by Coach Papa Leroy Moore, New York State

I feel for caring coaches and all they have done for the game. I would like to explain how we deal with situations and hope it helps organizations understand how they can effect positive change in all their leagues.

First of all it starts at the top, most organizations have a board and this board can implement the tools needed to insure all their summer leagues run smoothly.
1Player Committee 
Create a players development committee. This committee is made up of experience coaches, who are responsible for winter clinics, setting up a specfic fundamental program and going to games and practices to help all new coaches.

2 Pre-Season Clinics 
Introduce baseball to younger players before the season starts. We have March clinics every Sunday in March for our 8-12 yr. old players, give them a free t-shirt and start them on throwing mechanics. We do no hitting or pitching at this level; we believe throwing a baseball is as important to baseball as ice skates to hockey... everything revolves around throwing.

3 Winter Training 
We have open gym for the older players from Nov. to April. Our local schools have been kind enough to let us use the high school gym in the winter. (You may need to carry separate insurance.)

During this time we bring in guest coaches (who always are willing to spend time helping players, even if their not their own, most coaches are very giving folks) to give our players different prospectives of the game and our own coaches teach especially the fundamentals of pitching and hitting.

4 Rules for Parents & Players 
We have rules for parents who attend games and enforce them and have thrown parents off the field. This rarely happens and of course we don't like to take such extreme measures, but sometimes it's for the best interest of the coaches and players. Also we have a code of conduct for all players and coaches posted at our different fields.

5 Drafting without Politics 
We have taken politics and coaching experience out of drafting players for teams. The player development committe with the help of the coaches, divide the teams equally and then the coaches are picked out of a hat, so they have no idea until their name is drawn which team they will have. We feel this takes the politics and experience of players out of the process and allows new coaches (who we are always trying to recruit) to have the same ablility to have a competive team.

6 Smaller Teams 
To provide more playing time for our players, we try to keep rosters of teams small, 11 or 12 players. To be able to do this we have created a minor league system. We have six major teams and 6 minor teams. We assign a minor league to each major team and if either one needs a player due to vacations or such, we allow them to move up and down (with certain pitching restrictions) to avoid forfeits.


Setting this all up has taken a lot of work from many people, our board, our coaches and parents. As a result...

• We have taken the politics (mostly) out of the picture.
• We have given our players great venues in which to learn the game.
• More volunters have came forward.
• Fundraising has grown.

We have become one of the best programs in Central New York. We are from a small village and town of 10,000 people, which had 11 teams six years ago, today we can boast of having 28 baseball teams. Of course our greatest reward has been seeing a lot more ear-to-ear grins on our players as they enjoy a great summer of baseball.