Curious about this....lots of small towns play in the Texas Teenage organization (Belton, Temple, Bosqueville, others). West did until this year when we switched to Little League. China Spring and Killeen have switched to Little League in recent years....what are the big differences other than picking an All-Star team in Little League to go to the playoffs?

I don't have the answer, but I know that we grew up in Cameron playing Little League.

It always seemed to be better run than TTAB, in my opinion, but that could just be what I was used to.

I am pretty sure Cameron has always been Texas Teenage. You can confirm this with Forrest Sapp. We always played tournements in Robinson, Temple and Killeen.

Bohunk I was President of China Spring Youth Athletic Association for 10 years and we switched from Texas Teenage to Little League 6 years ago when my youngest was 11.

There are some big differences, mainly you have to start the season so much earlier, pitch counts, the All-Stars and Midway.

1. You have to start earlier because the Little League District Tournement have to be over by 4th of July, which means your league has to be over my at least the second week in June.

2. All Stars. In TTAB, your League Champion plus 3 pickups advances to the playoffs. In Little League, league championships mean nothing. The All Star coach can anybody and he picks the 12 best players. In TTAB, playoffs extend all the way down to T-ball. In Little League they only go down to 10 year olds, I think.

3. Pitch counts- A royal pain in the a##. TTAB goes by innings in a week. LL goes by pitch counts, period, with 85 being the limit.

4. Midway. They are the big dogs in Little League District 8, Central Texas. I don't think anyone had beaten them in 12 year olds since I was coaching. They have a system in place. They use a team that plays select for several years pointing towards 12 year olds. When my team played them they were stacked to the gills. Two of them are playing D1 ball, one at LSU and one at Baylor. Several more are at msaller colleges.

THEN you have to deal with the really big system teams out of San Antonio, Lubbock and Richmond, who are always playing for the Southwest Region Championship and a trip to the World Series.

Overall, there are more Rules that you have to be aware of and go by but it is much more organized.

[This message has been edited by Rabid Cougar (edited 2/26/2014 8:15p).]

We are in Texas Teenage Baseball and we hate it. Playoffs in tball is ridiculous--they play well into July and it's way too long for kindergarteners.

I particularly hate the practice of picking up of 3 players for playoffs rule. I didn't understand it entirely until my son was picked up by a playoffs team. My kid, jumping in at the very end and taking the playing time from other boys who had been on the team for 4 months, did not sit well with me. We will not do that again.

Thanks Cougar...exactly what I was looking for.

RabidCougar, I promise you...you're too young, but we were Little League. Forrest Sapp is my brother's best friend's dad.

I lived down the street from the man my entire life.

I promise you, we were Little League in the 60's and 70's. My brother played, played high school and college baseball.

My son played LL and his cousins played TT and there is a world of difference through the organization and rules procedures. My daughters played girl's LL as well so we were ready for rules.

Not just the coaches but the kids and the parents were taught the rules. RIGID, inflexible because they intended to get to the playoffs and weren't going to have some screw up negate the kids' progress.

8-9yo boys don't have All-Stars but use the Waco City tournament(each area was allowed two teams) as their taste of extra play...it was in our day, the top two Midway teams and that always pissed off the other teams. Midway parents got t-shirts, sisters painted their nails red/blue, did LOTS of cheering for the little guys! It was truly obnoxious for everyone else but WE LOVED IT BECAUSE WE ARE MIDWAY!

The no T-ball Playoffs is a big plus for us...my buddy's girls T-ball team last year played state somewhere in East Texas for a week...

Just double checked, and Cameron played Little League until age 12...then switched over to TTAB, which is weird., but I knew I was right about the LL part.

Good post Cougar. I've been on the board at Midway for (4) years. You're correct, and lots of other leagues do it now, but select play is the route to get better in Little League. Not vice versa. And we ( Midway LL) have made a concerted effort to draw the beginner level player to our league. A successful league must be attractive to the beginner, seasoned veteran, and Triple A select player. I've been around select for (4) years as well and the instruction at the select level is not very good.

Ironically, we got out of TTA because of accusations of team stacking from some of the smaller organizations that are members.....TTA passed a rule that you could only have a certain number of kids from one age group on a team, and you had to redraft a certain number each year, which is absurd.

We weren't the only town to leave them over the past year.

[This message has been edited by BohunkAg (edited 2/27/2014 4:22p).]

We had rules that sponsors and coaches kids were automatically on a team (as did everyone in TTA)....then you draft. So the first year of a team you have all young players and suck...and then you are good the next year....it just works out....West seems to have a lot of baseball and softball talent and a really good program, and some of the towns that had lower numbers got mad and started passing rules aimed at "evening the playing field." So we said to eff off and left.....Now it sounds like we could run into the Midway buzzsaw each year, but I think it'll be a good move long term for us....sad though, because we had been in TTA for over 50 years.

Having over 700 kids helps with keeping our leagues balanced. We re-draft every year in every league. That's tough to do in the smaller communities with smaller numbers.

don't kid yourself some coaches(great ones)have their teams ready to draft season to season and the desire to win is so great other coaches(less successful or new ones)go along with letting him take his stackable players!!!

Be careful Bo...LL is like life and if it becomes known you have scruples, your boys will know the bench very well...no matter the skill they have.

And your buddy's daughter likely played at Marshall...been there, done that as well.

We draft for parents, mom...and I'm coaching.

I'm not worried about it...we have a very good organization in West....I'm proud (for the most part) about the way everyone conducts themselves....very family oriented youth sports deal.

Janag, Mind if I ask your brother's name? I was living in Cameron in the 60's. Played baseball with Allen.

Bohunk. China Spring and West were not exactly best friends in TTAB District playoffs. Very bad blood. Extends to the Varsity games to this day.

I'm well aware of that feud....seems like after high school we all forgot about that...in fact our baseball coach is Corey Beckham, who is a China Spring boy.....

Was funny how many petty high school rivalries we had that went away once we were all thrown into the fire together at A&M...some guys from Hillsboro come to mind...we HATED them in high school and they became some of our best friends in college.

Maybe so. Besides Rockdale (grew up in Cameron) West and Robinson are still my two favorite teams to beat. Lorena is moving up the chart.

Yes, we know about Beckham.

TTAB allows you to "pick-up" three additional players for the playoffs for pitching purposes. Most league teams don't have enough pitching for 5 or 6 games over a three to four day tournement.