Welcome to Blue Crew Diaries, an Umpire Podcast.
My name is Daryl and I will be your host as we take a look behind the masks, so to
speak, sharing stories, insights and experiences from the unique perspective of the baseball
umpire.
During this episode, we'll go through some of the new rules updates for the 2025 Little
League season.
As always, if you have any questions, comments or ideas for future episodes, drop me a line
at bluecrewdiaries at gmail dot com.
So if you're ready, grab your indicator and play brush and let's hit the field.
What's going on everybody?
Welcome back to another episode of the Blue Crew Diaries, an Umpire Podcast.
Oh boy, I know it's been, I think it's been about six months now since I last talked to
you.
Um, not really a lot going on as far as baseball is concerned.
My local league had a big shakeup in the board of directors back in October.
A lot of stuff went down that's, that's for another, another episode possibly.
Um, but yeah, let's just say the board of directors went from I think 11 or 12 members
down to seven and of those seven, only two of these, these new seven were on the 11 person
board.
So that was, uh, that was a big meeting.
I'm told I didn't attend it, but uh, yeah, apparently a lot of stuff come out and it
just kind of, kind of blew the lid off the whole thing and everything got changed.
So as far as 2025 goes, we'll see what happens with this new board.
As of right now, they have not elected a new umpire in chief yet.
So I have no idea who I'm going to be working for next season.
The umpire in chief that I had, he got done at the end of the 2024 season before this
whole shakeup deal with the board.
He had pretty much had enough.
These three years that he did, he was, he was good.
So we'll find out, um, hopefully within the next month or so who I'm going to be working
for.
Um, depending on who it is, I may not be working for that particular league next year, but
we'll see.
So speaking of next year, uh, let's get into the main topic for this episode.
That is the 2025 significant updates for the little league rule book.
So for these updates, I kind of chose ones that would more affect us as umpires on a
day to day basis out on the field.
There are a number of other, uh, updates as far as like tournaments and stuff, but that's
more like, um, league administrator stuff.
Um, I am only going to be talking about the baseball stuff that re relates to us on pyres.
I'm not going to be talking softball, but there's a bunch of changes there as well.
So starting off with just basic stuff that applies to every volunteer in little league,
uh, regulation one C. So there's been two changes to regulation one C. Uh, the first
one requires all background checks be performed by JD Palatine or Palatine, however you, however
they pronounce it.
But all background checks have to be done by JP D only before there were, um, you know,
the rule was that you could have background checks performed by, you know, whoever, you
know, whatever background check agency you wanted, as long as the background check conformed
to certain little league standards, that is no longer the case.
And JP D has to do the background check.
That is it.
Um, my thoughts on that, you know, some, some people would say, oh, well they're in bed
with JP D and you know, JP D is probably giving them a, you know, a great rate or whatever.
I just see it as everybody gets the same exact background check.
It's just that simple.
You don't have one person gets a background check by JP D. Another person gets a background
check by this company.
Another person gets background checked by this company.
Yeah.
Every it's all the same.
Now everybody gets the same, the same check.
Um, the other change to regulation one C and this is not new for this year.
Um, it was new for 2024, uh, but that is requiring all volunteers or anyone that fills out the
volunteer application to complete the abuse awareness course.
Um, the wording on that has been changed a little bit for 2025 for last season, 2024
season.
So you had to complete the abuse awareness course, but the abuse awareness course, you
had to do it either through USA baseball or I think there were a couple other, a couple
other organizations that were Little League approved, um, that, that had had Little League
approved awareness courses.
Now Little League has their own abuse awareness course right on the website.
So that, uh, yeah, you, you have to take the Little League abuse awareness course.
So moving on to actual rules, uh, playing rules again, I'm just going to get into the
stuff that us as umpires would be dealing with every single game.
The first change is to rule 1.1 zero AR two and that states that products such as, but
not limited to choke knobs, choke up assists or thumb protectors are now considered alterations
to the bat and are illegal.
So if you have a player who has a choke up assist on, on the, the handle of the bat to
help them get a little, a little bit higher on the bat, um, that, that is now not allowed.
It is considered an alteration to the bat and it cannot be used.
That, that is an illegal bat.
Um, and we'll get more into equipment stuff a little bit later on here.
So the next change is to rule 1.1 one eight three.
And this rule change now permits neoprene sleeves being worn without being covered by
an undershirt before.
If a player wanted to wear a neoprene sleeve on their arm, they had to have it covered.
That is now not the case.
However, the neoprene sleeve can be worn as long as it is a solid color and that color
is not white or gray.
That's it.
One of the two biggest ones, uh, or three biggest rules changes, uh, that we're going
to talk about today is rule 1.1 one I.
So rule 1.1 one I has been changed to remove the prohibition on player jewelry.
So if you remember, um, you could, or a player could only wear jewelry if it was religious
or some sort of medical alert type jewelry.
And then they changed, uh, last year to allow hair beads because part of hair control.
All the other prohibitions have now gone away.
I have, I have good and bad feelings about this.
The good feeling I have about it is it's less policing for us as umpires.
Now if there is, say a pitcher is wearing a necklace and it's, it's, you know, this
long chain and it's hanging down, it could possibly be an issue as far as getting in
the way or something like that.
I don't see any harm or foul in going out there and asking the pitcher just to tuck
it in their Jersey.
You can still wear it.
Just just try to tuck it in your Jersey so it doesn't get in the way.
Um, I, I don't see a problem with that.
I've, I've seen a few umpires on some of the Facebook groups and whatnot that have said
they are going to do that.
Um, and I don't see any issue with that.
So less policing for us as umpires.
You may have the, the, uh, very rare event where a piece of jewelry actually causes a
player injury.
Whether it's the player that's wearing the jewelry or another player that somehow gets
tangled up in a necklace or something like that could happen.
Well, we'll see.
I would think that the odds of that happening are very remote, but we'll, we'll see.
We'll see if, if Little League wants to get any data on that.
Getting into more equipment, rule 1.16.
This has been changed so that uh, helmet stickers and decals are allowed as long as it's not
excessive.
Here's, here's my problem.
I would like to see some clarification come out from Little League on this because my
idea of excessive may be different from your idea of excessive, which is different from
this other umpire's idea of excessive, which may be different than Little League's idea
of excessive.
So if I remember correctly last year, they couldn't take up like more than 25% of the
helmet or something like that.
I mean, I do like that they are now willing to allow the players to express themselves
and who they are and whatnot by decorating their helmets.
But I would kind of like some clarification on what, what does Little League mean by excessive?
The only other thing that I, I have a slight issue with with that one is any stickers or
decals could hide any cracks or other deficiencies in the helmet.
I'm not really a fan of that.
Now granted in the two seasons that I've umpired, I've only had to throw one helmet out of a
game for being cracked and the crack was about three quarters of an inch long right on the
left ear flap, right where the left ear flap meets, meets the skull cap of the helmet.
And that, that coach, I brought the helmet to him.
I showed him the crack.
I said this helmet can't be used.
He looked at it and said, wow, nice catch.
I got another helmet in my truck.
All right, good enough.
I ran out to the parking lot, grabbed the other helmet.
First thing he did was bring it to me.
Hey, here's the other helmet.
If you want to take a look at it, I looked at it.
Everything was good.
I handed it back to him, said that helmet is good to go.
That was it.
There was, there was no issue, no argument, no anything.
But yeah, but here, here again, here in a minute we'll get into, get into some more
equipment stuff.
The next change is to rule two regarding the at bat notes one and two.
These clarify continuous batting order stating that players in order to meet mandatory play
in continuous batting order, the players do not need to meet the running portion of mandatory
play.
So as long as they get in at bat, basically they're good.
If they get on base, they can be pulled out for a pinch runner, something like that.
They do not have to meet the running requirement for mandatory play.
I'm going to skip the biggest one for the moment and you'll see why here in a minute.
The next to last one I want to talk about, it's last on my list because I'm skipping
the other one.
Rule 3.17.
I don't know how I feel about this guys.
This one allows a team to use one way communication to the catcher while the team is on defense.
So basically they are allowing Little League now to use, I know one of the systems out
there is called PitchCom, but it's not catcher to pitcher, it's manager to catcher.
So the manager can select which pitch to give to, to sign to the pitcher.
I don't like it.
Let's just put it that way.
This is Little League for crying out loud.
Little League.
I mean seriously, why do we need PitchCom in Little League?
Not only that, but now it's going to be an added expense to the teams because you know
for a fact every team is going to have to have this.
In fact I was talking about this the other day with one of my coworkers at my day job
and he said, I believe his nephew was in T-Ball.
Maybe moving up to Farm League this year, I'm not sure.
But he said, well you know how many teams around here are going to have that?
I looked right at him and I said, well all it's going to take is one.
One team is going to, you know one of the coaches or the managers is going to go and
buy this equipment on their own dime and then every team in the league is going to have
it.
They're going to have to have it.
Well this team has it.
We need it too.
So I mean you may have a bunch of managers and coaches that will chip in themselves to
buy it, but I see it being more of an added expense on the players and the parents.
You know to be able to afford this kind of technology, I'm not sure what PitchCom goes
for price wise.
Let's see PitchCom right there.
Just Googling it real quick here.
But yeah I, and the other thing that I don't like is you're taking more of the game out
of the catcher's hands.
You know I kind of like the catcher deciding, hey what pitch are we going to throw next?
You're taking that away from them.
I don't get it.
So yeah roughly around like four to six hundred bucks is roughly what PitchCom is going for
ish depending on which version you get.
But you know just let the catcher, you're taking more of the catcher's duties away.
They don't have to think, you know okay in this situation well we just threw this pitch
and we couldn't get him to swing so what if we throw this pitch maybe he will swing at
it or the same pitch just bring it up a little or down a little or inside outside whatever.
You're taking all that thought process away from the catcher and now the manager is just
hitting a couple buttons.
The catcher says oh okay this is what they want and they sign that to the pitcher.
I don't know and again this is Little League.
I mean I get the fact that okay yes Major League Baseball is using it.
You know I think you've got some high school and college teams using it so it's good to
get you know get everybody used to using it.
I just don't like it.
I really don't.
So with that said let's move on to the last update that I have to talk about and this
is the big big change in my opinion to rule 3.01.
The change to rule point 3.01 removes umpire responsibility to check equipment pre-game
placing that responsibility on the team manager.
So no more going over to each dugout and looking at everybody's equipment.
You don't have to look at bats anymore.
You don't have to check helmets anymore.
You don't have to check the catcher's gear anymore.
Now if illegal equipment is found I'll get this out of the way first before I go on my
rant.
If illegal equipment is found both the manager and the player using the illegal equipment
they are both ejected.
Not only are they ejected from that game they are also suspended from the next physically
played game by that team.
They cannot be in the stands.
They can't be in the dugout.
They cannot be on game property during that suspension game.
Okay so the good part of this is it removes the umpire's liability if an injury happens
due to faulty equipment.
So if a batter gets hit in the head by a pitch and gets a concussion and it's determined
that the concussion was more than likely caused by a big old crack in the player's helmet
that is no longer my fault as the umpire.
I now have no liability for that.
I mean it's good because now the family can't sue me for medical bills saying oh well you
looked at his helmet and you said it was fine and it turns out it had a big crack in it
and now he's got a concussion all these hospital bills and this and the other thing.
So here's your lawsuit Mr. umpire or Miss umpire.
It removes that so we're no longer liable.
It's now the coach's job.
However I don't like it.
I don't like it one bit.
Because it gives me less to do so it gives me more time to walk the field you know whatnot
and just get ready for the game.
Like I said in a previous episode I like to get there at least a half an hour early and
sometimes I really don't get a chance to walk the field because I've got so much other stuff
going on.
So this this takes out at least 10 minutes depending on how thorough you you were with
your examinations.
But this frees up five to ten minutes a time.
Now that's not to say that you now can get to the field five or ten minutes later than
you normally would.
No no no.
At least a half hour early.
Sometimes when you want to be there some umpires are there an hour early.
I usually arrange anywhere between half hour to 45 minutes before the game.
And that's simply because the games usually start at 530.
I get out of work at 430.
Takes me some time to you know I change into my my gear my uniform right at my job.
Change there jump in the truck.
That's five minutes down to the field or two minutes to the field depending on which of
the two fields I'm working.
Either the YMCA field or the Knights of Columbus field.
You know so so there's that.
The reason I don't like this is because what if there are safety deficiencies in the gear
like the helmet or the catcher's helmet has a couple of screws loose for the for the face
guard or for the yeah you know I'm talking about.
You know the actual bar mask portion of the helmet.
Yeah you put it on the managers.
But I can't tell you in the last two years how many managers I've had to go to during
my pregame equipment inspection and tell them hey that catcher's helmet needs a dangling
throat guard.
And the manager is looking at me like I'm speaking Japanese to him.
No offense to the Japanese.
But they had no idea that that the catcher's mask had to have a dangling throat guard.
No idea.
Oh well gee I don't even think we have one.
I actually had to loan my spare dangling throat guard to I believe was one of the brewer teams
one day because they didn't have one.
They flat out didn't have one.
That's why I keep a spare one in my gear bag.
I told the coach hey you got to have a dangling throat guard on your catcher's mask and I
got kind of that deer in the headlights look.
And oh well gee I well let me look.
So they look around the dugout look through all the equipment everything then comes back
and says yeah we don't have one.
Like what are we going to do?
I gotcha.
I went to my gear bag at the tower grabbed my spare and gave it to him said here throw
this on there.
And he made a point after the game to seek me out and give it back to me and thank me
for allowing them to use it.
To be perfectly honest I had forgotten at that point that I even let them use it.
I mean if he had just left and taken it with him honestly I wouldn't have cared.
I really wouldn't have.
You know what now he's got it for the rest of his games.
Doesn't matter to me I'll go buy another one.
Not a big deal.
But yeah I don't like this change.
I mean I do like that it frees up some umpire time.
It takes liability off of the umpire if an injury happens or something like that.
But oh boy.
Here's a question for you out there listening and I want you to answer this honestly.
If you want send me an email with your answer.
Blu Crew Diaries at gmail.com.
If you're listening to this podcast episode on YouTube leave a comment down in the comment
section below the video.
What are your thoughts on your standing behind the catcher at the plate.
A batter comes up with a let's just say you're working majors so only USA baseball bats can
be used and a player walks up with a BP core bat or a player walks up with a BPF bat.
You're standing there behind the catcher.
How likely are you as the umpire to notice that there is no USA baseball sticker on that
bat.
How likely are you to notice that?
Me personally I think it would be fairly difficult to see that.
Especially if the bat is turned the right way so the logo is facing away from you and
towards the pitcher.
How likely are you to notice that?
How likely are you to notice a big old crack in the helmet especially when the helmet is
now covered in stickers?
That's my problem.
So you may see that this bat is illegal but whereas before like this the beginning of
this season the first game I threw out like three or four bats that weren't legal.
Very first game of the season or the first two games I worked I threw out a couple of
bats.
Then the minors game that I worked a couple days later I threw out a bat there.
How you know back back before this rule change sorry I just hit the mic a little bit.
Back before this rule change you would see that hey this is a BB Corp bat.
Hey manager can I talk to you for a second please?
This is a majors division game.
Only USA bats can be used.
This is a BB Corp bat.
This is an illegal bat.
This cannot be used in the game.
Okay not a problem.
The bat disappears out of the dugout.
Moving on.
Now with this rule change you don't have that.
Batter steps into the box.
If you somehow notice after the first pitch hey that looks like all right time.
Player can I see that bat please?
Oh look a BB Corp bat.
Okay you're gone.
Manager in the coaches box you're gone.
And you just ejected two players for something that should have been caught or would have
been caught in the dugout before the game before this rule change.
How do you feel about that?
I have never in my two seasons of umpiring Little League Baseball I have never ejected
anyone.
Now yes I should have ejected a coach like three freaking times already.
But I'm too nice of a guy for that.
So for me to eject a player and a manager for something as I don't want to say something
as stupid but something as as little as a bat that doesn't meet the proper specifications.
That would just that would just kill me as a person.
Like this this bat never should have been out on the field and yet here it is and oh
man now I got to throw two people out of the game.
And suspend them from their next game because somebody didn't understand the rule.
And that's something you got to watch out for with the BPF bat is a lot of BPF bats
say U S S A on them for things like United States Softball Association or something like
that.
And you'll get parents that say oh well it says USA right there in the bat.
No no no no.
That has to be the USA baseball logo.
And you can't have a USA baseball approved bat that's also a baby Corbat or also a BPF
bat.
They don't really exist.
So anyway I'm rambling on.
I'll shut up now.
Yeah.
Let me know your thoughts on these rule changes.
As far as any of them really but especially the getting rid of the equipment pregame check
by the umpire and also removing the prohibition on jewelry.
Let me know.
Let me know what you think about that.
Let me know what you think about allowing pitch calm.
The first game that I work that I see they have they have pitch calm.
I'm probably going to be standing behind the plate crying.
Let's just be honest like come on.
This is little league.
Oh you're using pitch calm.
Oh boy.
So yeah enough of my rant.
Getting off my soapbox.
Let me know what you think.
BlueCrewDiaries at gmail.com or the comment section of the YouTube video if you're watching
us on YouTube.
As always be sure to hit that the follow button or the subscribe button on your podcast player
so you do not miss an episode.
I will be trying to get more episodes out.
Try to maybe get back on the monthly cycle like I was doing.
That is about it from here.
So as always thank you all very much for listening and I will see you on the diamond.