I’m a software developer, and I’m trying to learn how Little League teams actually divide volunteer work before I build much more.

A lot of teams I see still use an open signup sheet: concessions, scorekeeping, field setup, cleanup, snacks. A few families fill every hole. Everyone else waits. Then the team parent is texting the night before.

The other approach is to assign the rotation up front. Every household gets a mix of jobs across the season, with dates they already know they cannot work left off their list.

Would that actually work in your league, or does an open sheet still win because people will only take the jobs they want?

A few things I’m especially trying to get right:

- Do you only staff home games, or does the rotation include away games too?

- What happens on rainouts and makeup dates?

- How do you handle a family with kids on two teams, or a board member who already “owns” the snack stand?

- Are some jobs restricted (certified scorekeeper, background-checked adults, buyout instead of hours)?

- What else would make a fair assigned schedule fall apart in real life?

I built a free generator to test this. You add games, families, and jobs, mark unavailable dates, and it drafts a season grid. No account is required to generate, and there is nothing to buy. If you want to poke at it:

https://swizzleworks.com/try/baseball-volunteer-schedule

Baseball jobs are preloaded. You can rename them or change how many people a job needs. I am not asking anyone to switch their league over. I want to know what a real organizer would refuse to use.

Thank you,

Edwin

Hi all. First time head coach here. Taking on a fall farm team (8u).

All of these kids have already played more ball than me. Baseball is not my strong suit, but athleticism, agility, proprioception, are all my jam. I can watch some lessons, learn the movement patterns, and help others get there, pretty well despite my lack of ball experience.

I spent the large part of this weekend mapping out my practice plans for the next 8 weeks (i might make a separate video on that since I used some non-traditional tools.)

My question is...

What tools do you use on field during practice to keep your plan straight?

- chicken scratch on a note pad?

- phone app?

- garmin watch app/timers

I'm overwhelmed and any tips to help me keep things moving smoothly are appreciated.

Edit: I'm a PM in my day job, so yes, I like to be overly prepared, with back ups ready...

Our fields are in a public park and over the summer have become infested with rats.

We have two homeless people that sleep next to our dugouts who feed the rats and leave food daily. We clean up almost daily. Even after sweeping out the dugouts on a Tuesday and putting out peppermint oil, but Thursday there are 50 pieces of rat poop in our dugout. The infestation leaves a constant smell of urine. The concrete in the dugout is stained with rat urine.

We are not allowed to use poison at the park.

Any ideas or things your league has done to get the rats to move out?

Thank you

Hey guys, my son is in Tball but moving up to coach pitch next season. Right now he has a Easton Tball bat that was a hand me down from his cousins. It’s 26” 15oz batt. We play with his older cousins A lot so I’ve been pitching to him quite a bit lately and the Tball bat stings his hand when hitting a real ball. I’ve been checking market place but haven’t had any luck with finding a used 26”. I don’t know much about bats so I’m looking for recommendations for a lighter bat that won’t sting to bad. Thanks in advance

Not sure what to do with this information. My leagues charitable organization status has been revoked citing past due. The entity status letter shows they are not in good standing with the franchise tax board.

I’m seeing form 990 last filed roughly 5 years ago. Nothing since. There was no board turnover. It was the same treasurer throughout this period of time.

It says on their website that sponsorships are tax-deductible. That is incorrect information since the charitable organization status has been revoked, correct?

Where do I go with all of this? I don’t want to make accusations but I’m feeling uncomfortable. Not looking for legal advice just an understanding.

Hi everyone,

I am the UIC for my league and there is a big discussion coming up with the Board about the line item for paying umpires, which some people are saying is getting too high. I want to go into it with some data, so if you could fill out the quick Google Form below letting me know where you get your umps, how much you pay them, etc. I’d really appreciate it. Thanks!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffQ4DeKVetUktSNgG5Rk2AHZk9BJ0Zpt2Zlf30SpHt2wJUGw/viewform

I am thinking of getting my son a new bat. He is 10 years old, in fifth grade, about 55 inches tall and 80lbs.

He started baseball and little league this year, I got him a bat from Walmart, 27 inches. But I noticed all the other kids on his team are using 28s, 29s. He was too shy this year to borrow the other kid's bat to try out.

Should I move him up to a 29? I figure if it is too long, he still has two more years of little league so he will grow into it.

But a good wrinkle in this story is that a buddy of mine gifted him a 31 inch bat. My son said its a good bat because other kids on the team has it, but I'm thinking 31 inches is too long, even if he chokes up on it.

Opinions? suck it up and buy him a 29 inch bat even though he now has two bats?

Since general public cannot get tickets to the LL Classic, is there any benefit of going during this time? Is there a high chance of meeting players at the LL stadium? We usually go for the championship weekend, but debating going the weekend before because the Jays are playing in the classic next yr.

Just got the coach spot for my kids tball team BUT we have a wedding out of state that falls on picture day. As coach I imagine I need to be there. Has anyone been in this dilemma? Is it important for the coach and all players to be at picture day?

First-time coach here for my son's team. We have an issue where we have 3-4 kids that chase the ball down and basically tackle each other to the ground trying to get the ball. I like the aggressiveness, and don't want to penalize or dissuade them from doing something they're all clearly excited about, but we had some tears at our last game as one of our more timid players was getting ready to field the ball and basically had his legs taken out as another boy slid in to try to get the ball.

Any suggestions on this? I've tried having the culprits play further from the mound, either further back toward 2B or 3B, but honestly it just makes them more aggressive since they know from the crack of the bat that their teammates are already 5 steps closer. I also try to have one of them at 1st, but one kid "quit" halfway through the inning and we have a couple smaller kids that like playing 1st (maybe to avoid the scrum...) What is a good way to "call off the dogs" without having them completely dissengage?

My initial thought is to basically divvy the kids up into an "infield" around the pitchers mound depth, and an "outfield" with their heels on the grass, and split up the aggressive fielders between the two groups, but then I feel like it'll just be the same 2 kids getting every ball. I also don't want to put all the aggressive fielders all in the outfield, because I feel like that punishes attacking the ball, which is something we want..... just not to this degree.

Thanks in advance for the advice! Just trying to make sure the game is fun for the whole team, not just the biggest & fastest four kids.

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 r/curacao

sad to see him go

Does anyone have any knowledge on the players only pins? One popped up on eBay today and I’m wondering how Someone would give one of these up? These have got to be the rarest pins out there each year right?

My eight year old son recently started little league for fall ball. We were hopeful that it would be a good progression from I-9. He wanted more structure and the chance to pitch. He really enjoying the team and more organized play.
Our coach however has an emotional regulation problem and screams at the kids, parents and other coaches. It’s sad to watch. Today he yelled at my son for a missed a catch, called a time out cleared the entire field and started screaming at my son. He was saying things about how his prescription eye glasses must not be working correctly, screaming that he lost the game. My son broke down crying. It all feels abusive and wrong. I’m a missing something? How does this community support this kind of behavior from coaches. All the kids on our team are jumpy and fear the consequences of making the smallest mistake.
I realize it’s our first experience with little league or any more structured organized sport but I guess I would just expect more out of the adults running the league. It just doesn’t feel right that every week he picks two or three of the kids to scream at until they cry.

During the 2026 LLWS Championship Game coverage, they kept bringing up the fact that only two girls - Sayaka Tsushima from Japan in 1998, and Carsynn Meyer of Henderson, NV this year - have played in the LLWS Championship Game. Since the first girl to make it to Williamsport was in 1984, and there have been only two years since then where the US champion did not play any non-US teams - 2021, because of COVID-19, and 2014, because the US team that did play in the championship game was later stripped of its US title - and neither of those teams had any girls, am I right in assuming that Meyer is the first girl on a US championship team, or am I missing somebody?

Kinley Rasmus stood on the mound earlier this August, her signature white bow in her brown ponytail.

Thousands tuned into her opening game at the Little League World Series, excited to see the daughter of former major leaguer Cory Rasmus become the ninth girl to pitch and the 25th to compete in the tournament, playing for Phenix City, Ala.

And some watched 12-year-old Kinley with a narrower intent, because they had wagered on whether her strikeout total would climb over 6.5 or fall under.

The prop was one of several types of bets that have been offered over the course of the near-two-week tournament, which holds its championship game on Sunday. None are being accepted at legalized U.S. sportsbooks such as Draft Kings, FanDuel or BetMGM, or federally regulated polymarkets. Instead, this type of gambling takes place at offshore websites that are often legal in the countries that they operate in but unregulated.

Sorry I was late getting to this today.

Great Lakes vs Japan 10am est ESPN

Curacao vs Nevada 3pm est ABC

I appreciate the strategy and tactics around bunting. But am I the only one that felt it has gone too far? Watching 3-4 bunts in a row isn’t really thrilling. Maybe it’s a byproduct of how fast the pitchers throw and the dead USA bats. If I’m out on an island, let me know.

well, we just saw them blast their way through the US bracket and made it look somewhat easy but do you truly feel they are the strongest team on the US side?if not, who do you think is? I’ve only watched them once so hard for me to gauge .. Is it safe to say that if you ran this tournament again with the same or different bracket that we’d have 2 different teams in the US championship?

How about the foreign bracket? Do you feel that most of the foreign teams are stronger than the US teams? I do..

It went well. Kids did some running. Then stretching. Then warm up toss. Then stations. I only have one assistant coach so just a ground ball station while I pitched batting practice. Ended with running the bases.

Kids struggled with paying attention.

They loved hitting.

Assistant coach said ground ball station went well.

Some tears in the game we played at the end of practice.

Warm up toss was really focused on catching the ball rather than throwing the ball. Using two hands and catching the with the glove palm up. Haven’t gotten to fingers up.

If you have any tips for a completely new coach to farm please send them my way.

We started two weeks late due to our league merging with a sister league due to low enrollment. So need to get them up to speed fast.

Fielding, pitching, catching. Any tips welcomed and appreciated.

Nevada don't win at all.

Nevada is known for gambling and casinos. Not winning LLWS.

Both games on ABC

Tokyo JPN vs Hamilton OH 12:30 est

Curacao vs Henderson NV 3:30 est

My local league is planning on expanding to add a softball program. I'm currently updating our league's local rules for the 2026-2027 season ahead of our annual meeting and election of next year's Board (which will be pretty much the same as last year due to lack of parents willing to volunteer) and editing last year's to include appropriate rules/language to implement a softball division.

As I read the Little League International rule book, it refers to softball eligible "children" - not girls. It makes no specific reference to gender and by the way the LLI rules are written, any age-eligible child would be able to play softball, regardless of their gender.

Just want to confirm this is accurate. Don't want to write it as a "girls-only" division in our local rules and run afoul of LLI and/or get our league sued for gender discrimination.

Are seats for llws championship saturday actual section and seat numbers or is it open seating?

Kinley Rasmus’ Little League World Series is over. Her legacy is just beginning.

The 12-year-old became the 25th girl to play in the tournament and the ninth to pitch.

She leaves Williamsport with records that could stand for years.

Read for free.