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Don't always assume bad intent with these sports leagues. I helped my son's tackle football league out with various organizational and website tasks because th

Don't always assume bad intent with these sports leagues. I helped my son's tackle football league out with various organizational and website tasks because they didn't have anybody on the board that understood it well. Some parents are just better suited to teaching tackling technique than they are creating a web form that makes sense. I'm guessing that OP's league might be sponsored by the city and the city Parks & Rec staff had some city attorney come up either the requirements for the form and the T&Cs, and I'm guessing that this attorney has no kids in the program and has no internet security experience, either.

kstrauser 6y ago
I agree with the sentiment, but this is a national-scale website and not a Django app someone locally tossed online.
- chrissnell 6y ago
  Gotcha. I didn't realize LL was a big, national org when I wrote that comment. Knowing this now, my guess is that this form was created at the behest of some big law firm they retained to do this kind of stuff and that these attorneys have no kids in sports. No actual sports parent would want to subject anybody to such insanity.
chrisseaton 6y ago
Why is there any bureaucracy to Little League in the first place, though? Like why do we need to be doing any of this? > To sign kids up for our city’s Little League baseball program, you have to prove that they’re residents, which is reasonable. I don't really get that. What are we scared of here? People coming over the border to steal Little League coaching for their children? Is that a major concern somewhere?
- throwawayboise 6y ago
  > What are we scared of here? People coming over the border to steal Little League coaching for their children? Yes, exactly this. It happens. It really does. In all sports. And not just parents seeking out "good" teams and coaches, but coaches recruiting kids to play. It gets to the point where parents put their kids in online schools, or private schools operated by a travel sports organization, so that they can get more practice time and more games.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    But what’s the problem? Child illegitimately getting to play sport doesn’t seem like the crime of the century to me?
    - kstrauser 6y ago
      Here’s what happens when you don’t have residency rules: Suppose you have suburb A next to suburb B. B has an awesome Little League local organization, but A’s is awful. Parents from A all send their kids to play ball in B. The problem is that B’s resources are finite, too: there are only so many baseball fields available for practice at a time, or batting practice cages, etc. And since the kids from A that are coming over tend to be the more skilled ones, if B has too many kids apply than they have the resources, they’ll likely end up dropping the kids who actually live in B. This is much, much more likely than you’d expect if you’ve never been directly involved with kids’ sports. You’d be amazed how many parents think their kid would be the next MLB rookie-of-the-year.
      - ryandrake 6y ago
        Why have it by residency then? Try out for a team, if you don’t get on it, try out for another one. It’s just kids playing ball, I don’t understand the high stakes. We used to just play pick up games in the park and that was fun too. No birth certificate required! Why is little league so serious?
        kstrauser 6y ago
        A lot of the older kids take themselves to practice. My kid rode his bike to the park not far from our house. In general, it’s wonderful that this is an option. I’d hate it if he had to play in another city just because the parents from that city were all sending their kids here instead. Little League is supposed to be a recreational league. I mean, they still treat it seriously and work hard to teach the kids good skills, but ultimately it should be open to any kid who wants to play. Keeping it local makes this a lot more possible. I’m OK with the rules that Little League is trying to enforce. It’s just that I don’t like the mechanism by which they’re enforcing them.
- syntheticnature 6y ago
  Yuuuup, that's more or less it. Elsethread: One former LL volunteer at the local level seeing forged documents in order to get older kids in younger kid leagues: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26297842 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26297842 Discussion of the baseball pipeline and the importance of getting that early playtime and coaching: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26298649 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26298649

kstrauser 6y ago

I agree with the sentiment, but this is a national-scale website and not a Django app someone locally tossed online.

chrissnell 6y ago
Gotcha. I didn't realize LL was a big, national org when I wrote that comment. Knowing this now, my guess is that this form was created at the behest of some big law firm they retained to do this kind of stuff and that these attorneys have no kids in sports. No actual sports parent would want to subject anybody to such insanity.

chrisseaton 6y ago

Why is there any bureaucracy to Little League in the first place, though? Like why do we need to be doing any of this? > To sign kids up for our city’s Little League baseball program, you have to prove that they’re residents, which is reasonable. I don't really get that. What are we scared of here? People coming over the border to steal Little League coaching for their children? Is that a major concern somewhere?

throwawayboise 6y ago
> What are we scared of here? People coming over the border to steal Little League coaching for their children? Yes, exactly this. It happens. It really does. In all sports. And not just parents seeking out "good" teams and coaches, but coaches recruiting kids to play. It gets to the point where parents put their kids in online schools, or private schools operated by a travel sports organization, so that they can get more practice time and more games.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  But what’s the problem? Child illegitimately getting to play sport doesn’t seem like the crime of the century to me?
  - kstrauser 6y ago
    Here’s what happens when you don’t have residency rules: Suppose you have suburb A next to suburb B. B has an awesome Little League local organization, but A’s is awful. Parents from A all send their kids to play ball in B. The problem is that B’s resources are finite, too: there are only so many baseball fields available for practice at a time, or batting practice cages, etc. And since the kids from A that are coming over tend to be the more skilled ones, if B has too many kids apply than they have the resources, they’ll likely end up dropping the kids who actually live in B. This is much, much more likely than you’d expect if you’ve never been directly involved with kids’ sports. You’d be amazed how many parents think their kid would be the next MLB rookie-of-the-year.
    - ryandrake 6y ago
      Why have it by residency then? Try out for a team, if you don’t get on it, try out for another one. It’s just kids playing ball, I don’t understand the high stakes. We used to just play pick up games in the park and that was fun too. No birth certificate required! Why is little league so serious?
      - kstrauser 6y ago
        A lot of the older kids take themselves to practice. My kid rode his bike to the park not far from our house. In general, it’s wonderful that this is an option. I’d hate it if he had to play in another city just because the parents from that city were all sending their kids here instead. Little League is supposed to be a recreational league. I mean, they still treat it seriously and work hard to teach the kids good skills, but ultimately it should be open to any kid who wants to play. Keeping it local makes this a lot more possible. I’m OK with the rules that Little League is trying to enforce. It’s just that I don’t like the mechanism by which they’re enforcing them.
syntheticnature 6y ago
Yuuuup, that's more or less it. Elsethread: One former LL volunteer at the local level seeing forged documents in order to get older kids in younger kid leagues: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26297842 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26297842 Discussion of the baseball pipeline and the importance of getting that early playtime and coaching: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26298649 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26298649