Beacon Hill House Rules Minors & Majors Divisions

• All Beacon Hill Minor and Major teams must abide by these IN PARK (Beacon Hill vs Beacon Hill) rules. Interlock rules for interlock games. 
• Coaches may not wear shorts after 30 minutes before or during games. 
• No open toe or heel shoes are permitted. 
• All coaches, managers and umpires must review the safety rules for Little League Baseball and abide by them. https://www.littleleague.org/playing-rules/appendices/appendix-b/
• If a team shows up to the park with less than 9 players (or a player is hurt during a game or must leave early rendering a team short,) then the opposing team must lend a defensive player or players as necessary to play. *All A.P. / call up / sub players from other teams, must bat at the bottom of the order, and are not permitted to pitch or catch – no exceptions. This should not be an issue.
• Continuous batting order will be used.
• One coach must always remain in the team dugout inside the field with the players, including in between innings. 
• PARENTS ARE NOT PERMITTED IN THE DUGOUT OR ON-FIELD AREA BEFORE OR DURING GAMES (field set up excluded). Players go to their parents, not the other way around. Players cannot sit with parents, wander, etc. We are responsible for players and must know where they are always. Basically, bathroom or with the team.
• All games shall be played in accordance with the rules of Little League  Baseball except those noted within this document.  https://www.littleleague.org/playing-rules/rules-regulations-policies/

Home and visiting team responsibilities:

• Home teams provide field prep (rake, bases, and lines use the chalking machine setting two (not three) – the middle release lever setting) and a scorekeeper /pitch count. They run the scoreboard as well – scorekeepers must be in the clubhouse and scoreboard operations can work from their team bleachers accessible to umpires (usually two work together for this).
• The green field covers should be folded up and placed on cart and stored behind the 1st base bullpen out of the way.
• Visiting teams must provide a scorekeeper in the booth – scorekeeping must be in the clubhouse and accessible to umpires.
• Games cannot proceed without one scorekeeper from each team in the clubhouse for the entirety of the game.
• Visiting teams are responsible for putting away the bases, raking, shutting off the scoreboard, and locking all buildings at the end of the game or the end of the day/night. If no coach is physically there to hand this off to it falls on you, even if you think they are coming (ie its 2:30 and you know there is a practice or game at 4:30, if the next coach is not there you must lock up and put everything away unless you have absolute confirmation they are on their way). Please ensure this happens and that the bases are put away and the storage room and clubhouse is locked (at Hollywood, Brooke, and Pemberton).

Pitching – more detail

• Majors will follow LL Canada rules on pitching all year, including playoffs.
• Minors will be working with a two-inning maximum for all pitchers until the May Long Weekend. Any part of an inning counts as a full inning. Then we will follow LL Canada rules until the end of the season, including playoffs.
• If a player plays the position of catcher for 4 innings in a game, they cannot pitch. This is a little league rule. Any player who has played the position of catcher in four or more innings is not eligible to pitch on that calendar day. A pitcher who delivers 41 or more pitches in a game cannot play the position of catcher for the remainder of that day.
• A player who played the position of catcher for three (3) innings or less, moves to the pitcher position, and delivers 21 pitches or more (15- and 16-year-olds: 31 pitches or more) in the same day, may not return to the catcher position on that calendar day.

Stealing

• Stealing – stealing is allowed, but no lead-offs (if a runner leads off, he will be sent back to the base or if called out on the ensuing play, he is out, i.e. won’t be sent back). Once the ball reaches the plate, the player on base can steal. When the pitcher is on the mound and the catcher is in their box, the runner cannot steal. Especially for Minors - let’s not get all technical about the pitcher being on his rubber. If he’s on the mound and has the ball, the runner has to return to his base.
• Stealing Home – stealing of all bases is permitted. However, particularly for minors, if you would like to make an agreement before the game with the other coach not to steal home, or to wait until two outs before stealing home please decide this together prior to the start of the game and let the umpire know.
• Stealing on a Walk – technically, on a walk, if the pitcher is not on his mound, the player can steal second. 
• Majors has drop third strike rule, Minors does not.
• Minors has a three run maximum 
• Majors has a four run maximum.
• Batters – Please teach your players to step out of the way of the play after each pitch when there is a player on third base who might be trying to steal home. It gets dangerous when a batter is standing there, ready to hit and a player is running in from third. Also highly likely the batter will become interference. All runners must slide at home plate if there is going to be a play at the plate. This is a safety issue to avoid collisions, balls in face etc.

APPROVED BATS:

• Only bats with the USA Baseball certification can be used for games AND practices, and only 2 ¼” or 2 5/8” (No 2 ¾” bats). No tee ball bats are permitted in minors. This information should be reinforced with parents and players. No exceptions. One warning will be issued after which any further illegal bat use, or attempt to do so, will result in the ejection of the head coach.
• https://www.littleleague.org/playing-rules/bat-rules/

Umpires

• Coaches cannot tell an umpire what to do, they must form a review as a question. Be respectful and do not intimidate the umpires. It is easy to make a mistake – help each other make it fair for the kids.
• We use youth umpires for Minors games, many are umping for the first time. Please be understanding and respectful of the boys/girls in blue and model this for your players both in the words you say and your body language (i.e. throwing up your hands, eye rolls, all that stuff gets picked up on by your players).

Game Duration

• MINORS: You will rarely get all six innings completed so at some point a decision will need to be made on the last inning. Especially early in the season, pitching is a key factor. The rule is that a new inning cannot be started if 1 hour and 45 minutes has passed since the game started. So, if your game started at 6:00pm, you can’t start a new inning after 7:45pm. To make sure that the last inning is played properly (top and bottom) a decision will need to be made between coaches (and umpires) about which inning is indeed the last inning. It’s not that unusual for games to only go 4 innings, especially early in the season.
• Tip: if the game is going very slow, check your watch after about 1 hour and 30 minutes and if at the start of an inning you feel, in consultation with the other coach and umpire, you can’t get the inning done before reaching the 1 hour and 45-minute mark, you may decide to make that the last inning and hence the modified open inning rules will kick in. Please don’t rely on the youth umpires to notice the time and get this conversation going. Many of them don’t wear watches. It’s the responsibility of the COACHES to keep an eye on this and to initiate the conversation. 
• The last inning is modified open as declared by the umpire. The visiting team can score 3 runs if tied or ahead OR can score as many runs as possible to go ahead by 3 if behind. The home team can score enough to win. Or 3 outs. Whichever comes first.

• MAJORS: Must complete six innings unless it becomes unsafe to do so

Playoffs

• Rankings are based on wins, then head-to-head, then run differential.
• When there are 4 teams in the division: At the end of the play downs, semi-finals are 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd. Top seed will have home advantage, including for the final championship game.
• When there are 5 teams in the division: At the end of the play downs, the 5th place team is eliminated. Semi-finals are 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd. Top seed will have home advantage, including for the final championship game.