Okay, so today I’m gonna chat about something I’ve been messing with – getting my kid’s baseball pitching distance right for 8U.
It all started ’cause I was watching practice, and something just looked off. The kids were all over the place, and I’m like, “Is that even the right distance?” So, naturally, I dove down the rabbit hole of Little League rules and regulations.
First things first: I had to figure out the official distance. A quick search showed me that for 8U baseball, the pitching distance is supposed to be 46 feet. Alright, got it. Simple enough, right? Wrong!
Next, I needed to actually measure it. I grabbed a tape measure from my garage – the kind you use for home improvement projects. I went down to the field one evening when nobody was around. I started at the back of home plate. Then stretched that sucker out toward the pitching rubber. Here’s where things got a little tricky.
- Finding the Right Spot: The pitching rubber wasn’t exactly… new. It was kinda worn down, and I wasn’t sure where the front was supposed to be. I ended up eyeballing it, which I know isn’t ideal.
- Keeping it Straight: Trying to hold a long tape measure perfectly straight across a baseball field in even slight wind is a pain. I probably looked like a total doofus.
- Confirming Home Plate: Making sure that I was starting from the very back point of home plate was hard.
After what felt like forever of adjusting and re-measuring, I marked the spot. Then, I stepped back and looked at it. Honestly? It still looked a little off. I measured again, and again, and again. Each time, I got a slightly different result by an inch or two. I was getting a little frustrated.
To double-check, I asked the coach about it the next day. He shrugged and said they usually just paced it off. Paced it off?! That’s not exactly scientific! But, he was cool about it and we remeasured together. He had a better sense of where the rubber should be, so we tweaked my mark a little. It ended up being about a foot shorter than where I originally had it! Whoops.
So, lesson learned? Don’t just assume the field is set up correctly. And maybe invest in a better measuring tape. And for crying out loud, have the coach check it! It’s not just about the rules. It’s about the kids learning the game correctly, building good habits, and having fair play. It’s a minor tweak. But I felt better knowing we got it as close to right as we could. Now if I could just get my kid to throw strikes…
