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.
