Little League baseball has a draft system. This is what makes the program so great. Other programs recruit little kids and try and build dynasties at their expense. Little League will have none of this. The problem comes when a kid is drafted onto a team that he does not want to be on or, more likely, his parents don’t want him to play on.

It has been my experience, kids just want to play ball. They really don’t care where or for whom other than in extreme situations. It is not unusual to find players from opposing teams playing together minutes after a tough defeat or great victory. They don’t really care who won. Of course winning is supposed to be taught in the competitive divisions, but it is not the only thing to be learned.

Enter the parents. What is a board to do when a player’s parents request off a team? What if the next year 4 players want off a team because they want to play together? Initially, one would tend to instantly go along w/ the request. But what if that causes one team to be substantially better than another? How is that fair to all of the kids in the league? Should one team be stacked because a bunch of parents want their kids to play together?

Enter the Little League draft system. The most effective means of countering this problem? Using the draft system, the best players are evenly distributed among all the teams. Is it perfect? no. But it is by far the best system out there, as long as it is not undermined by the kids.

Therefore, there really is only one solution to a player requesting to be released from a team that he or she was drafted to. To protect the integrity of the system, the request must be denied. Will the player quit? Maybe, but isn’t that the parents fault and not the kids? You do not always get what you want, isn’t that just as valuable a lesson to teach a kid as how to slide or accept defeat? I believe it is.

Parents, please respect the draft system and work within it. We owe it to all the children.