District 16/31 Little League suspended all activities for the remainder of the spring season on Thursday night, but that doesn’t mean there will be no baseball or softball this year.
The district staff and 18 league presidents were unanimous in the decision to wait until Luzerne County reaches the phase-out stage in Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to open the state due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The county is set to move to the yellow phase Friday.
“Not green, we want to be in phase-out,” District 16/31 administrator Bob Bertoni said, “because there are too many restrictions (under the green phase). Our leagues are concerned. There are too many what-ifs, there are too many variables, too many unknowns during those phases. We all feel if one kid gets sick we would not want that on our shoulders. We couldn’t live with ourselves.”
Once Luzerne County reaches the phase-out stage, leagues will open registration and a regular season would begin about two weeks later. The regular season could run as late as October.
“It may be shortened, it may be condensed,” Bertoni said. “Whether it’s the end of July or we start in August and finish in at the end of September or early October, we’re going to do whatever we can to get, especially the 11- and 12-year-olds, a season.”
Bertoni said leagues are prepared to offer refunds or other options for registration fees already paid. Each league will determine what age groups it will offer baseball and softball based on participation.
Little League has fall ball in September and October, but that won’t be the case this year.
“We’re not calling it fall ball, we’re just calling it the 2020 season,” Bertoni said. “If we start in late August, we’re not going to call it fall ball because there are different rules for fall ball. We want to try to make it as normal as we can.”
Little League first suspended all activities in March until at least April 6. It later changed the date to May 11, but released a season resumption guide on May 19 as more areas of the nation began to open.
The season resumption guide covers procedures for players, coaches, umpires, officials and equipment usage. However, those procedures under the green phase would be difficult for some leagues to carry out.
“We don’t have the volunteers, we don’t have the financial resources,” Bertoni said. “A lot of leagues don’t have the manpower or the financial resources for what they are requiring.
“Taking temperatures of the kids, that requires buying thermometers. And if a league has four fields, they have to have thermometers at every field. There’s hand sanitizer and having the clean the bathrooms after somebody uses it. Clearing the field space for kids to sit so they don’t sit in the dugout. Financially, it would be a burden for a lot of our leagues.”
Pennsylvania district administrators voted on May 2 to cancel all sectional and state playoffs, allowing some leeway to starting the season on a local level late. The announcement came shortly after the Little League World Series tournaments in baseball and softball were canceled.