Active Community: Message List - How are allstar players picked?

Re: How are allstar players picked?

MyTwoSons — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:18:31 GMT

Nice post BaseballHammy

Re: How are allstar players picked?

baseballhammy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:43:24 GMT

Dorothy, you have been given many good pieces of advice to date. Please go into your board meetings with a solution mindset and actual solutions to place on the table. Here is another possible solution you might consider, it is what our little league has been doing for years and has worked extemely well. This is not to say that it goes without hiccups sometimes, but we seem to end up with the best players on the team and it all but eliminates the popularity/favortism show.

Here is how our LITTLE LEAGUE chooses all-stars:

Managers and Coaches: All persons wishing to be considered for manager positions must apply, in writing, to our president and be approved by the board. In our league the major league manager whose team wins the regular season gets first shot at managing the 11-12's. If they do not wish to, it goes to 2nd place manager, and so on. The 9-10 manager is purely a board vote and you must carry a majority and have been a regular season manager or coach.

9-10 age group: After regular season and before July 15th we hold a try-out for all eligible players that wish to try out. We have 5 majors teams and 7 AAA teams in our league so we normally have about 30-50 kids try out. We encourage all 9 and 10 yr olds in our league to at least try out! Then the manager and one coach from each regular season team meet in board room to vote for the team, naming a max of 10 players per ballot. Here is the kicker, you CANNOT vote for kids who were on your regular season team! The votes are tallied, the top 10 vote getters are automatically on the team and the manager gets to choose the final 2 or 3 players, depending on how many kids the manager and coaches wish to have on the team. That's your final team!

11-12: A little more complicated. These are usually kids who played the season on a major level team. We have all the majors teams vote indiviually at different times in our board room. Again, the kids CANNOT vote for anyone on their regular season team and we allow them to vote for a max of 10 players. The votes are tallied and the top 10 vote getters are placed on the team. We list the top 18 vote getters on the chalkboard and if there is a tie for 18th, 19th or 20th (which happens regularly) we put all the names on the board. The pre-approved manager and coaches for the team then picks, from the remaining names on the list, 2 or 3 kids depending again on how many kids we will carry on the roster. There you have your 12 or 13 player roster.

I agree with the advice you have rec'd before to go into the board meeting with a "I am here to help" mindset and see if you can affect change for the positive! Little League can be such a positive experience if handled well! I wish you good luck and your son continued success on the diamond!!

Re: How are allstar players picked?

Christian_Indoor_Soccer_L — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:06:33 GMT

As a member of our local league's board and supervisor of one particular age group, I decided to host our league's first ALL STAR GAME(s). We had two games...one for our upper division and one for our lower divisions. There were no league bylaws to follow as it had never been done before.

So, this is how I set it up. Each team was to have there players vote for ALL STAR nominies from their team only. In other words, they would vote for players that would represent their particular team, like the Cardinals. I had each team nominate 5 players and based on the number of teams submitting nominations, I would accept between 2 to 5 players from each team. The difficult part was knowing that on better teams, #6, #7 or #8 player might actually be better than #2 on another team. I had that with my own team that I coached...having to tell players on my own team that they didn't get a nomination for the ALL STAR GAME.

It is not easy, as someone always seems to be left out. But, I also feel that it provides an added incentive to work harder, be a better teammate (as often votes tend to be popularity contests) and be more focused on getting positive results, so that next year they do make the cut. It is a good life lesson to learn.

No individual managers for any ALL STAR SQUAD had input into who was picked to play in the ALL STAR games, other than me. Although, I don't know for a fact that all managers actually had their players vote for their own nominies. To date, I haven't heard of any complaints, although I am sure there are some out there. But, I heard more complaints from parents about managers not participating in the all star game by not even nominating players to play. 100% of all feedback has been positive so far and I look forward to doing it again next year.

The only real hiccup of our first all star game, in my opinion was some of the miscommunication between managers and parents was to the difference of being nominated as an All Star and being selected to play in the ALL STAR GAME. They are two very different things, but both an honor.

I hope this helps.

Re: How are allstar players picked?

MyTwoSons — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:02:49 GMT

Jules, Sometimes the truth is painful. Daddy ball is bad when dad plays their kid where the kid does not belong. Often those kids have problems when reality sets in. My kids have to earn their spots on the field and in the lineup. I have been board member and coach in a league over 12 years. No amount of "volunteer work" justifies daddy ball and favoritism.

It was great when my oldest was finally on a team that was coached by a former pro who had no kids on the team. No more BS for him since then. He is now playing varsity at a school that had a pretty nice 2009 and may have a VERY good 2010.

Re: How are allstar players picked?

endendetrees — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:29:20 GMT

I'm amazed at some of these comments..... and sorry some of your leagues are so mismanaged. The comment these allstar parents are "people there for their own social life" makes me laugh. My sons play baseball / both little league and club ball.... therefore, we have no social life. "Daddy ball" ?? Is that bad? My husband has donated huge chunks of time to coach for years, and has taught kids both good sportsmanship, integrity and the terrific game of baseball.

I've seen Allstar teams formed in many different ways. Please be aware of the fact that kids are scouted during the regular spring season for the teams. You can't just judge a kid by the way he tries out one morning with a few pop flies.

For parents full of complaints (and I'm not saying you're one of them) think about the time (AND MONEY) that coaches put in to baseball and these kids and their teams. For every batting cage session or bucket of baseballs or jugs of gatorade we pay for.... we get no financial compensation. We do this for the love of the game, and for the love of our sons.

We are not in this for our "social life" nor do we have visions of building Allstar teams made up of "friend's kids" or "business associates". I'm sorry that your league is like that. To make the change, check with your league president and join the board. Volunteer.... be apart of things.

"daddy ball"? I don't think my sons would have it any other way. Most of the dads out there on the field that I know are making memories for the kids that are magic.

Good luck to you.

Re: How are allstar players picked?

Lou_B — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:59:37 GMT

I've said this many time, it doesn't really matter what "national organization" you league is affiliated with, what matters is the local people running the league.

There are great Little Leagues and there are horrible Little Leagues (same as in PONY or Babe Ruth, or Dixie, etc). It all comes down to who is invovled locally.

As for your local league starting an older age group, around here (in our District) just about every Little League offers both baseball and softball from Tee-Ball (5-6) all the way through Big League (17-18). LL "encourages" local leagues to have all age groups although some do "stop" at age 12 (Majors) and the players then move on to another organization.

Re: How are allstar players picked?

lyndel — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:09:00 GMT

Sorry stealing home 9,

I know where you are coming from as far as trying not to gripe about volunteers. My husband is a high school coach of 30 years. If they pulled, what they are doing on grown ups, no problem. But these are kids. Yes, we go to practice yes, we never miss a game yes, we do extra practicing in the backyard. Yes , one of the coaches told us our child was probably the best short stop in our league. And yes my husband has coached the past two years. We have only lived here two years.

I don't gripe about volunteer coaches. I gripe about leagues that say this is the way we do things and then do not follow their bylaws. Which is supposed to be what they follow to a tee.

Have you ever been involved in a PTO or PTA? Pta is also a national organization and every one affiliated with them is supposed to follow the bylaws. By my understanding, Little League has bylaws that they are to follow and can, if they want change aspects they want to govern locally, if they don't want to go by what is written, just change it. Don't tell parents you follow this, send out ballots for children to vote on and then not count them in the end.

As others have itterated, LIttle league and being on allstars has nothing to do with what kind of player you will be later in your baseball career. Some believe select league is the way to go. My sister is on a school board and they had the baseball coach from Rice there for the sports banquet. His boys never played select he doesn't promote it for kids. These are all personal decisions parents make for themselves or their children.

Our child is now old enough to play pony league. Guess what the Little league is doing ,because they do not get along with the pony league people. They are now starting an older group.

Go Kids

Re: How are allstar players picked?

MyTwoSons — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:41:58 GMT

Stealinghome9 not every league is like yours. The Allstars from my son's league was a joke this year. Favoritism run rampant. There is a team moving up a division that plays together during the regular season and plays together during allstars. This is against the rules of most rec leagues. I'm not sticking around a league that allows players to reach allstars by the criteria of "who the parents know" as opposed to what the kids can do on the field. A small kid afraid of the ball that played 3rd base, who could not make a single 5-3 put out and had at least one E5 per game, made allstars. My son was on his team. I remember his mom turning her nose up at me after I replied to her question if my son, who is twice as strong in every aspect from size, hitting, defense, throwing, etc., played allstars last year. My son, who led the division in batting including AVG, On Base, Slugging and RBI's, who almost every time he came up to bat the ball drove the ball to the fence, did not make allstars. Did I care?...not really because I've been there before. So when the lady turned her nose up at me, I just smiled.

In case you are wondering, I have an older son that is varsity starter for a strong high school, that barring key injury, will make a strong run in the spring. He made high school allstars, has colleges looking at him and just made a scout team with over a couple of hundred showing up to the tryout.

Re: How are allstar players picked?

stealinghome9 — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:34:09 GMT

Wow I am reading all these comments and I really am surprised at the negativity about politics and coaches picking their kids! I did see in my league the manager cut the assistant coaches child,,,,,, so there is some justice and some coaches do the right thing..... Also: Just a few points, When you coach a team the coaches usually have a child who is generally good, hence thats why they coach and are supporting their child's efforts and abilities. I served on the board at a league and my husband coached,,,, it is almost like another job, I like to ask the parents if they are at every practice, every game, special events, fund-raising, or do they drop the kids off, ,,, Do they see all that the parents see? Its not just games that performance shows or doesn't show!!! It is just a lot of volunteered time,, alot.... and i think we should just remember that!!. And to hear criticism over and over I think they take a lot,,,,,

I myself just always feel that people will be true to a players ability and place them as it should be..... I like to think politics are not a part of baseball, but,,,, I guess everyone doesn't live by my morals, values and standards? Also some parents out there really just have no clue of their child's abilities and are sometimes way off the mark as to where they place among other kids!!! What I have learned over time is you cannot please everyone!!!

Playball!!!!!!!! 2009 Goodluck

Re: How are allstar players picked?

2009allstar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:50:01 GMT

My son made the allstar team in the 9-10 division this year. However there was a lot of controversey with the picks. First the manager picked 9 of the 13 kids and he choose all the boys from his travel ball team with no concern for the other deserving boys from the majors. The other boys were from the lower division and were very good players and were picked by the managers for their ability.For me,allstar team this year is a joke!division 9-10 had only played 3 games and had won one game only then eliminated.my heart goes to those kids i know how good player they are but didn't get to pick because their parent has no power in order for them to be on the All-Star team.this people were there for their own social life!disgusting!!!!