Maybe this has been discussed but at this year's convention Little League voted to change the age cutoff to January 1. It will go in affect in 2018. I wonder if USSSA and all the rest will do the same.
That's always been a topic of discussion due the the international teams use Jan 1st as the cutoff date, while the United States has always used the April 30/May 1st cutoff date.
For me as a dad, playing in the appropriate age group according to grade is what's most important.
quote:Originally posted by BaseKnock
Maybe this has been discussed but at this year's convention Little League voted to change the age cutoff to January 1. It will go in affect in 2018. I wonder if USSSA and all the rest will do the same.
I guess this will mean the age and school grade will get worse. Everybody playing 12u baseball will actually be 13 I guess. I liked it better the old way closer to school grades then than now.
I agree with Breamking. I liked the July 31 cutoff because it seemed like almost all of the kids were playing with/against their own grade.
In the past, I think all the other leagues would have followed Little League's cutoff. I wonder if they will do that now, since the travel leagues and other rec leagues have gotten so big.
Personally I applaud the change. My son's birthday is in early August so 6 years ago when we signed him up for baseball we signed him up for the "correct" age group based on his birth date. Now he is entering 7th grade and just finished up with 11u ball...and he is STILL 11! Some kids in his grade are turning 13, and almost all have just finished up 12u ball. So basically when he tries out for the feeder team next year he will not have played with ANY or against ANY of the other kids in his grade. Currently if your birthday is from 5/1 - 9/1 you are in a different age group than the rest of your grade. It seems to me that the 1/1 rule would make it more likely that a child could be playing with at least some kids in his grade.
Little League Age Cutoff Changing
Posted - 06/25/2014 : 10:43:12
