Preliminary tryouts for the 2012 Southern Tier Brewers 11U All-Star team will be held Sunday, November 13, 2011.  The 2012 season will begin moderately in December of 2011 and run through July of 2012.  The season will be highlighted by a tournament the first week in July of 2012 at the Cal Ripken Experience in Aberdeen, MD.  In order to try out for the team, players must be 11 years old or younger on April 30, 2012 and reside in Chautauqua County.

I often get asked whether I believe in letting younger players play up. By “playing up” I mean allowing kids to play in an age group older than where they’re supposed to play. There really is no one answer to suit everybody. Kids develop mentally and physically at different rates, so each case must be looked at on an individual basis.

If kids possess the skill sets and are mentally capable of playing with older players, in most cases I would not have a problem with playing them up. When my son Ryan was moving up through the youth baseball ranks, he played up on several of his teams, which means he was usually the youngest on his team. He’s always been big for his age and back then his skill level fit in well with the older kids he was playing with, so the experience was a good one for him....

When no one's on base, the first baseman has the same responsibilities of any other infielder: He must be ready to field a ground ball if it's hit in his direction.

A misconception is that because a first baseman's glove is different, things are done differently at that position. Not true.

Catching a ground ball is catching a ground ball, and the same fundamentals apply to the first baseman that apply to any other infielder: have a wide base, get your butt down, keep your head up and your hands out in front.

"Is the black around home plate, part of the plate? What if a catcher has a foot on black part of home plate, and there is a force at home?" - John Fanelli

That's an excellent question John. Ultimately, for the best answer, you'd have to refer to your league's rulebook, but for most things like this, other rulebooks will refer you straight to the Major League Baseball rules.

The 2011 Southern Tier Brewers 10U team has been announced. The team will travel around Western New York to face some of the best 10U talent in the state. The Southern Tier team consists of players from Bemus Area Little Leage, SWAS Baseball and Jamestown Babe Ruth League.