The irony is that you are the only one who insinuated that LL was the "crowning jewel".

Raiderbird, I think you are looking at this from too much of a NKY perspective. No, LL is not particularly strong in this area and never has been. NKY has been dominated by knothole and SWOL. LL, other than the very young levels (machine pitch, coach pitch, 9/10) never really found its niche up here. But such is not true in other parts of the country. They are many areas where LL is "the" game and all the best players from that particular area play in that league. However, even the best individual LL teams in those areas may not match up with the better select travel teams because LL accepts all players and tries to balance out the competitiveness of teams in their league. But when you make up an all-star team of players from all the LL teams in that particular league, you have a team that could very much compete with most any select travel team. Valley Sports is indeed a case in point, as was earlier pointed out. Not sure about now, but a few years ago LL was very popular in the Louisville area when players like Alvey and Osbourne played there. I got to see them pitch firsthand when they were 12/13 - they were the real deal. As good as any 12 year old you'd find up here on any SWOL team. So while you're correct that LL here in NKY at the older age levels in not the same quality of baseball overall as SWOL, you can't simply apply that statement with such a broad brush for LL across the entire country.

Raiderbird, I think you are looking at this from too much of a NKY perspective. No, LL is not particularly strong in this area and never has been. NKY has been dominated by knothole and SWOL. LL, other than the very young levels (machine pitch, coach pitch, 9/10) never really found its niche up here. But such is not true in other parts of the country. They are many areas where LL is "the" game and all the best players from that particular area play in that league. However, even the best individual LL teams in those areas may not match up with the better select travel teams because LL accepts all players and tries to balance out the competitiveness of teams in their league. But when you make up an all-star team of players from all the LL teams in that particular league, you have a team that could very much compete with most any select travel team. Valley Sports is indeed a case in point, as was earlier pointed out. Not sure about now, but a few years ago LL was very popular in the Louisville area when players like Alvey and Osbourne played there. I got to see them pitch firsthand when they were 12/13 - they were the real deal. As good as any 12 year old you'd find up here on any SWOL team. So while you're correct that LL here in NKY at the older age levels in not the same quality of baseball overall as SWOL, you can't simply apply that statement with such a broad brush for LL across the entire country.

 

I agree Coop..I was just stating of what I know from the Greater Cincinnati area..Across the country or Louisville I have no clue..