4 y/o – Cap League (Spring)

Cap league serves to introduce a child to a baseball field.  There are 5 – 7 kids placed on each team.  Each team meets on Saturdays for 1 hour.  Each team is coached by parent volunteers. They spend ˝ hour practicing and ˝ hour playing a game against another team.  No score is kept.  They learn to hit a [soft] ball off a tee, run to a base after they hit, and how to get to home plate to score a run.   On defense they learn a ready position and how they can record an out.  Each team meets approximately 6 – 8 times.

5 – 6 y/o – T-Ball (Spring and Fall)

T-ball aims to teach kids how to swing a bat, throw, catch, and record outs around the baseball diamond.  Each child’s ability to throw, catch, and hit is evaluated.  The Vice – President for T-ball uses the evaluations for constructing teams.  There is no draft.  The goal is to place an equal number of 5 y/o and 6 y/o on a team.  There are 9 – 11 players on a team.

During the Spring teams practice once per week and play one weekday game and a game every Saturday.  Each team plays approximately 14 – 16 games during the Spring season.  A game is 4 innings long and the score is kept.  A soft baseball is used in T-ball.  Each team is coached by parent volunteers.

Fall T-ball is on Sundays only.  There are no practices, just one game per week and score is not kept

7 – 8 y/o – Machine Pitch (Spring and Fall)

In machine pitch (MP) kids learn to hit a moving [hard] baseball.  In games a coach manually feeds a pitching machine which is placed 40 ft from home plate.  The machine speed is set so that the ball crosses at 32 mph.  At this age kids continue to learn to throw, catch, and play defense. 

Each child’s ability to throw, catch, and hit is evaluated.  The Vice – President for MP uses the evaluations for constructing teams.  There is no draft.  The goal is to place an equal number of 7 y/o and 8 y/o on a team.  There are 10 – 11 players on a team.

During the Spring teams practice once per week and play one weekday game and a game every Saturday.  Each team plays approximately 14 – 16 games during the Spring season.  A game is 5 innings long and the score is kept.  A hard baseball is used in MP.  Each team is coached by parent volunteers.

9 y/o – Kid Pitch (Spring and Fall)

At 9 years of age kids begin to pitch.  Balls and strikes are called and base runners can steal bases.  Similar to Tball, 9 y/o is an age where a lot of learning and baseball development takes place.

Each child’s ability to throw (pitch), catch, and hit is evaluated by coaches in that age group.  The VP for that age group then leads the coaches through a player draft.  The numbers of players/team is dependent on the total number of registrants.

During the Spring teams practice once per week and play one weekday game and a game every Saturday.  Each team plays approximately 12 - 14 games during the Spring season.  A game is 6 innings long and the score is kept.  The total # of pitch thrown by each player is monitored according to HPYBL pitch count rules (see rules). Each team is coached by parent volunteers.

10 y/o – Kid Pitch (Spring and Fall)

Baseball at age 10 is a continuation of the previous year.  Balls and strikes are called and base runners can steal bases.  The main difference is that the game speeds up in comparison to 9 y/o.

Each child’s ability to throw (pitch), catch, and hit is evaluated by coaches in that age group.  The VP for that age group then leads the coaches through a player draft.  The numbers of players/team is dependent on the total number of registrants.

During the Spring teams practice once per week and play one weekday game and a game every Saturday.  Each team plays approximately 12 - 14 games during the Spring season.  A game is 6 innings long and the score is kept.  The total # of pitch thrown by each player is monitored according to HPYBL pitch count rules (see rules). Each team is coached by parent volunteers.

11/12 y/o – kid pitch (Spring)

11 and 12 years old play together in HPYBL.  The pitching distance and base-path length increase.  Real baseball rules are played as baserunners can lead and steal bases without waiting for the ball to cross home plate. 

If players have not been previously evaluated then their ability to throw (pitch), catch, and hit is evaluated by coaches in that age group.  The VP for that age group then leads the coaches through a player draft.  Each age group is drafted separately aiming to get an even number of 11 and 12 y/o’s on each team. The numbers of players/team is dependent on the total number of registrants.

During the Spring teams practice once per week and play one weekday game and a game every Saturday.  Each team plays approximately 12 - 14 games during the Spring season.  A game is 6 innings long and the score is kept.  The total # of pitch thrown by each player is monitored according to HPYBL pitch count rules (see rules). Each team is coached by parent volunteers.

13/14 y/o (Spring)

13 and 14 y/o move from a small field to a big field.  This level of play serves as a development stage for playing on a full size, major league, baseball field.  The Homewood High School are directly involved in the development of these players.  During the first 1/3 of the season all players practice together, approximately 3 times per week.  The middle 1/3 of the season consists of regular season baseball games, no practices.  Finally, the months of May and June are designated for more competitive/travel/all-star baseball.  Any player who wishes to play on a competitive/all-star team will have the opportunity to do so.  14 y/o boys who play on the Homewood Middle School baseball team will have an opportunity to play in the park once the middle school season is complete. 


15 – 18 y/o (Spring)

15 – 18 y/o play on a big league field with big league rules.  Similar to 11 - 14 y/o they play by real baseball rules.  Participation in this age determines the number of teams and how teams are selected.  The age group VP waits for HHS junior varsity and varsity tryouts to be completed before finalizing teams in this age group.  HPYBL 13/14 teams play regular season games at West Homewood Park, as well as, at other Birmingham area parks. 

During the Spring teams practice once per week and play 1 -2 games per week.  Each team plays approximately 12 - 14 games during the Spring season.  A game is 7 innings long and the score is kept.  Each team is coached by parent volunteers.