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New Age Cutoff Rules Explained • Home Plate Meeting Checklist • Rules Update • Volunteer to Help Maintain our Fields • Umpire Complaints/No Show Form
3.24.24:
Message from the President
2024 is the 30th year of the PPBA recreational youth baseball and softball league. Our mission has been to provide a safe and positive place for boys and girls to play this difficult game, to be a team member in a competitive environment, to learn to win with humility and lose with grace, and to accept that no one is perfect.
Success cannot be forced. It must be earned by executing plays and overcoming mistakes by players, coaches and officials. If our players can learn to reach a goal by learning new skills and working through usually very public mistakes, we will have accomplished the best things that youth sports can offer.
These are complex life lessons. As much as winning is not our primary goal, the teams are there to win and there is a natural emotional investment in the outcome. It is one of the reasons why, with the exception of our high school aged baseball division, we do not keep standings for regular season games. As a recreational league, we want the coaches to feel unencumbered by the pressure of having to win, so they can let their players experiment with and develop in different positions.
We run an end-of-season tournament so players can experience the game when winning seems to mean more and show how they’ve progressed. We will have succeeded if our players end the season feeling positive about their experience and eager to return next season.
We are among the largest youth baseball and softball leagues in the city. We play at least 100 games on as many as 12 fields every spring weekend. Since we are only comprised of the heads of the member organizations, we cannot be everywhere. We must therefore rely on coaches, parents, umpires and the head umpires to model good sportsmanship and communicate any rules or umpire issues to us.
Umpiring is among the opportunities we offer the community. We offer the older boys and girls the chance to learn the skill of umpiring and to practice that craft. It is a great, and challenging, work experience. They get to earn money, to learn rules and implement them in a fast-moving, potentially charged environment, and to learn to interact with adults from a role of authority. For some, this is their first job; one in which they must show up on time, in uniform, and ready to take control. Many of our umpires have gone on to umpire travel league and high school games while in college and after.
The umpire organization we hire, New York Travel Baseball (NYTB), has been supervising and assigning umpires for more than 25 years. Every year since 2008, they have been conducting a Sunday winter training school for new candidates. The umpires you see on the field are new and experienced teenagers, adult umpires, and head umpires who supervise all the umpires and handle umpire and coach questions.
Umpiring is difficult and full of judgment calls. For example,
- The strike zone is the width of home plate (17”) and its height is between the crook of the knees and the mid-point between the shoulders and the belt. That means that the height of the strike zone changes with each In addition, we allow the umpires to extend the width of the strike zone by the diameter of the ball for the younger divisions because in recreational play pitching is much more difficult than hitting.
- The complexity of umpiring increases many fold when the bases are loaded and a ball is hit. In that situation, there can be 9 or 10 fielders and 4 baserunners moving at once with possible plays at 4 bases. Our umpires are taught to anticipate the next play and then follow the movement of the ball. At the same time, they must take an unobstructed view of the play in a position that would not interfere with a possible following play. There is a reason why high school games have two umpires and pro games have 4 or 6 umpires. In most of our games there is only one umpire.
To try to create consistency and avoid unnecessary controversies, we have created a checklist for the umpires and head coaches to use for their pre-game home plate meetings. There is a link to that list on the “Playing Rules” page. In addition, that page also contains audio files that explain rules that seem to arise more often.
If you see any issues or have any comments about our umpires or the way we run the league, please let us know by using the link at the bottom of this page. It is rarely used. And of those complaints we’ve received, most tend to be unspecific and well after the event. We take them seriously and always look into them. If there are issues, it is a disservice to us and the umpires not to address them. We can’t fix something we know nothing about.
Please take to heart and actively support our mission. Please do not condone negative rooting, help your coaches by clearing and cleaning the dugouts quickly after each game, and do not put the umpires in the position of having to warn a head coach of the possibility of ejecting anyone or ending a game due to someone’s improper behavior. Finally, do not warm up or walk near any of the other fields while a pre-game warmup or game is being conducted. It’s unsafe and unfair to the other teams.
Communicating this information to everyone is very important to avoid injuries and defuse arguments and emotional situations. We rely on the coaches to understand and impart the basics and to make sure that the players and parents accept these considerations so the games can be played in a positive environment.
Also, the Parks Dept has limited funds to maintain the fields. Please volunteer to work with our Field Manager so we can assist the Park Groundskeepers in making our fields game-ready, especially in anticipation of and after rain. We only ask for what effort you can reasonably give. Please click on the sign-up link below to volunteer.
Thanks very much and have a fun season!
Eddie Albert, President
Selected Rule Changes and Clarifications: 2024
(see the actual rule for details)
- Age Cutoff moved to December 31 of the prior year to conform with the school year age cutoff to enable players to be with their school friends. (section 7, pp 5-6)
- Playing Down in Age Rule – now limited solely to physical and mental handicap players and those grandfathered in based on their participation on a 2023 team. (section d, p.6)
- All players must wear full-length athletic pants. Shorts are not allowed for all players including girls’ softball. (section 8(b), p7)
- Grasshopper and Freshmen players are allowed to use any bat currently approved for play by the PSAL. (section 1(a)(i), p 8)
- Bronco games are 6 innings. (Chart P.10)
- Freshmen teams have the option of choosing universal batting or a 9 or 10 team batting order. That choice must be made at the home plate meeting before the game starts. (section b(i)(C), p14)
- The modified balk rule for the Super Bantam division is now set forth in section iii, page 19.
- Moving Base Rule (Clarification) – A baserunner who safely reaches a base that moves from its original location cannot be called out unless, in the opinion of the umpire, that baserunner makes a move to advance toward the next base. If the baserunner subsequently attempts to return to the original base, the baserunner must return to that base’s original location.(vii, p/20)
- For extra-inning games, only in tournament games can pitchers get one extra inning. (section f(ii), p.21 and section C(3)(e), p.25)
This season we will continue the great work of Kathryn Krase, our Director of Field Management. Towards the end of last spring, she put together a volunteer crew of coaches, parents, and players to assist the Park’s Turf Crew in making the fields game-ready. Their work salvaged many games. Our goal is to have volunteers working every day to groom, remove water, and maintain the lines. Please help by signing up for dates that fit your schedule by clicking the button below or scanning the QR code below:
Umpire & Rules Issues, Complaints and Comments:
To contact us regarding umpire and rules issues, please fill out this Umpire Complaint/No Show Form and we will take appropriate action. Please consider this an opportunity to not only deal with specific issues but to make constructive suggestions.
If you have ANY other complaint or suggestion regarding ANYTHING we do, please send an email to: presidentppba@gmail.com.
Thanks for your support.
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New Age Cutoff Rules Explained