{"id":9634,"date":"2014-07-29T13:55:37","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T17:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=9634"},"modified":"2014-08-13T11:07:48","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T15:07:48","slug":"babe-ruth-american-legion-and-other-youth-league-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=9634","title":{"rendered":"Babe Ruth, American Legion and other youth league Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Continuing my coverage this year of youth baseball. \u00a0We covered the local <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=9271\">High School tournaments<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=9572\">Little League tournaments<\/a> so far. \u00a0We talked about all the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=8996\">local area draft prospects<\/a> ahead of the draft. \u00a0 I have a draft post covering the multitude of College Wood Bat leagues, but since those leagues are almost over I may just save it for next year. \u00a0Now lets try to bridge the gap between little league and high school.<\/p>\n<p>The youth landscape in baseball has changed a ton since I was a kid in Northern Virginia. \u00a0It used to be simple:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>you&#8217;d play Little League until \u00a0you were 12<\/li>\n<li>then you&#8217;d play Babe Ruth til you were 15<\/li>\n<li>then if you were good enough you&#8217;d play HS ball in the spring and you&#8217;d play American Legion in the summers. \u00a0But you could always play &#8220;Senior&#8221; Babe Ruth from the time you were 16-18.<\/li>\n<li>and that was it. \u00a0If you weren&#8217;t playing some other sport there was always &#8220;fall ball&#8221; at each age level, but the above were the leagues that &#8220;counted.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now a days, I&#8217;m not even sure what is going on with youth baseball. \u00a0We all know about the wide growth of travel baseball, which has essentially destroyed Babe Ruth at its older levels (thanks to the siphoning off of any one talented enough to pitch). \u00a0But now apparently there&#8217;s a whole slew of leagues i&#8217;m not familiar with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Major60&#8221; and &#8220;Major70&#8221; distinctions for 11 and 12 year olds<\/li>\n<li>Modifications to the classic &#8220;little league&#8221; rules to try to capture those kids they&#8217;re losing to travel teams<\/li>\n<li>Pony League baseball (more prevalent in southern virginia; is there even a northern virginia league?)<\/li>\n<li>Cal Ripken youth leagues, which I guess is a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baberuthleague.org\/cal-ripken-baseball.aspx\">division of Babe Ruth<\/a> for youngsters<\/li>\n<li>Travel teams; do they even have &#8220;leagues?&#8221; \u00a0Or do they just go to tournaments?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Back in the day, when Babe Ruth had no competition for the youngest teens, winning the 13-year old and\/or the 13-15 year old Babe Ruth tournaments still meant something. \u00a0Likewise, American Legion was essentially a hand-picked\/all-star team of your hometown high schools. \u00a0Now, I&#8217;m not so sure. \u00a0How is American Legion faring, considering that big-time travel teams now have all the major prep prospects out there? \u00a0 As far back as 2005, there were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2005\/07\/26\/AR2005072601887.html\">stories in the Washington Post<\/a> about how Legion ball was badly suffering. \u00a0It seems to me now that Legion ball is struggling just like senior Babe Ruth ball.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, I did go looking for district and state results for the leagues I grew up knowing. \u00a0We reveiwed Little League&#8217;s local and state tournaments, so here&#8217;s the subsequent state results for Babe Ruth and other amateur youth leagues:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Babe Ruth<\/strong> 13s: <a href=\"http:\/\/vababeruth.com\/tournaments\/va_tournaments.php\">Gainesville-Haymarket beat Greater Loudoun<\/a> for the state title. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/brlseregion.com\/tournaments\/tourney_splash.php\">Regionals<\/a> are Sarasota, FL starting 7\/30\/14. \u00a0Nationals are in Glen Allen, VA.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Babe Ruth<\/strong> 13-15s: <a href=\"http:\/\/vababeruth.com\/tournaments\/va_tournaments.php\">Arlington beat Greater Loudoun for the state title<\/a>. \u00a0They move onto <a href=\"http:\/\/brlseregion.com\/tournaments\/tourney_splash.php\">regionals<\/a> in Varina (Virginia) starting 7\/30\/14.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Babe Ruth<\/strong> 16-18s: <a href=\"http:\/\/vababeruth.com\/tournaments\/va_tournaments.php\">Greater Fairfax beat Northern Fairfax County<\/a> for the state title. \u00a0They move onto <a href=\"http:\/\/brlseregion.com\/tournaments\/tourney_splash.php\">regionals<\/a> in Alabama starting 7\/23\/14. \u00a0(<strong>Editor&#8217;s update<\/strong>: Greater Fairfax came out of the loser&#8217;s bracket after breezing through pool play to make the finals, but lost to the Alabama state champion Gulf Coast in the <a href=\"http:\/\/brlseregion.com\/tournaments\/brackets\/2014\/pdf\/1618bb.pdf\">SE Regional final<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>American Legion&#8217;s<\/strong> district tournaments are complete; the state tournament kicks off on 7\/28\/14 from the great Fireman&#8217;s Field in Purcellville. \u00a0Your 8 teams in the Virginia American Legion state tournament are from Roanoke #3, hosts Leesburg #34, Stafford #290, Williamsburg #39, Albemarle #74, West End (Richmond) #361, Big Island (outside of Lynchburg) #217 and lastly my &#8220;home post&#8221; of 180, Vienna. \u00a0<strong>Editor Update: <\/strong>Here&#8217;s the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.loudountimes.com\/sports\/article\/american_legion_state_tournament_scoreboard574\">tourney results<\/a>:\u00a0Vienna Post 180 went two and out, losing to Albemarle and then Williamsburg (by forfeit of all things) to end their involvement in the tournament. \u00a0 Albemarle breezed through the state tournament, winning 4 straight to win the State title. \u00a0Big Island fought through the loser&#8217;s bracket to<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cal Ripken Leagues<\/strong> (not to be confused with the Cal Ripken Collegiate league, nor &#8220;Ripken Baseball,&#8221; a for-profit academy run by the Ripken brothers) have all <a href=\"http:\/\/vababeruth.com\/tournaments\/va_tournaments.php\">finished their state tourneys<\/a> as well, and most of those state champs are already deep into their regional tournaments.<\/p>\n<p>I have no information on Pony League baseball, other than what&#8217;s on their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pony.org\/home\/default.asp\">incredibly confusing website<\/a>. \u00a0Pony baseball has more divisions than &#8230; well something with a lot of divisions. \u00a0My pun-making ability failed me here.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>I have no idea if there&#8217;s even organized leagues for these multitude of travel teams. \u00a0I know there&#8217;s an official <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nvtbl.org\/MainPage.asp\">Northern Virginia Travel League<\/a>, but nowhere on this site can i find something like a &#8220;schedule&#8221; or &#8220;standings.&#8221; \u00a0Do these teams just exist to go play weekend tournaments? \u00a0 The locally based EvoShield Canes &#8220;schedule&#8221; is just a <a href=\"http:\/\/canesbaseball.net\/\">list of tournaments<\/a> they&#8217;re playing in. \u00a0 So what do these teams do the rest of the time? \u00a0Don&#8217;t they play regular games?<\/p>\n<p>I dunno. \u00a0My kid is too young to force me to know all these things yet. \u00a0Hell, he may not even play baseball. \u00a0Are there readers out there who can fill me in? \u00a0Is it even worth tracking these all-star results anymore, thanks to the complete dilution of talent?<\/p>\n<p>Feedback welcome\/encouraged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Continuing my coverage this year of youth baseball. \u00a0We covered the local High School tournaments\u00a0and Little League tournaments so far. \u00a0We talked about all the local area draft prospects ahead of the draft. \u00a0 I have a draft post covering the multitude of College Wood Bat leagues, but since those leagues are almost over I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2411],"tags":[2573,1016],"class_list":["post-9634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-baseball","tag-bert-crump","tag-todd-boss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9634"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9680,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9634\/revisions\/9680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}