’t be kids that are much much better than him at that age. Just work with him (play catch) and he should be fine! My 12yo had kids who were new to the game last year when he played 50/70 (essentially the last year of little league).
Both ABR and little league are good organizations, but ABR has a draft starting at that age, so you may prefer that versus getting added to an established team. Little league is also a dying organization in Arlington (fewer teams year to year and ABR is much more popular).

Why is Arlington LL dying? Genuinely curious about this comment and I have no skin in the game.

What makes Arlington Babe Ruth more desirable?

Lots of reasons:
— Abr started offering free tball a few years back so there are roughly twice as many kids playing Abr vs little league at the younger ages.
— little league is obsessed with all stars (or at least all the volunteers are). There was a major rift in the organization and half the exec board left last year because they were fed up with hearing about all stars (and all of the shady politics of adults acting badly associated with it). Consequently there are very few volunteers affiliated with little league versus Abr. The organization is so cliquey that there aren’t very many new people volunteering. In a few years, there won’t be anybody left to run the organization.

LL has offered free T-ball for a couple of years at least
I do agree that the All stars process felt shady

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, third grade is considered “late” to start, but there won’t be kids that are much much better than him at that age. Just work with him (play catch) and he should be fine! My 12yo had kids who were new to the game last year when he played 50/70 (essentially the last year of little league).
Both ABR and little league are good organizations, but ABR has a draft starting at that age, so you may prefer that versus getting added to an established team. Little league is also a dying organization in Arlington (fewer teams year to year and ABR is much more popular).

Why is Arlington LL dying? Genuinely curious about this comment and I have no skin in the game.

What makes Arlington Babe Ruth more desirable?

Lots of reasons:
— Abr started offering free tball a few years back so there are roughly twice as many kids playing Abr vs little league at the younger ages.
— little league is obsessed with all stars (or at least all the volunteers are). There was a major rift in the organization and half the exec board left last year because they were fed up with hearing about all stars (and all of the shady politics of adults acting badly associated with it). Consequently there are very few volunteers affiliated with little league versus Abr. The organization is so cliquey that there aren’t very many new people volunteering. In a few years, there won’t be anybody left to run the organization.

LL has offered free T-ball for a couple of years at least
I do agree that the All stars process felt shady

This is the first season ll is offering free tball. All stars last year resulted in 7 board members (out of 20) resigning (with no replacements).