Little League Age Change - So Much For Not Losing a Year

Blogger's Note: This is the second of four posts addressing the various stages of the Little League Age change that occurred over the 13 month period from November 2014-November 2015. To read the most up to date information, click here for the most recent post offering the latest take on the November, 2015 announcement from Little League International, offering the organization's (presumably) final version of the age change implementation.


Just when we thought we understood the age change, Little League altered its explanation of the impact on the nine year old group. And without fanfare.

In my earlier post I pointed out that Little League's plan would ensure that no child lost a year of eligibility in the 10-12 year old group. This was based on this explanation directly from Little League.  Check out the highlighted language contained in that communication from Little League:

It's reasonable to interpret that sentence to mean that "the remainder of their Little League career" would be in the context of the current age determination. Meaning all the players in that bottom chart just keep going as if nothing change and players born between May and December of 2005 still get to play their 12 year old year. Little League even went so far as to focus on that aspect of the decision to implement this change for the 2015 season in an email newsletter distributed on December 2nd :

But look what happens when you click on that link:

Notice the highlighted language and the difference in this version from the one above it?

Little League has officially defined "the remainder of their Little League career" to mean "until 2018 and then you don't get that 12 year old year we had earlier told you we preserved."

It took an even more detailed explanation in a private email from an official in Williamsport to emphasize that the older group of 9's will miss out on that 12 year old year:

"Consequently, players born prior to January 1, 2006 will continue to utilize the current age determination date of April 30 for the 2015, 2016, and 2017 seasons. In 2018 all players born prior to January 1, 2006 will begin utilizing December 31 as their age determination date. The majority of concerns will surround the fact that a 2015 league age nine (9) year old will be 10 in 2016, 11 in 2017, but in 2018 will effectively be league age 13 and will advance out of the major league division. All players represented within the chart below will all use the December 31 date beginning in the 2018 season."  

What a pre-season roller coaster for the families of these players born between May and December of 2005. Losing a year of Little League had been the fear all along since the announcement last April following the Little League International Congress. Then what seemed to be great news for those 9 year old families in November was short lived. All of these revisions were under the radar, and without much explanation along the way. We simply clicked on the latest link of the latest communication from LL and whoa! It's different again.

At this point it may not be the rule itself that is so troublesome to the 9's impacted by the age change. Short of turning this into an eight year transition and having the age change kick in at T-Ball, there's no easy answer. I've heard as much frustration expressed about the inconsistent and last minute information and guidance from LL than about the age change itself. The publicity machine of Little League Baseball simply broke down on this one and local leagues are left to pick up the pieces.