Babe Ruth league vs. Pony League

Been a while since my son played and the rules may have changed... but we had the choice of Little League and PONY in our town and chose LL because of the lead-off rule differences (PONY at the time allowed for runners to lead-off at an earlier age) and because of the fact that PONY was more competitive in our town.

Babe Ruth will better prepare to adjust to the larger field. I am sure both leagues will have some benefit. Both talent levels should be equal as players are about the same ages. Remember, when a kid moves up to the larger field, so do all the rest of the kids in the league. I have had kids play Pony in the past and got a false sense of dimensions and they were pretty overwhelmed when they moved up. That can be said for L.L. to Babe Ruth. I would also look into the quality of the talent and the coaching and instruction for each in your area. Good luck.

The Pony field/league prepares kids for HS ball if you start there at 11 - 12 years old. You get a slightly bigger field, HS type rules and the kids learn alot. AAU programs use that size field and NFHS rules and there is a much smaller learning curve when they turn 13 and hit the big diamond. Most of these players are better prepared than the kids coming from LL.

I think once you get to be 13 then you should just get on the full size diamond. If there's a choice of Pony or Babe Ruth and you're 13, then go with BR. I guess if the kid is tiny and weak or not very baseball savvy, then maybe Pony would be ok, but they're gonna have to make the adjustment anyway, so why not just do it once and be done with it.

You have to look at the competition. In our area the PONY league is one of the best in the nation. The Babe Ruth is relatively weak. In other areas I'm sure it is a different story.

I agree that when players are younger, Pony provides much of an advantage IMO. The field is larger and the kids learn "real" techniques. When you take a kid that has played Pony vs. LL or Cal Ripken, the Pony kids are much better prepared for their 13 yo year. However after the 13 yo year in Babe Ruth, those kids learn the skils that Pony kids already possessed, plus they get to get use to a bigger field at that time than a 13 yo pony field would provide.

I like dad10's suggestion completely. However, there are differences between leagues in various areas which can affect decisions greatly.

We're very fortunate in our area to have all three leagues to choose from with the younger kids, however at 13 there are no Pony leagues - only BR, LL, and travel.