2024 Evals and Info
Evaluations - Saturday, April 6th, 1pm (expect up to 3 hours)
All players are required to attend evaluations. Both new and returning players needs scores so we can assign draft slots and draft players equitably.
Forekicks Marlborough, back 2 fields
Please have your child come dressed to play baseball with a glove, hat, baseball pants / sweats, cleats and water.
If they have a bat and helmet please bring it.
Please arrive at 12.45pm. The kids will get their numbers and we will get setup until 1.15 and then we’ll start.
If you have a significant conflict, let me know, we only have room for a few kids in our optional time.
If you have contacted me about being absent and do not have your makeup slot email me.
Draft / Team Assignments / Season Start
We won't get the fields until after school vacation, so expect tentative schedules to come out after the draft, and final dates once we get approval from the city to open.
For new parents:
First, please book time in your calendar for the time above to be at evaluations at Forekicks Marlborough. Evaluations are important for both new and returning players as they are the primary driver for coaches to draft players, but also for the league so we can setup the teams to be as equitable as possible.
For the season:
Your child needs a glove, baseball pants and cleats. The hat and shirt will be provided by the league as well as a team bat to use. You can bring your own bat but it must be stamped USA Baseball.
We are asking families to provide a helmet, which is already occurring to a large degree. They need a cage or a jaw guard (little thing that sticks out to cover the lower part of the face.)
Most players bring their own bat for Majors, but if you don’t have one the team has a bat.
Anyone who needs assistance with helmets we have loaners for the season, but please ask Mike / Ryan / myself / the coach so we can get one for your child. We also ask that you return it after the season.
Additionally, we have two leagues in the 9-12 age bracket.
If you would prefer your child play AAA, please email me so I can update the draft board accordingly.
Summer
The best players from our Spring league at each age will be elected allstars. 8,9,10,11 and 12 all star teams will play in LLB and / or Tondorf tournaments.
Our 12YO all star team will compete at districts with all the other MA towns in our district. At the 12YO level winners proceed to state, regionals, and finally the Little League World Series in PA.
Please look for an email as soon as the season begins about voting and also additional time for your child to be considered.
League Store
Don’t forget to take a look at the gear and clothing at the team store. Awesome clothing and top quality gear:
To access the store navigate to team.shop, enter the code below.
https://www.team.shop/en-us
Invite Code: ys5z8sms
For Coaches gear as team gifts:
For coaches gear, if it doesn't appear in your list of stores, add this to your account:
Invite Code: dkf84vxm
Stay tuned for more details which will follow in the next few weeks and by all means email me with any questions or concerns. Please don't hesitate to reach out, we are happy to help.
Lastly - please excuse repeating copies of this email in the future, as I will send them weekly with new registrants. Unfortunately we don't have an easy way to get just new registrations out of the system. But I will put NEW content at the top so you see it
2023 FAQ
Families and Friends,
Thank you to everyone who provided us with feedback regarding league changes that would allow the league to participate in Little League Baseball. The overwhelming response was positive and as a result the board of directors voted unanimously to approve the changes for the upcoming Spring 2023 season.
The new structure will be as follows:
Division Age Group
Class A 5-6
Class AA 7-8
Class AAA 9-11
Majors 10-12
Ted Williams 13-15 (Big Diamond)
Babe Ruth 15 - 18 (Big Diamond)
League Change FAQ
Little League (Majors /AAA/ AA/ A)
When will this be implemented?
Spring 2023
Will the spring league now be a travel league?
No. Our spring programs will continue to all be in town leagues.
Is Little League the right program to align with for Framingham?
The board believes that Little League is the correct program to be affiliated with. This provides us an opportunity to be aligned with the majority of teams surrounding Framingham, as well as provide our players to compete in the Little League summer tournament, with the hopes of earning a trip to the Williamsport LL World Series. We will continue to monitor this moving forward.
Will there be exceptions to the age guidelines?
One of the main objectives of this realignment is to ensure players are placed with others at similar playing skills and developmental stages. For example, allowing a 13 year old to play in Majors at the same time as allowing a 9 year old to play up creates a situation where we have a significant developmental gap that we want to avoid.
We expect that there will be some exceptions this year as we transition.
We are considering all questions and comments about playing up or down and how best to handle them for the league. A final decision has not been made at this time. We do expect more flexibility this year than in future years given the changes we are making this offseason.
In the published age brackets, any movement up or down is being discussed. We will either publish guidelines before the season begins or communicate the process before we do evaluations
If you do not like the outcome for your child, we will refund your money.
What is the cut off to determine a player's age?
We will follow Little League age guidelines for determining a player's age for the season, which is the same guidelines we have been following for a past number of years. That guideline is the players actual age on August 31 of that year. This means, for the 2023 seasons, a player born August 31 2011 will be considered a "baseball 12" while a player born September 1 2011 will be considered a "baseball 11".
https://www.littleleague.org/downloads/2023-baseball-age-chart/
For clarity - our upper leagues, Ted Williams and Babe Ruth, will not be affiliated with Little League baseball. Any player who does not play on a Majors roster is not eligible to participate in their tournament.
What are the rules for Majors (balks, stealing, leading, etc)?
What is the difference between majors and AAA?
In general, we are expecting to use the same playing rules as last year for these leagues. This means no leading, no stealing until the ball crosses home plate, no balks, etc. This aligns with LLB and will be enforced in their tournament. Pitch count and participation rules will also remain unchanged.
There may be some rule differences between Majors and AAA in order to make AAA more fair and fun for the players as an instructional league, an example being steal limits.
These details will be determined as we get closer to the season.
Equipment Changes?
There are no equipment changes required, and our fields comply with LLB.
Are the teams from last year going to be redrafted due to this change?
We historically have formed teams every year at all levels below Majors. There will be no change to these leagues.
For Majors / AAA we will need to make changes to the teams to establish these leagues. There will not be as many Majors teams as last year and the exact numbers of players in AAA is a hypothesis. We are working through these details currently. We will communicate the approach to coaches and parents before evaluations.
Babe Ruth is unaffected by these changes.
Are players going to remain with the same teams once they’re in a division?
While we intend to establish some consistency from year to year, and believe some form is possible, league participation and evolution over time has necessitated changes to the team counts and rosters. We believe that teams in Majors and Babe Ruth would ideally have consistency and will do our best to achieve this each year.
I had a player who was 11 last year and in Intermediate. Does this mean they’ll have to go back to the Majors in 2023?
Yes, they will have to play Majors if they want to be eligible for All Stars. We are working through what we will allow for exceptions should you want your player to step up to Ted Williams and not be eligible for All Stars.
Upper leagues (Ted Williams and Babe Ruth)
There have been issues fielding teams in the past at the Babe Ruth level while high school is playing. How will this be handled?
This is an important question that we will discuss and need to determine before the season. We will ceratinly make sure we are making inclusive decisions to accomodate high school baseball players.
Equipment Changes?
For the new Ted Williams division, we will be aligning with our Babe Ruth division.
For Ted Williams and Babe Ruth, all bats must display a BBCOR approved label stamped on it (this label must be legible). Only minus 3 (-3) bats are allowed. Non-composite wood bats are allowed. The league will make any accommodations necessary for players who may have difficulty swinging a (-3) bat. We will review requests to use a lighter bat on a case by case basis.
Will my player need to change Babe Ruth teams they played on in the Spring of 2022?
No, players will remain on their rostered team from the Spring of 2022.
Allstars / Baystates / Travel Baseball
How will this affect summer baseball programs?
It is our expectation that all of the summer programs we have traditionally participated in (Sparkler, Baystate, Minuteman, LTAS, Sr. Babe Ruth and In-Town) will continue in 2023. The only change that is expected is to add the option for our 12 year olds to participate in the Little League All Star tournament .For any Little League tournament timing conflicts Baystate will reschedule, so at this time there shouldn’t be any significant changes to the summer programs.
How are all star teams and coaches selected?
The All Star game we play on baseball day will remain unchanged, but is not associated with the LLB Tournament team. Each team will nominate players for those game(s) as we have in the past.
For the LLB Tournament Team the exact process is being determined currently and will be in place for the season. The BOD will establish a fair process which will not be coaches selections. We will determine a method for input from the league, and the BOD will make the final selections for participation in the tournament.
What does the Little League tournament entail?
After team selection is complete we will compete in the local District tournament. If we win this tournament we progress to the state tournament.
The state champion will play in the regional tournament in CT, and the regional tournament champion will play in the World Series in PA. Both of these tournaments are televised on ESPN and other networks.
LLB provides subsidies for players for Regionals, and fully covers costs for the Little League World Series. No player should be concerned with the costs of participation in these tournaments. Parent attendance however is fully at the discretion of each family, there is no support or subsidies for spectators.
What makes a player eligible for Little League tournament? (Need to play spring? Certain number of games? Can they play Ted Williams and be eligible? Have to live in Framingham?)
Players need to be rostered and play the full Spring season on a Majors team.
LLB is working with the league on our boundaries, and players will need to reside within those boundaries for the SPRING season. There is an exception process we can use for any player outside of that boundary but there are no guarantees of approval. For current players we may pursue an exception, we generally will recruit within our boundaries moving forward.
SUMMER AND FALL programs will remain available for any participant, as they will not be affiliated with LLB
Our upper leagues will not be LLB registered leagues, so they too will remain unchanged.
Will patched umpires be used in Ted Williams/Majors/AAA?
We are working on the approach to umpires with our Umpire in Chief.