Little League Rule Changes for 2012

Little League International has announced rule changes to be implemented in its various divisions of baseball and softball in 2012. These include administrative policy changes, regulation changes and amendments to its playing rules for next spring and beyond. Here are a couple of highlights:

As Little League continues to make a slow transition toward so-called "real baseball," its Major League division will now play "dropped third strike." This means that, as in older divisions of baseball, a batter in the Majors division may now attempt to advance to an unoccupied first base with any amount of outs, or an occupied first base with two outs, if the catcher does not catch strike three in the air.

Documents collected for proof of residency must now be dated or in force between February 1 of the previous and current years. This means that for the 2012 season documents must be from between February 1, 2011 and February 1, 2012. A driver's licence in effect during that time would be accepted. This rule mainly applies to the All-Star Tournament season, when these documents must be presented to Little League officials for player eligibility. Parents of potential All-Star players will be wise to plan ahead and get their documents in order before the summer season.

For additional details regarding these and other rule changes, read the full announcement on the Little League website.