Having a (Safe) Ball : Upstart League Pitches Slightly Softer Approach to the Grand Ol’ Game

Down two strikes, Drew Shumate gripped his bat and swung hard at the next pitch.

Though the ball bounced with a soft thud only a few feet in front of him, parents, teammates and coaches cheered on the 10-year-old boy as if he had just hit “The Shot Heard ‘Round Laguna Niguel.”

And, in some ways, he did. Saturday marked opening day for the new Youth Baseball Athletic League, recently embraced by hundreds of parents here as an alternative to Little League baseball. On this day, every kid who made contact with the regulation polyurethane-foam-core ball was treated like a town hero.

“Atta boy, Drew!” fans cheered as he pumped his legs furiously and futilely to make the play at first base close.

The games on Saturday also ended a yearlong dispute between parents and local Little League officials over use of the so-called “safety ball.”

That dispute, which included a sometimes acrimonious debate between the Rancho Niguel Little League and parents over how dangerous traditional hardballs are to children, provided the impetus for forming a local chapter of the alternative Youth Baseball Athletic League, or YBAL.

Started in 1988 by parents in Northern California, YBAL, which stresses safety, instruction and encouragement in youth baseball, has been winning former Little League communities over ever since.

YBAL founder Chuck Alley said the league began with four teams in Palo Alto and grew to 134 teams in 16 cities throughout the Western United States.

After frustrated Little League parents in Laguna Niguel voiced concerns over potential injuries caused by traditional hardballs--which have cores of wool yarn or synthetic fiber--YBAL officials called and offered their league as an alternative.

A recent study by Michigan State University registered 73% fewer injuries among children who played with baseballs similar to those used by the new league.

Rancho Niguel Little League officials, who voted last May to keep the hardball, countered with a different study showing that softer balls--which expand on impact--cause more significant injuries to children.

Saturday, more than 250 children, ages 4 to 14, showed up at the freshly cut Rancho Capistrano Church grass field to play as members of the league’s first Southern California chapter.

“It was never about the ball,” said Jeanne Peterson, a parent helped coordinate grass-roots efforts to get YBAL established. “It’s about the attitude.”

Little League baseball, she said, was no longer fun with its “hardball” approach to the game. “Coaches would yell at the kids and so would parents,” Peterson said. “All they cared about was winning.”

Added 11-year-old Art Fohl: “You were afraid to make mistakes because everybody would be on your case.”

Alley said he founded YBAL to bring a less pressurized atmosphere back to youth baseball.

With its noncompetitive structure--scores are rarely kept and everybody bats before a team’s inning is over--YBAL is about “learning the game,” he said.

Jordan Zuckert, 10, said that approach excites him. Once a Little Leaguer, Jordan described lonely afternoons in right field where he’d mumble thoughts like: “If I could just touch the ball.”

As pitcher on Saturday, Jordan handled the ball several times and eventually beaned Art Fohl.

“It stung for about two seconds,” Art said of the ball’s impact. “Then, I forgot about it.”