BY BARRY FAGAN | Welcome to real baseball. Greenwich Village Little League’s Upper Division fall season brings together teams from Greenwich Village, Downtown Little League and Peter Stuyvesant Little League, providing recreational baseball for neighborhoods from 59th St. to Battery Park City, east, west and in between.
In the Upper Division, ages 13 to 16, it’s no longer the Little League-size field with a 46-foot pitcher’s mound and 60-foot base paths or Little League rules. The Upper Division is played on a full Major League Baseball-size field, with a pitcher’s mound 60 feet 6 inches from home plate, and 90-foot base paths, and brings a whole new level of play.
In the fall season we don’t keep standings or have playoffs, but we do provide an opportunity for the returning Junior and Senior Division players to keep in shape for middle school and high school tryouts, and for the Majors Division (ages 10 to 12) players moving up to gain valuable experience on the big field. For the younger players, it’s likely the first time they’ve heard the real crack of the bat, as it’s wooden bats only and a world of difference that they’ve only dreamed of, until now.
In the Upper Division, that extra 14 and a half feet between the mound and the batter doesn’t seem long. But what were 46-foot fastballs become soft-pitch batting practice for the older kids.
The Upper Division is the first season where leading off base is allowed. If there’s a runner on, the pitcher better be pitching “from the stretch” or that runner is as sure as gone during a long windup. You want to test your pick-off move? Your first baseman had better be holding the runner on and be ready for the throw. What used to be a simple throw from the pitcher to the catcher has become a psychological battle of nerves.
That 60-foot mound sounds like it might make it easier for the batter to gauge the pitch, yes? Nothing’s that simple. In the Upper Division, we play with wooden bats (like MLB). Those bats are heavy compared to the lightweight metal bats allowed in the Little League Majors. Getting around on a 6-foot-tall 16-year-old’s 70-mile-per-hour fastball is not so easy after all.
And since the infield has also grown to the full 90-foot base paths, there are no more infield singles, and those long fly balls to the outfield on the smaller field are now routine pop-ups to the shortstop. At least if the catcher drops strike three, you can take off up the baseline hoping to beat out the throw to first.
And if you have the strength and skill to make contact and get a hit, those 90-foot bases are farther then they seem. You need to hustle on a shot to right, or even center field if you don’t want get thrown out at first from the outfield. Once on first, you look to the third base coach for the steal signal and take your lead, then your secondary lead, and if you got the sign, you put your head down and take off for second before the pitcher even releases the ball.
Maybe you have some power and hit a long fly ball — forget about a triple or a homer if you have trouble with the 100-yard dash, since you’ll be pulling up at second winded.
Well, at least nothing’s changed playing the field, right? Think again. Everybody’s thinking and everybody’s moving on every play. Nobody is standing still or daydreaming in the outfield. Infielders are holding runners on base. Outfielders are backing up the throws. And on a grounder to third, A- Rod makes that throw to first look easy doesn’t he? It isn’t.
In the Upper Division there’s no stigma attached to playing in the outfield. Good outfielders are essential for the win because these kids can hit. Infielders might stop hits, but in the Upper Division, outfielders stop runs and save games.
If you happen to find yourself in the neighborhood on a Saturday afternoon, stop by Pier 40, at W. Houston St., to watch a game. You’ll see that the older, returning players have baseball in their blood and are playing for their love of the game. You’ll see the younger kids getting broken in and the older kids teaching them the ropes. You’ll see a game of baseball the way it was meant to be played.
Fagan is coordinator, 2014 Greenwich Village Little League Fall Ball Upper Division
