<p>The whole story sounds a little weird but from the facts given I have more problems with the parents than the league. Running a youth sports program you’re trying to balance a bunch of goals … get the kids active, make sure they have fun, let them play with their friends, and help them learn and develop in the game. For kids at the extreme of the skills spectrum within an age group this creates issues. If they are not as skilled as all the other kids … they don’t achieve as much success on the field and don’t improve as much. For kids at the high end dominating opponents when more equal competition is readily available (play up a year) doesn’t make much sense and it also is not very fair to the other kids in the league … who signed up for a developmental league. We do not know the specifics of the set-up but almost every youth baseball set-up I’ve seen has overlap so kids at one age can be in a couple different tracks depending on their skill level. </p>
<p>In this case, as described, the admin folks offered two options … you want to stay with your friends play other positions … you want to pitch then we’re going to have you pitch against people who can handle your pitching and you’ll have to play against older kids … OK, family pick. Then the family picked option C … which as a league administrator isn’t really fair to the other kids in the league since there are other options. Finally, I’d add as a administrator I tell parents I’d suggest you find a field where your kid will be a really solid contributor on the team … typically this conversation occurs with parents who want their kid to be on a team for which they really aren’t qualified and the kid will struggle … but occationally with a parent who wants their kid to be the big star which I would advocate isn’t even best for their kid (never mind all the other kids in the league).</p>