Minors is the second youngest division of our league, intended for players who have either completed Tee Ball or are 7 and 8 years (based on Little League guidelines, not Ossining School District) of age.  Like Tee Ball, there may be many players who are trying baseball for the first time and may have very little knowledge of the rules of the game and very little experience with baseball or ability to perform the basic skills of the game of baseball. Like Tee Ball, our goal at this level is to introduce the children to the rules of the game and foster their interest and enjoyment of the game.

Coaches at this level should be attempting to teach the children more difficult concepts than in Tee Ball and create practices that begin to refine the basic baseball skills introduced during Tee Ball.  At this level, teams practice once a week (on a week night) on the fields behind Roosevelt School for one hour and have a game each Saturday morning at the Roosevelt School for about an hour.  At games, we do not keep score and the focus should be on the children trying to make plays in the field and get comfortable hitting the ball as thrown by the coaches and, towards the end of the season, players. There is more possibility than in Tee Ball of a team recording three outs in the field, and innings will end when five runs are scored if three outs have not been recorded, but scores should not be kept.

In Minors, the players practice the basics of the game: throwing, catching, and hitting the balls thrown by the machine while also continuing to learn the basic rules about base running and fielding.  After a year in Minors, players should know the different ways to make an out in the field (tagging a runner who is not on a base, tagging a base for a force out, fielding a ball and throwing to a teammate who is on a base, and catching a ball in the air).  After a year in Minors, players should have developed the ability to hit a pitched ball and improved their ability to throw accurately to a teammate as well as improved the hand-eye coordination involved in catching a ball in a glove. 

Most players will spend two years in Minors ball before moving on to the next level, which is known as Intermediate.  Since Majors/ Intermediate, which has sometimes been called “Kid Pitch,” has only children as the pitchers, coaches should work on pitching with their players during practice as the Minors season progresses. 

RULES OF GAME FOR MINORS DIVISION