Little League World Series

[Erik Bedard]

Anyone know the whole qualifying process? I've always been curious what it was, but could never ask. Until Sean created this forum. :D

THANKS SEAN!

Note: First thread created in the Amateur Baseball forum!

[s.f.]

Anyone know the whole qualifying process? I've always been curious what it was, but could never ask. Until Sean created this forum. :D

THANKS SEAN!

Note: First thread created in the Amateur Baseball forum!

I can tell you how it worked for our teams in San Francisco.

First of all, Little League has teams on many age/skill levels, but the teams that go to Williamsport are what we call the Little League majors, kids who are no more than 12 years old as of May 1 of this year. (That's a new age cutoff; until this year it was July 31; the difference is that now some of the kids you see on TV in late summer have turned 13).

The teams that compete in the qualifying process are actually All-Star teams picked from each individual league at the end of the spring regular season.

San Francisco has two leagues, so two All-Star teams, and they first participated in a division tournament from July 1-18, involving 14 teams from two counties. The format was to divide the teams into three- and four-team pools for double round-robin play, with the top eight advancing to a single-elimination tournament bracket. My understanding is that this is just one of several permissible formats for district play.

The district winner then advanced to a five-team double-elimination sectional round, played during the following week.

Six sectional winners then advanced to the Northern California finals July 27-Aug. 1, where teams were divided into three-team pools for single round-robin play, with the top two in each pool going on to single-elimination semifinals.

The Northern California winner advanced to the six-team West regional final Aug. 4-12 against the Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Hawaii champs. That format is a four-game round robin with the top four teams advancing to single-elimination semifinals.

The West Regional winner went to Williamsport.

I don't know if every region has that many steps. There are a lot of leagues out here.

Probably more information than you wanted.

[Astro]

I can tell you how it worked for our teams in San Francisco.

First of all, Little League has teams on many age/skill levels, but the teams that go to Williamsport are what we call the Little League majors, kids who are no more than 12 years old as of May 1 of this year. (That's a new age cutoff; until this year it was July 31; the difference is that now some of the kids you see on TV in late summer have turned 13).

The teams that compete in the qualifying process are actually All-Star teams picked from each individual league at the end of the spring regular season.

San Francisco has two leagues, so two All-Star teams, and they first participated in a division tournament from July 1-18, involving 14 teams from two counties. The format was to divide the teams into three- and four-team pools for double round-robin play, with the top eight advancing to a single-elimination tournament bracket. My understanding is that this is just one of several permissible formats for district play.

The district winner then advanced to a five-team double-elimination sectional round, played during the following week.

Six sectional winners then advanced to the Northern California finals July 27-Aug. 1, where teams were divided into three-team pools for single round-robin play, with the top two in each pool going on to single-elimination semifinals.

The Northern California winner advanced to the six-team West regional final Aug. 4-12 against the Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Hawaii champs. That format is a four-game round robin with the top four teams advancing to single-elimination semifinals.

The West Regional winner went to Williamsport.

I don't know if every region has that many steps. There are a lot of leagues out here.

Probably more information than you wanted.
In Kentucky I think they just hold double elimination tournaments... no round robin... I only made the traveling all-stars (is what we called it) once (mainly because I didnt yell, throw bats and make a scene... just went and played, so the loud mouths made it over me even tho I was much better), but I really dont remember playing too many games (mainly because they didnt pick the best players)

Then again that was awhile ago, so I could be wrong

[cartersball]

Sounds perfect to me s.f. Here in NC we have double elimination until we make the Southeast Regionals. In fact the LL in which we are involved has placed two teams in those regionals and one of them into the World Series over the last four years. I got to be somewhat involved with one of the teams and I must say it was one of the best moments in my life. I can't wait until my son hits that age so we can go again.:D

[Erik Bedard]

Sounds perfect to me s.f. Here in NC we have double elimination until we make the Southeast Regionals. In fact the LL in which we are involved has placed two teams in those regionals and one of them into the World Series over the last four years. I got to be somewhat involved with one of the teams and I must say it was one of the best moments in my life. I can't wait until my son hits that age so we can go again.:D

Here in B-more there are so many youth leagues, and very few of them are associated with LL, so the best kids aren't always playing in the LLWS. In fact, one kid in my league could hit in the 70s on his fastball, hit 300-foot HRs, run a 4.8 40, and play the best defensive CF you'd ever see for a 12-year-old. He didn't make it to the qualifying round. He's now 14 and playing HS Varsity as a freshman.

[drtybUsch025]

This is not detailed at all but I think sums up some of it:
District
State
Regional
..............................
I don't even know if that is correct because the farthest I got was regional.

[TonyK]

This is not detailed at all but I think sums up some of it:
District
State
Regional
..............................
I don't even know if that is correct because the farthest I got was regional.

Regionals is pretty far. It depends on how big your state is. NY has:
Districts
Sectionals
States
Regionals

[drtybUsch025]

How can they have "states" if there were numerous states wouldn't that be regionals?

Not trying to argue just a bit confuesed.....

[cartersball]

What TonyK means is a State Tournament. States would be an acceptable term for that I would say, especially here in the south:D .

[drtybUsch025]

OoOo....alright. I am just a newbie to the south. Still updating my body system.