An Overview of the Little League Baseball Rules

Little League Baseball is a very well organized and planned activity that benefits both children and parents alike, and the rules of Little League are created with the best interests of all concerned in mind. The majority of the most common rules of Little League Baseball address the issue of keeping kids safe while participating, with a strong sense of equity and fairness as applied to the various aspects of the competition involved. From the perspective of a general overview, the rules of Little League baseball can be most easily separated in three main categories - rules concerning the playing field, the players and the adults that oversee the activities.

The Little League playing field - A Little League playing field has bases that are 60 feet apart as opposed to the 90 feet in professional baseball, with the bases themselves measuring 14 inches square. The pitchers mound in Little League is 46 feet from home plate, and the outfield fence has to be a minimum of 165 feet from home plate although many are in the range of 200 feet or more.

The Players - Every player on a Little League Baseball team must play at least two innings of every game in the field defensively and have at least one at-bat per contest. Contrary to most other baseball leagues, a player can leave a game and then re-enter at a later time. There is no designated hitter rule in Little League Baseball, and players can only play in one doubleheader per week. In any given contest there is a limit on the number of pitches a pitcher can throw in accordance with age. Pitchers that are 8 years old are allowed a maximum of 50 pitches in a game, pitchers 9 and 10 years old are allowed 75 pitches in a game and pitchers that are 11 and 12 years old are allowed 85 pitches.

Adult participation - A Little League team is allowed to have a manager and only two adult coaches on the bench during a game, and only one adult base coach is allowed on the field when his team is batting. A manager in Little League Baseball is allowed two trips to the mound in one inning and the pitcher has to be pulled from the game on the third trip, and managers are allowed four trips to the mound in a game.

Lastly, Little League Baseball has a "mercy" rule that states a a team that is losing by ten runs after the fourth inning of a game must concede victory to their opponent.