 | Each of the age divisions follows Cal Ripken rules which are modified at the local level to fit the age group. This is done for a number of reasons. Amherst Baseball Club privately runs the program for ages 10-15 and eligible 9-year-olds. Amherst Recreation offers a baseball program for children ages 5 - 9.
First is safety. The rules and equipment are modifed to reduce the chance of injury and much as possible.
Second is to makes the games fun while stressing the fundamentals. At the yougest ages, the rules are modified to keep the games moving along. As a child advances though the age groups, the rule modifications become fewer and the game begins to follow the traditional baseball rules.
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The ages outlined below are the age groupings that each level is
designed to serve. Majors and Minors undergo an age group based
screening process to determine which level will suit them the best for
their skill development, safety and enjoyment of the game. To determine
a child's BASEBALL age, see the table below.
Age Level and Field Location
|
League Name
|
Age Group
|
Field Location
|
| |
|
|
|
T-Ball
|
5 - 6
|
Scheduled by Rec Dept
|
|
A
|
7
|
Scheduled by Rec Dept
|
|
AA
|
8 - 9
|
Scheduled by Rec Dept
|
|
AAA
|
10 - 12
|
TBD
|
|
Majors
|
10 - 12
|
Cemetery
|
|
Babe Ruth
|
13 - 15
|
SHS Field
|
Birth Chart for 2009 Season
|
2003
|
2002
|
2001
|
2000
|
1999
|
1998
|
1997
|
1996
|
1995
|
1994
|
1993
|
|
Jan
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
|
Feb
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
|
Mar
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
|
Apr
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
|
May
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
|
Jun
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
|
Jul
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
|
Aug
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
|
Sept
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
|
Oct
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
|
Nov
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
|
Dec
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
|
| | How can Little
League elbow be prevented?
An excerpt from ESPN.com story on Little League Elbow. To access the online article, click here
Dr.
Storey: For a pitcher, prevention is two-fold. No. 1 is to
not overload the arm by having him throw too much. In Little League, there's
always one pitcher who's best on the team, and the tendency is for the coach to
put him out there every chance he can. So we try to limit young pitchers to no
more than seven innings of competitive pitching in a week. We also give them
pitch counts: Adolescent pitchers shouldn't throw more than 80 to 100
pitches per week. But if a kid starts a game and has a couple of
rough innings and gets up to 80 or 100 pitches in five innings, well, now the
seven-inning stipulation is obsolete. And we ask pitchers not to throw competitively
between games they pitch. They can play at another position. They should
also have an exercise routine to keep their arm strength up and build
endurance.
No. 2, throwing curve balls and
sliders puts a tremendous load on the elbow, so we try to
keep youngsters throwing just fastballs and change-ups before they get into
high school. We also emphasize good form. Obviously the worse your mechanics
are, the more likely you are to have an injury. When you’re starting a sport,
you're not efficient with your movements, and there's a big learning curve
involved in throwing efficiently. Until you learn the mechanics and build up your arm strength and
endurance, there's a higher incidence of injury.
If this
condition is caught at the early stages, it's invariably a self-limited
problem. Some kids and coaches drive harder than others, however. If the coach
is telling the kid, "You're supposed to have elbow pain; it's
normal," that kid is liable to get himself hurt before he realizes he's in
trouble.
If a kid really has an interest in trying for a
college scholarship and a major league career, he has to keep in mind that he
can't go from playing weekend baseball to practicing every day with two teams
without risking injury. Parents definitely have a major role in prevention. Some parents push too hard; if they see
some talent in their kid, sometimes the dad will have him throwing more at home
than he's supposed to and trying to teach him a curve ball. Parents have to be
careful not to have their own aspirations delivered through their child.
Dr. Storey:
Generally it's pre-high school players, anywhere from ages 10 to 15, with the
peak incidence in the 12- to 14-year-old age group. Little League elbow is a
process of damage to the joint surfaces. Pitchers' elbows at that age, as are
most of their joints, are immature, so they have open growth plates and
something of a tenuous blood supply to those growth plates. Little League elbow involves an
overload on the medial side of the elbow, so that the ligament attached to the
growth plate starts to pull away. And on the other side of the
elbow there can be a compressive phenomenon that can cause a condition called
osteochondritis dissecans, in which damage is followed by poor blood flow and
small areas of bone death. When you see those components together -- some
elongation of the ligament structures and perhaps some changes in the growth
plate on the medial side along with some bony debris and damage to the outer
half of the elbow -- now you're looking at the true definition of Little League
elbow.
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