Questions for Families Who Are New to MOT Little League

What is "Little League age"?

Little League age is the age Little Leagues across the country use to determine at which level kids should play the spring season.

For fall 2024 baseball, Little League age is how old your child will be on August 31st, 2025. For example, if your child turns 9 years-old on August 15th, 2025, they will be considered Little League age 9 years-old for this spring season, even though their birthday isn't until later in the summer.

For fall 2024 softball, Little League age is the age your daughter was on the last December 31st, 2024. For example, if your daughter's birthday was on June 1st, 2024 and she turned 9 years-old on that birthday, she will be considered Little League age 9 years-old, even though she turns 10 years-old during the spring season.

Little League age matters most for spring season. In the fall, we encourage kids to "play up" and play in the division for which they qualify in for the following spring.

What is the schedule like?

For all divisions T-ball through Minors, each week, you can expect one weeknight game and one Saturday game. Weeknight games will be on different nights each week. Saturday games will most likely be scheduled in the morning, but you may occasionally be scheduled for an afternoon or evening game.

For Majors, Juniors, and Seniors, each week, you can expect two weeknight games. Weeknight games will be on different nights and times each week. Saturday games are rarely scheduled at this level.

Schedules cannot be sent out until after registration closes. Schedules are developed based on the number of teams we have each season, and we do not know how many teams we will have until registration is over. Once we determine the number of teams and assign players to those teams, we can create our baseball and softball schedules. You will typically receive your game schedule during your first week of practices.

Can you tell me how T-Ball works?

All games and practices for T-Ball are at Silver Lake Park (by the elementary school). The T-ball field is the third field on the left when coming from the school, right by the small playground set.

For scheduling, typically, your child will have two games per week, one weeknight and one Saturday. The weeknights will vary from week to week, and games are sometimes dependent on weather. If games are postponed, we make every effort to reschedule to ensure kids get a full season in. Practices take place in the 2-3 weeks before the season begins in mid-April. You may also have the occasional practice (about every other week or so) during the season, but that depends on your coach.

The seasons typically last from practices in the beginning of April until the end of the season in mid-June. We can’t provide schedules beforehand, because they are dependent on the number of kids and how many teams we have register. The outline above should give you a rough idea about how we operate during the season. Once we know how many teams we have, we work on rosters and schedules, and you should get them later in March.

How does Instructional Baseball differ from T-Ball?

The Instructional Baseball AL division is for Little League age 6 and 7 year-olds who aged out of T-ball, as well as players who are starting baseball for the first time. It’s similar to T-Ball in that we don’t keep score or standings, and the focus is mainly on skills development. Instead of a tee, kids gets pitches from a pitching machine. If they don’t make contact after the first few pitches, a coach tosses pitches to them to help them learn to make contact. It’s challenging at first, but by the end of the season, all the kids are hitting live pitches off the machine and the defense is making plays in the field.

Seven-year-olds who have experience and have played before usually sign up for the Instructional Baseball NL division. Eight year olds would not be able to play in the AL, even if it’s their first time on the field. Since it’s a little more advanced, it’s generally good to have a little experience when playing the NL, but it’s not required. At that level, the kids start to make defensive outs when they’re in the field, they hit the ball a little harder off the pitching machine, and it has more of a “real baseball” feel to the games along with the skills building.

In both the AL and the NL, it’s all about learning the game while building skills. We don’t keep official scores or standings until the Rookie division which is for eight and nine year olds.

What is the Volunteer Retainer?

Volunteer Retainers are charged by most Little Leagues in an effort to encourage parents to help the league in a variety of ways. We are an entirely volunteer-run organization, and with so many local kids participating each year, we need hundreds of volunteers in order to have the league run smoothly.

Those volunteers who help us in the most critical areas are eligible to receive a reimbursement of their volunteer retainer. Currently, we reimburse the fee to team head managers, Field Day workers, Opening Day parade and ceremony volunteers, All-Star tournament helpers, and other special needs throughout the spring and fall. Assistant coaches and Team Moms currently are not eligible for reimbursement.

The Volunteer Retainer is only charged in the spring season, so fall season does not have reimbursements.

Reimbursements are distributed in mid-August, after All-Star season has concluded, to ensure that all our spring and summer volunteers can have their volunteer retainers returned at the same time.