The Little League Age Change: This Time We Really, Really, Really Mean It!

If you're on Little League International's email list, you received a little Friday the 13th surprise, announcing yet another change to the implementation of "Project Age Change". Or maybe you weren't surprised considering how the age change effort has already undergone three iterations over the last 13 months.

For the reader who is behind a few episodes of Little League's House of Unintentional Lies, you can get caught up by reading these previous posts:

• The Little League Blindside: Making Sense of the Little League Age Change

• Little League Age Change - So Much for Not Losing a Year

• We'll Keep Trying Til We Get It Right

  
To recap: In November, 2014, Little League announced that a change in age determination previously approved at the Little League International Congress in April, 2014 would be implemented immediately for the 2015 spring season for all players born in 2006 and later. The age would be determined by a player's actual age attained on or before December 31 of the calendar year of that season. The change would be fully implemented in 2018, when viewers of ESPN's broadcast of the Little League World Series would never again see a 13 year old player on that small Little League diamond.

First indications from Little League were that the players born between May and December, 2005 would not lose their 12 year old season in 2018.

Then Little League issued further guidance that contradicted the earlier explanation. On second thought, the group of players in that birth date range of May-December, 2005 would lose its 12 year old season.

This past September, Little League tweaked it some more and changed the age cutoff from December 31 to August 31. The effect was to narrow the group of players losing its 12 year old season to those born between May and August, 2005.

Then on November 13, 2015, Little League announced another change that would seem to finally put the lingering age change implementation controversy to rest. Little League will invoke a grandfather clause for those May-August 2005 players. The lost 12 year old season for these players in 2018 has been restored thereby pushing the year of no teenagers at Williamsport to 2019. 

Little League age change announcement 11/13/15 

Politically speaking, Little League achieves the goal of reducing, to the extent possible, those who may be upset with the age change. Some parents of younger children may still claim their child is losing a year of Little League -- their seven year old child suddenly became eight after the age change. But that is not significant in the eyes of Little League, which focuses on players ages 10-12, whether or not Little League actually acknowledges it.

Despite what would appear to be a final and best solution, Little League may not be completely off the hook in the complaint department. The impact of the grandfather clause will make it challenging for many players to participate in the Little League All-Star tournaments. Take a look at the age chart for 2018:

Note the highlighted months that cover players born between Jan-August, 2006 and May-December, 2005. They're all considered the same league age. And this isn't just for 2018. It's effective immediately and carries through the 2018 season. The "clog" of players who are as many as 16 months apart in chronological age, yet share the same Little League age, is now a fact of life for the next three years instead of what was for the next two years under the the first round of guidelines explaining the age change. 

This makes for a crowded field of players who will be league age 10 in 2016, and who are hoping to earn slots on their league's All-Star team rosters. The younger players in this group will need to compete against players over a year older. It's the group circled above in red that will be hit the hardest, and from whom Little League may not have heard the last of this.

The bet here is that this is the final stop on the road to getting it right. Short of implementing the new age determination with the incoming group of four year old players -- and waiting a long time before the 13 year old is no longer on the field at Williamsport -- any other implementation can't help but negatively impact some people.

Little League deserves credit for listening and responding. But one can't help but wonder why it wasn't done this way in the first place. The concerns that led to this latest revision weren't new revelations or ingenious solutions that suddenly surfaced two weeks ago. These were talking points when the amendment was circulated ahead of the 2014 Little League Congress.

Yes, it was a little messy getting here. But this time it looks like Little League got it right. At least as right as it's going to get. 

We'll Keep Trying Til We Get It Right

Blogger's Note: This is the third 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.


Well, well, well. Here we are 8 1/2  months after Little League hastily implemented the new age change for the 2015 spring season, and now it appears that yet another tweak is coming our way.

If the unofficial information and rumors are accurate, the LL age determination will be amended to reflect a birthday cutoff of August 31. That's either good news or a non-event for players born between September 1 and December 31, 2005, depending on how Little League actually implements this adjustment.

It would be fair to assume they're just tweaking the league age back four months and everything else stays the same. It makes sense when one considers the primary reason for the change in the first place. That is to eliminate the 13 year old from the ESPN equation during the Little League World Series. The LLWS is completed by August 31 each year. So using that date allows Little League officials to accomplish what they need to accomplish in keeping the newly minted teenagers off the tiny field while allowing them to placate to some degree the vocal group of people who registered strong objection to last year's age change.

Some hated it altogether because it affected their own child. And who could blame them? But others were more objective and persuasive enough to convince Little League to accept that with the August 31 cutoff, they could achieve the goal of avoiding the 13 year old presence on international television while reversing the negative impact to players born between September 1 and December 31, 2006 and later. There was chatter about matching things to the school year as well. That's just a happy coincidence with a good result. It's no different than claiming an effort to conform to the International Baseball Federation calendar year age determination when it's really all about keeping 13 year olds off that field. That's a good thing. But just say so and don't throw in all the other faux logic. If it was so crucial to conform to the IBF or USA Baseball age determination there wouldn't be this rumored change to August 31.

This move probably won't offer much solace to players born between May 1 and August 31, 2005 who were in line to lose their 12 year old year of Little League in 2018. The guess here is they'll just become a year older immediately and play as 11 year olds next spring, rather than play as 10 next year, 11 year olds in 2017, and then jump to league age 13 in 2018 and out of Little League's major division as it currently was set up. Or LL may just decide to remain consistent with what was put in place last year, stick to the old April 30th cutoff for the older players and they just lose their 12 year old season in 2018. That seems to be semantics. A player is 10, 11 and then 13, or was 9 last year, becomes league 11 in 2016 and 12 in 2017. Either way that player loses a year. We'll have to wait and see. And even then, who's to say it won't change yet again at some point?

Be ready for an announcement soon. And that's an improvement. Because any major announcement that affects Little Leaguers made before November is a good thing. For once it will give leagues a chance to digest, plan, and prepare for change. A big step forward after the debacle of last year. And to Little League International's credit, they are willing to keep trying til they get it right.

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.

THE LITTLE LEAGUE BLINDSIDE: MAKING SENSE OF THE 2015 AGE CHANGE

Blogger's Note: This is the first 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.


Jimmy was born on December 30, 2006. When he suits up for next year's Little League season he'll be 8 years old. But as far as Little League is concerned he is 9. Bella's birthday is May 2, 2005. She'll turn 10 years old during the 2015 season. Bella is 20 months older than Jimmy, but Little League says she is also 9.

Welcome to the Little League 2015 age change.

This is the extreme, though real example that is the result of a change in the determination of the Little League age long in the making at Little League headquarters, but short in guidance as to how the change would be implemented. That was until the organization's formal announcement on November 18th that spelled it out once and for all while at the same time blindsiding parents, local Little League officials, some District overseers, and likely many others up the Little League food chain who didn't attend the most recent Little League International Board of Directors meeting. What was short on guidance is now short on notice, and there are a lot of upset parents of children like Jimmy who were born between May and December, 2006 and are now considered the same league age as players who are almost two years older.

A little over a year ago there was much fuss and focus throughout the Little League universe on proposed rule changes to be considered at the 2014 Little League International Congress that would convene in Minneapolis in April. Every four years, delegates representing Little League districts from around the world gather to consider the adoption of a variety of proposals and amendments that affect rules and regulations governing all local Little Leagues. Whether it be something as trivial as deciding the catcher's chest protector no longer needs to include that nifty little doodad that extends below the waist to protect the family jewels (it was apparently determined that the incredibly uncomfortable protective cup does a nice job on its own) to a rule requiring the batter to keep one foot in the batter's box between pitches (that one failed). None of the proposals drew as much attention as the change in age determination. As originally written, the proposed rule, if passed, would be dramatic and would impact every player in Little League whose birthday fell between May and December.

The proposal in theory was straightforward. The implementation of it was not. That may explain why Little League headquarters struggled with, and backtracked from, two previous versions of ambiguous guidance before this month's final edict.

For the past several years the age for Little League (and PONY) was determined by the player's age as of April 30th of the year in which the season was played. For example, last spring a child born between January and April, 2002 played as a 12 year-old. Players who turned 12 between May and December of 2014 were league age 11. And so on down the line.

The new age determination as originally proposed for the 2015 season would be the age a player would attain during the calendar year of the season being played. For many, the question wasn't, "How old are you now?" It was, "How old will you be before the end of the calendar year?" The goal was to complete a three year transitional implementation of the rule and be fully effective on January 1, 2018.

Sensitive that a rigid and abrupt implementation of this change would prematurely end the Little League careers of older players (which indeed would have been the case for that 11 year old in the example above), the initial proposal included a grandfather clause for the 10, 11, and 12 year olds born between May to December that would allow them to play out their full Little League careers.

However, when the Little League Congress ultimately convened last April the delegates came away with a different plan after passing an amendment that called for the new rule to simply go into effect on January 1, 2018. No transition. Just three years to prepare. Until then, it would be status quo.

The problem with that scenario was that players would lose a year of eligibility in Little League's most visible age group of 10-12 year olds. Consider a player born between May and December of 2005. He or she would be league age 9 in 2015, 10 in the 2016 season, 11 in 2017, and then in 2018 that player would suddenly become league age 13 and would lose the opportunity to play his or her 12 year old season of Little League. That proved undesirable and unacceptable to many, and to Little League's credit, this latest and final version of the implementation of the new age rule was devised, accomplishing the most important goal that no player lose a year of eligibility as a 10-12 year old. Only it just got real crowded in that 9 year old group.

Take a look at the new age chart below and note the highlighted players deemed to be league age 9:

Now that's a lot of 9's!

The "Jimmys" of the world in the row of players born in 2006 get the worst of it. Many of these kids were league age 7 last season and are now league age 9.  While the rest of the younger ages also become older by a year, there's only one row for each age and they all move up together. For the younger 9's it's like taking the 2nd graders and telling them they're all going to skip a grade, join the 3rd graders and go through school together the rest of the way until 6th grade.

Another negative result for these younger 9's is what the age change does to their chances of participating in Little League All-Star play. Except for a couple of outliers in the younger group, most of the "new" 9's will miss out on that, having to compete for slots on a team with players as much as 20 months older. And that won't change for the next four seasons.

That was confirmed when Little League, noting some confusion stemming from the November 18th announcement, issued a much better explanation and a couple of easier to understand age charts in a follow up email the next day.

Everybody born before January 1, 2006 continues to use the old age determination the remainder of their Little League careers; everyone born on or after January 1, 2006 now uses the new age determination all the way through.

UPDATE: This is no longer the case. In early December, Little League published another version of the age chart and accompanying narrative, and specifically noted that the 9s born between May and December, 2005 will lose their 12 year old year of Little League and become league age 13 on January 1, 2018. Click here to read more about this.

UPDATE #2: As of August, 2015, rumors abound that LL will tweak the age determination yet again to a cutoff of August 31. Click here to read more.

Hence the crowd in the middle with that new cluster of league 9's.

The announcement of the new age chart and its immediate implementation caught the leagues in warm weather states off guard. Those leagues are already weeks into the spring registration process where online systems calculate league age using the then prescribed league age determination which, until a few days ago, was April 30th. Now it'll require either a quick fix by the online registration providers, or a plea from league officials to identify and recruit volunteers who are whizzes with Excel data filters and pivot tables to help figure out how old these players really are. No small feat for those leagues that would have appreciated a heads up that this development was coming down the 'pike.

One Southern California Little League with nearly 800 players had projected approximately 85 league age 9's would register to play for the 2015 season. With news of the age change, the projected number of 9's could reach 160! That's a challenging number in just one age group to manage when contemplating division alignment, never mind figuring out field availability.

The obstacle to providing earlier notification is a function of when the Little League Board of Directors meets. In November. That's when these important final decisions are often reached ahead of the upcoming season, only they seemingly forget that it doesn't snow much in SoCal, the South, etc., where many of these leagues are deep into the planning stages.

This isn't the first groundbreaking announcement over the years that came at the eleventh hour causing leagues and families to scramble. New rules governing the baseball bats were announced November 2, 2011. Many players had already purchased and used a new bat after the new models of bats were released in September. Many of those bats turned out to be illegal two months later, so parents had to eat the cost of a $200 bat they could no longer use in a Little League game. And others who hoped to get a couple of seasons out of a bat had to buy or borrow a new one that met the new standards.

Then there was last year's new rule allowing players attending school within a league's boundary to enroll in that league even if they don't reside within those same boundaries. That announcement came on November 26, 2013 after players had already registered in some leagues.

You may wonder why this whole age change thing came about in the first place. We may never know the full list of reasons, though Little League has cited a main reason being its effort to conform to the age determination used by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and USA Baseball.

Little League also acknowledged the desired result from the age change that should, in 2018, eliminate the appearance on ESPN of a 6'5" bearded beast of a 13-year-old pitcher (league age 12) throwing 72 mph BB's to a 4'8" 11-year-old second baseman from a mound just 46 feet away. Or equally unnerving, that same 6'5" "kid" smashing a sizzling line drive back to the pitcher standing that same 46 feet away. That's a welcome result by most accounts. After all, puberty has no place on a Little League diamond.

Little League deserves credit for addressing this and taking action. No matter which version of the age change rule the organization ultimately implemented, some age group was going to be affected more than others. Little League determined the lesser of the evils was to draw the line at the 9's. Imperfect, though probably the best decision under the circumstances if the goal was to have this fully implemented in 2018 while preserving the Little League careers of the 10-12 year old age group. It just would have been better if they figured this out a little sooner. Little League may want to think about holding future annual board meetings in September.