Little League 2018 season

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

16 hours ago, MAROON said:

yep.  Former WULL guy here.  We had plenty of styro, tervis tumblers back in the day in the stands. Then we got an attorney as head of the league and between that and HISD cracking down (we have some of our fields on their property) there was a general push to stop it.  Sort of amazing POLL still does it considering the number of uptight attorneys in that league along with the fact that all their fields are on HISD property.  

The league commissioner is a friend of mine.  He gives zero fucks.

I prefer POLL over WULL.  Did WULL when my son was 5 and 6.  Going to the south campus was a pain in the ass.

[VolenteHawk 495]

Was messing around on my phone and came across this picture of mini-Volente from the Fall.  Staring down the sign, tipping the two seamer...

[MAROON 445]

1 hour ago, Johnny Sack said:

The league commissioner is a friend of mine.  He gives zero fucks.

I prefer POLL over WULL.  Did WULL when my son was 5 and 6.  Going to the south campus was a pain in the ass.

Ya South campus thankfully didn't materialize as a place to play games (we just practiced there) until my son was already in Juniors.  When we had McGovern it was better, from a travel perspective, but selling McGovern enabled us to develop South Campus and set-up the long-term survival of the league.  It insured we had control of our fields and were no longer subject to the whim of a school board or elementary school principal.

[Pato del Muerto 52,977]

1 hour ago, VolenteHawk said:

Was messing around on my phone and came across this picture of mini-Volente from the Fall.  Staring down the sign, tipping the two seamer...

Wtf with the red laces and another wtf with that mound?

removable mound so they can use the field for baseball and softball?

Edited April 27, 2018 by Pato del Muerto

[VolenteHawk 495]

They're pink laces...breast cancer awareness month.

Everywhere we play has turf mounds (Dallas, Houston, Austin), some moveable some not, I presume for maintenance costs.

 

[Hanrahan 1,306]

JKates done fucked up and got his team seeded against the Mighty Flying Hanrahans in first round of the SBMSA gold playoffs.  We're looking for blood.

[jkates 328]

2 hours ago, Hanrahan said:

JKates done fucked up and got his team seeded against the Mighty Flying Hanrahans in first round of the SBMSA gold playoffs.  We're looking for blood.

Ha! I got so bogged down in the details, I didn't even realize who we were matched up against. Put your best fielders in the outfield, cuz we're going to bang the ball to the wall.

[jkates 328]

On 4/30/2018 at 12:22 PM, jkates said:

Ha! I got so bogged down in the details, I didn't even realize who we were matched up against. Put your best fielders in the outfield, cuz we're going to bang the ball to the wall.

Apparently, my hitters did not get this message. Nice W, Brew Crew! 

[Pato del Muerto 52,977]

Kid got Yankees #7. So that’s cool 

[chitwood 155]

Just saw this post.  I am in baseball withdrawal this year.  My son is 15 and played Northwest LL in Austin for 8 years, then two years of Northwest Pony.  He is a sophomore at Anderson (June birthday, so he is young for his grade but old for baseball with 4/30 cutoff).  He decided last year that he didn't want to play in high school, so this is the first year of no baseball.  Bummed me out for a while, but right decision for him as he (not so humble brag) is ranked in the top 1.5% of his class.  School work is his thing, and baseball is double blocked, so he would lose two classes.  Dad still misses it though.

[F250 28,991]

8 hours ago, jkates said:

Apparently, my hitters did not get this message. Nice W, Brew Crew! 

Mercy ruled or what?

 

[F250 28,991]

6 hours ago, chitwood said:

Just saw this post.  I am in baseball withdrawal this year.  My son is 15 and played Northwest LL in Austin for 8 years, then two years of Northwest Pony.  He is a sophomore at Anderson (June birthday, so he is young for his grade but old for baseball with 4/30 cutoff).  He decided last year that he didn't want to play in high school, so this is the first year of no baseball.  Bummed me out for a while, but right decision for him as he (not so humble brag) is ranked in the top 1.5% of his class.  School work is his thing, and baseball is double blocked, so he would lose two classes.  Dad still misses it though.

I still have a few more years with my youngest. My older two are currently in the HS playoffs and this will be my oldest's last season of baseball. It may or may not all come to and end this weekend. I'm enjoying all of it while I can.

 

[troph 24,929]

My coach pitch kiddo went 3-4 with two singles and another legit/no error home run! He caught an outfield fly in the last inning to help save an uncertain win. His team is 3-0 in a double elimination tournament!! Unbelievable! So much fun !!

[Pato del Muerto 52,977]

So, first year of little league is also first year of kid pitch. Wish he could have had a year of coach pitch first, because these games are mostly 2 hour, 3 inning walkfests. 

He hasn’t put a ball in play yet, and hasn’t made an out yet. Unbearably boring to watch. 

But, not a bad little field. 

 

[jkates 328]

We're eliminated. Championship game tonight between a team that's undefeated and a team with only 1 loss (which was to the undefeated team). Should be some good ball. It's a double elimination bracket, so 1 loss team needs to double dip the undefeated.

50 teams
100 preseason games
500 regular season games
62 playoff games

1 champion

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

We have a game tonight. Can’t wait 

[Anastasis 23,520]

6U coach pitch/tball is serious business.  Boy's team is 1 seed in the tournament. Apparently one of our kids  grabbed a tball bat and used it during an at-bat. Tball bats are a no-no for this division. Coaches conferenced, and agreed to play the game out and make sure both teams kept any tball bats from getting it into the rotation moving forward. Apparently the other team also had a tball bat on the wall. We win an awesome game that went back and forth to bottom of fifth.  Kids shake hands and go home.  Opposing coach apparently contests the game when he gets home, board rules in their favor and rules to replay the game.  Bonus baseball tonight. Serious tball is serious.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Anastasis

[Anastasis 23,520]

The team that protested the game over an "illegal" bat, of course, showed up with an illegal bat on their bat wall again to the replay game tonight.

Baseball karma wins out though. I can't imagine what type of varied idiocy these people are going to pull when the kids actually get into competitive age ranges. 

But mostly I'm pissed cause I was suppose to be on the lake this evening instead of sweating my ass off at a replay game. 

 

[jkates 328]

12 hours ago, Anastasis said:

The team that protested the game over an "illegal" bat, of course, showed up with an illegal bat on their bat wall again to the replay game tonight.

Baseball karma wins out though. I can't imagine what type of varied idiocy these people are going to pull when the kids actually get into competitive age ranges. 

But mostly I'm pissed cause I was suppose to be on the lake this evening instead of sweating my ass off at a replay game. 

 

Baseball dads get super serious, especially when their little babies get beat. I was coordinator (commissioner) of our league this season. We had a few formal protests. These were not appeals during games about illegal bats - we had those and handled them in-game per our rules. These were formal protests. Our league rules make it pretty tough to protest, but that didn't stop these dudes. First, you have to notify the umpire during the game, then notify the opposing manager of intent to protest, and notify the scorekeeper. Then, within 24 hours, you have to file a written protest to the coordinator/board. We received written out, 4 page, authored by dads who are attorneys protests. Sooooo ridiculous. Each of them because something wasn't "fair" - which is most easily interpreted as "I won't volunteer any of my time to help the league but I will bitch and moan when my son's team loses to the Mexicans from the north side of I-10." 

The illegal bat issue is legit. I'm surprised your league doesn't have rules to address that during the game. Replaying it seems dumb. 

[troph 24,929]

Speaking of super serious... winners bracket 3-0 next game Saturday. Coach pitch mofos, CAN’T wait !!

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

We have a little boy on the team who bats last and plays right.  Great kid but youngest in league and strikes out probably 80 percent of the time.  We all try and encourage him.  These are 8 and 9 year olds.

At our game Monday night, the other team had their third baseman and shortstop move up damn near the same depth as the pitcher.  I can understand moving in a couple steps for the bottom of the lineup, but to me this was them taking it too far and showing this kid up.  

[Pato del Muerto 52,977]

Seems irresponsible for the fielders too on the off chance he barrels one. 

[VolenteHawk 495]

2 hours ago, jkates said:

Baseball dads get super serious, especially when their little babies get beat. I was coordinator (commissioner) of our league this season. We had a few formal protests. These were not appeals during games about illegal bats - we had those and handled them in-game per our rules. These were formal protests. Our league rules make it pretty tough to protest, but that didn't stop these dudes. First, you have to notify the umpire during the game, then notify the opposing manager of intent to protest, and notify the scorekeeper. Then, within 24 hours, you have to file a written protest to the coordinator/board. We received written out, 4 page, authored by dads who are attorneys protests. Sooooo ridiculous. Each of them because something wasn't "fair" - which is most easily interpreted as "I won't volunteer any of my time to help the league but I will bitch and moan when my son's team loses to the Mexicans from the north side of I-10." 

I'm a pretty serious dad about coaching my boy, and it's select baseball...so we're trying to win.  But the most important thing he's going to take from sports is handling adversity.  How in the hell am I supposed to guide him through that if I'm making excuses and protesting when he gets bet or bitching about balls and strike calls if a kid fans him (which happens all the time...dads are insane about this)?

 

Edited May 17, 2018 by VolenteHawk

[Huckleberry 33,676]

1 hour ago, Johnny Sack said:

We have a little boy on the team who bats last and plays right.  Great kid but youngest in league and strikes out probably 80 percent of the time.  We all try and encourage him.  These are 8 and 9 year olds.

At our game Monday night, the other team had their third baseman and shortstop move up damn near the same depth as the pitcher.  I can understand moving in a couple steps for the bottom of the lineup, but to me this was them taking it too far and showing this kid up.  

Yeah, that's 100% bullshit. Not only because it's a dick move but also because it's dangerous.

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

Glad others agree. I politely brought it up to the other coach after the game. I told him I thought that wasn’t cool to do to an 8 year old. He was a little defensive, but I could tell he knew it was wrong. 

Oh, and they were up by ten at the time late in the game. 

Edited May 17, 2018 by Johnny Sack

[Caddox 952]

I coached Pony league at POLL for three years after college. One of my favorite things Ive ever done. Kids were great. Parents were great (for the most part.) I learned a lot. Crazy seeing some of my kids going to college now. One of them is a preferred walk-on next season for the horns. Really fun watching the good kids operate, but the best part about it was making the not so good players realize this was their last chance to play ball and encouraging them to leave it all on the field. Those rare hits/well played flies were always a big deal. So fun. I'll be back as a dad in about 5 years. Pumped. 

[Huckleberry 33,676]

Yeah, general rule is try not to be a dick. Hell, with my team if I'm telling the outfield to play deeper because the kid has good bat speed I just yell it out to them ("OUTFIELD! Back up!" *hand signals until they're deep enough*). If I'm telling them to come way in because there's a weaker hitter then I call them out by their names and only use hand signals to position them.

If there's a chance you're showing up a little kid then it's time to reevaluate. I also had to ignore the parents on my team this season whenever we'd get up by enough that coming back was literally impossible for the other team due to time and run limits. We were aggressive on the bases until that point was reached, then it was station to station. We'd move up on a passed ball but we'd stop stealing and we'd stop going home on passed balls. Not only did it stop running up the score but it also let our batters actually hit and try to knock some runs in instead of just being a revolving door on the bases. I don't get grown men that care that much about their 8-10 year old kids winning a baseball game by as many runs as possible. Teach them the right way to play the game, positioning them in the field, running the bases properly, etc. You know, how to play the game they way they'll play it once everybody has the basic baseball skill set instead of taking advantage of bad players in ways that you won't be able to 4 years from now.

[troph 24,929]

Glad others agree. I politely brought it up to the other coach after the game. I told him I thought that wasn’t cool to do to an 8 year old. He was a little defensive, but I could tell he knew it was wrong. 
Oh, and they were up by ten at the time late in the game. 

Total bs move on his part. Some of these kids aren’t ever going to be playmakers and even those that are will fade by middle school while only a few will move on to HS ball and yet everyone of these kids has a chance for awesome memories and that needs to be one of the primary goals and his bs move coulda made that kiddo feel like shit.

[BrazilHorn 6,667]

2 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

We have a little boy on the team who bats last and plays right.  Great kid but youngest in league and strikes out probably 80 percent of the time.  We all try and encourage him.  These are 8 and 9 year olds.

At our game Monday night, the other team had their third baseman and shortstop move up damn near the same depth as the pitcher.  I can understand moving in a couple steps for the bottom of the lineup, but to me this was them taking it too far and showing this kid up.  

Depends on rules of league. Austin (WHLL) has a stupid rule that basically for 8U that a ball hit any distance from plate is a base hit. So a kid could hit an absolute dribbler and run to 1B and get a hit. POLL in Houston draws a chalk line and in effect has a "no bunts" rule on machine pitch.

So in Austin anyways it would make sense to pull the infielders up. I wish WHLL would adopt what POLL does.

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

12 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

Depends on rules of league. Austin (WHLL) has a stupid rule that basically for 8U that a ball hit any distance from plate is a base hit. So a kid could hit an absolute dribbler and run to 1B and get a hit. POLL in Houston draws a chalk line and in effect has a "no bunts" rule on machine pitch.

So in Austin anyways it would make sense to pull the infielders up. I wish WHLL would adopt what POLL does.

 We are in POLL.  I have never seen a chalk line.  We have plenty of swinging bunts that did not go more than a few feet (I have not once in two years ever seen anyone actually try and bunt).    I think that is poor form in a league with 8 and 9 year olds to bring in the infield that much.  Come in a step or three.  But don't embarrass a kid.

[F250 28,991]

32 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Yeah, general rule is try not to be a dick. Hell, with my team if I'm telling the outfield to play deeper because the kid has good bat speed I just yell it out to them ("OUTFIELD! Back up!" *hand signals until they're deep enough*). If I'm telling them to come way in because there's a weaker hitter then I call them out by their names and only use hand signals to position them.

If there's a chance you're showing up a little kid then it's time to reevaluate. I also had to ignore the parents on my team this season whenever we'd get up by enough that coming back was literally impossible for the other team due to time and run limits. We were aggressive on the bases until that point was reached, then it was station to station. We'd move up on a passed ball but we'd stop stealing and we'd stop going home on passed balls. Not only did it stop running up the score but it also let our batters actually hit and try to knock some runs in instead of just being a revolving door on the bases. I don't get grown men that care that much about their 8-10 year old kids winning a baseball game by as many runs as possible. Teach them the right way to play the game, positioning them in the field, running the bases properly, etc. You know, how to play the game they way they'll play it once everybody has the basic baseball skill set instead of taking advantage of bad players in ways that you won't be able to 4 years from now.

Excellent post.

A simple approach to coaching youth baseball should be followed; focus on teaching the fundamentals, teach respect for the game, play it as it was meant to be played, make it enjoyable for the kids, and create future fans of the sport.

 

 

[BrazilHorn 6,667]

2 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

 We are in POLL.  I have never seen a chalk line.  We have plenty of swinging bunts that did not go more than a few feet (I have not once in two years ever seen anyone actually try and bunt).    I think that is poor form in a league with 8 and 9 year olds to bring in the infield that much.  Come in a step or three.  But don't embarrass a kid.

They used to have a semi circle drawn for the machine pitch league and if ball didn’t go past it it was called a foul. 

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

4 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

They used to have a semi circle drawn for the machine pitch league and if ball didn’t go past it it was called a foul. 

They haven’t had that this year or last. 

[BrazilHorn 6,667]

38 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

They haven’t had that this year or last. 

I wish we had it. It’s not deliberate bunts (those don’t happen) but just shitty hits. 

Catchers aren’t good enough to make throw to 1st in WHLL. (8 yr olds)

[66BUFF 2,583]

20 hours ago, Caddox said:

I coached Pony league at POLL for three years after college. One of my favorite things Ive ever done. Kids were great. Parents were great (for the most part.) I learned a lot. Crazy seeing some of my kids going to college now. One of them is a preferred walk-on next season for the horns. Really fun watching the good kids operate, but the best part about it was making the not so good players realize this was their last chance to play ball and encouraging them to leave it all on the field. Those rare hits/well played flies were always a big deal. So fun. I'll be back as a dad in about 5 years. Pumped. 

Caston Peter?

[Caddox 952]

6 minutes ago, 66BUFF said:

Caston Peter?

PWO for the football team. 

[Pato del Muerto 52,977]

17 hours ago, BrazilHorn said:

I wish we had it. It’s not deliberate bunts (those don’t happen) but just shitty hits. 

Catchers aren’t good enough to make throw to 1st in WHLL. (8 yr olds)

Played a team last night that stole bases every pitch, because there’s very little chance a catcher can receive a good pitch and make a quick and accurate throw, especially to 2nd. Feels kind of unsportsmanlike to me. 

But none of their kids could throw strikes, so they walked in 10 runs and our team won. 

[Ojo Rojo 1,987]

First season in the books.  Absolutely loved it.  Can't wait for next season.  I just love being out at the ball field - just a pure experience.  Watching my kid play ball was a lot more exciting and enjoyable than I thought it would be.  We did Timbergrove Sports Ass'n in Houston.  My kid is 7 and they have 7-8 y.o. coach pitch.  My boy is small - he was the smallest kid on his team - but he's fast and he has unlimited confidence.  He was drafted in the last round, I think, because none of the coaches knew anything about him.  Ended up getting drafted by a coach that had him in basketball a couple of years ago who remembered him.  Worked out great.  Coach and his dad have been doing it a long time and they were great.  My son did well - he made contact almost every at bat and reached base probably 75% of the time.  His fielding wasn't very good even though I worked with him a lot before the season started.  He had a couple of put outs though.  We had a really good team.  Some bigger kids who could really hit.  We scored the most runs in the league, but we also allowed a lot of runs because we weren't so good on defense.  Regular season record was 7-2-1 and made the 8-team playoff as the four seed in our division against the one seed.  We were smoking the other team in the first few innings, but I think the kids thought they had it in the bag (the coaches and parents did too) and relaxed and things went to shit.  Ended up losing on the last at bat.  But it was a great season all in all.

TSA is really well organized and well-run.  The people have their priorities straight.  They make it clear that it's not all about winning.  I didn't see any coach or parent misbehavior at all.  The umpires were terrible and made some really bad calls, but the coaches just let it go most of the time.  Or, they'd confer with the ump and the other team's coach and try to work it out.  They did have a rule that you could score a maximum of 5 runs per inning.  I think it was unlimited in the final inning.  That totally changed the game, but I understand why they do it.  All in all a great experience.

Edited May 18, 2018 by Ojo Rojo

[66BUFF 2,583]

1 hour ago, Caddox said:

PWO for the football team. 

did you coach Cole Hammer at POLL?  He went back there at 12U

[Caddox 952]

1 minute ago, 66BUFF said:

did you coach Cole Hammer at POLL?  He went back there at 12U

Nah he didnt play Pony league. Heard he was a really good player though. 

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

Last night we watched the POLL Pee Wee playoffs with my son and a bunch of his friends from other teams who have been eliminated.  So much fun.  Almost a big upset as the best team was down 8-2.  Then my friend's son, who coaches the underdog, had his nose broken when fielding a hard hit bouncing ball at second.  So he was out and third basemen moved to second and left fielder moved to third.  It completely screwed up their defense and they made a ton of errors that cost them the game.

Kid is fine.

[MAROON 445]

WULL guy here.  Back in the machine pitch days we had a line that the defensive players could not cross (essentially they could not set-up in front of the machine) for their own safety.

Of course one of the Managers figured that was a perfect recipe for his team to bunt..  I shit you not he had his team bunt like 12 times in a row because it was almost physically impossible for the other team to defense against it.  He got called out and the rule was changed to stop all bunting in machine pitch.

Total dick move by him.  Especially his arguement that he was teaching the kids how to properly bunt.

 

 

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

19 minutes ago, MAROON said:

WULL guy here.  Back in the machine pitch days we had a line that the defensive players could not cross (essentially they could not set-up in front of the machine) for their own safety.

Of course one of the Managers figured that was a perfect recipe for his team to bunt..  I shit you not he had his team bunt like 12 times in a row because it was almost physically impossible for the other team to defense against it.  He got called out and the rule was changed to stop all bunting in machine pitch.

Total dick move by him.  Especially his arguement that he was teaching the kids how to properly bunt.

 

 

I know some of the people that run WULL.  I am betting that manager was not allowed to manage again.  Total dick move and against the spirit of what machine pitch should be.

[MAROON 445]

1 hour ago, Johnny Sack said:

I know some of the people that run WULL.  I am betting that manager was not allowed to manage again.  Total dick move and against the spirit of what machine pitch should be.

it was years go, but you're are correct - he never managed again, but he will tell you it was his choice....it wasn't. I was on the board then.

 

Man its amazing some of the things I saw as a board member and the e-mails we would get from parents and coaches.  I wish I kept them all, as it wold make for fun reading today.

[Hanrahan 1,306]

On 5/17/2018 at 10:29 AM, jkates said:

Baseball dads get super serious, especially when their little babies get beat. I was coordinator (commissioner) of our league this season. We had a few formal protests. These were not appeals during games about illegal bats - we had those and handled them in-game per our rules. These were formal protests. Our league rules make it pretty tough to protest, but that didn't stop these dudes. First, you have to notify the umpire during the game, then notify the opposing manager of intent to protest, and notify the scorekeeper. Then, within 24 hours, you have to file a written protest to the coordinator/board. We received written out, 4 page, authored by dads who are attorneys protests. Sooooo ridiculous. Each of them because something wasn't "fair" - which is most easily interpreted as "I won't volunteer any of my time to help the league but I will bitch and moan when my son's team loses to the Mexicans from the north side of I-10." 

The illegal bat issue is legit. I'm surprised your league doesn't have rules to address that during the game. Replaying it seems dumb. 

Was that not a hand-picked tourney team, i.e., the Warriors?  That's what I heard all season.  Who were the other teams they drafted against?

[jkates 328]

1 hour ago, Hanrahan said:

Was that not a hand-picked tourney team, i.e., the Warriors?  That's what I heard all season.  Who were the other teams they drafted against?

It was not a hand-picked select ball team, although once the Wilchester rumor mill got that gem started it was impossible to stop. It was a team put together by the Board with kids from 6 or 7 different schools from a similar geography, per league guidelines. 

• Do some of those kids on the Royals play select ball? Yes. 4 of them on a 7U team. 4 of them on an 8U team, although 1 of those was added after the coach liked him in SBMSA.
• Does the Royals coach run the Houston Warriors organization and facility? No. The Royals coach coaches select ball - like other coaches in our league, including me - and does so for the Houston Warriors, but he has a day job outside of baseball like the rest of us.
• Did the Royals coach hand pick his roster? No, and he didn't try to. He was allowed to name one assistant, just like everyone else. He was given 2 kids who had never played baseball before and his 7/8 age split was even - 6 kids of each age. The Wilchester coaches tried to bond together in groups of 3, instead of 2 per the rules, interestingly enough.
• Did the Royals kids have matching bat bags? Yes. 3 of them did to start the season. The coach had an extra in his garage. The rest paid $60 and got one.
• (This rumor was my personal favorite.) Did I rig the team because I want my son to play for the Houston Warriors? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I think what was really at the root of the issue were 2 things - 1) Brown kids from north of I-10 were beating the white kids from south of I-10 and 2) the Royals coach and families, aware of the rumors and opposing fan behavior towards them, had fun with their responses to people in order to add fuel to the fire, or at least made no attempt to stop it. I believe reason 1 was real, though rarely overt and malicious. Reason 2 was simultaneously funny to me and a giant pain in my butt. 

Anyway, they were hardly invincible. They were behind after the 3rd inning in at least 4 games. Plenty of teams could have beaten them and didn't. In my opinion, they wouldn't have cracked the Top 5 in Midget last season. They were good, but not in proportion to all of the fuss made over them. Gosh, that should have been embarrassing to the complainers, but, sadly, I don't think it was.

Edited May 18, 2018 by jkates

[Hanrahan 1,306]

I never made any complaints but heard all those rumors. What you describe still isn’t right though, forming a team that is 2/3 tournament kids while any other team would have 1-2 kids able to play at that level. And, not surprisingly, they were the one team out of 50 who didn’t lose a game all season.

[Pato del Muerto 52,977]

My little league has 5 teams...

[Jacob McCandles 202]

35 minutes ago, jkates said:

Brown kids from north of I-10 were beating the white kids from south of I-10

I was a commissioner in SBMSA 10+ years ago and see that things haven't changed. LOL.

[jkates 328]

30 minutes ago, Hanrahan said:

I never made any complaints but heard all those rumors. What you describe still isn’t right though, forming a team that is 2/3 tournament kids while any other team would have 1-2 kids able to play at that level. And, not surprisingly, they were the one team out of 50 who didn’t lose a game all season.

Many did not complain and that is good. I certainly can't stop anyone from feeling how you stated you feel about it. The fact remains that teams are formed like this every year at Rookie and Midget and nobody batted an eye until the Mexicans won.