the Price of Little League

The Little League Organization has been around for a long time and they have come up with a proven recipe for success. They find coaches from the community to teach young boys all about the game of baseball and the skills needed to play the game well. It has worked well in our area. The coaches are usually dads of kids on the team, but they have consistently been men who love the game and want to teach the boys how to be good sports, win or lose. They usually practice 2 days a week before the games start and they keep the games to 2 or 3 a week. For sure you will have a game on a Saturday. The kids hone their skills in catching, throwing and batting, as well as learning the basics of base running and strategy. It can be a long season if you don't have enough players with these skills, but it has been fun to see boys who had no idea how to play the game, come along and start putting it all together.

The service Little League provides is really pretty amazing. Most of the money the kids pay go to the facilities and insurance. None of the adults involved get paid for helping, so you never know what level of teaching the coach will have. I think in general, the guys interested in coaching try to keep coaching at the level of their expertise. The kids get instructions as a group for the most part, and they try to work extra with the boys who need more work to get up to the skill level of the team. We have loved our experience with Little League Baseball.

There is a wide range of volunteers trying to make this program remain viable in this day where many people are willing to pay for "select" sports - coaching and equipment is expensive when you go to purchase it. Do all you can when the team fundraisers come up. Little League is one of the most reasonable sports leagues out there, and they need help to keep the program going.