Little League Rule Changes for 2011

Changes to the official rules and regulations have been handed down from Williamsport for the 2011 season. As usual, there are several amendments and additions to the rule book, which will be published and distributed prior to spring. Just about all divisions are affected in some way, including regular season and tournament rules. But keep in mind that our Softball program and our Junior & Senior League divisions are not part of Little League, Inc.

Here are some of the changes to the Little League Baseball rules:

A date of February 1st has been introduced to establish player residency. This mainly affects our tournament (all-star) teams.

The pitching regulation stating that a player serving as catcher in four or more innings of a game cannot pitch the rest of the day was officially added to the rulebook. This was a late change last spring.

Tournament teams of 12 or fewer players may once again have a manager and 2 additional coaches.

Such tournament teams of 12 or fewer players will have an increased mandatory playing time for each player in attendance of six consecutive defensive outs and one offensive plate appearance. Teams of 13-14 players will use a mandatory play rule of three consecutive defensive outs and one offensive plate appearance.

Here is the link to all the changes. For the first time in a while, Little League did not make any amendments to its pitch count limits or days of rest.