Last year, Warren Bottino hoped to find a place for his son to play some extra baseball during the fall in order to prepare for the move up to live-arm pitching.
"Carson Valley Little League wasn't running a fall league, but I wanted to get my son some more experience so I called up Carson City and they let me put a little team together from kids down here," Bottino said.
The response in the Valley was instant.
Bottino's team quickly grew to 18 players, although it later trimmed back down to 14 as the season progressed.
This year, Bottino and the rest of Carson Valley Little League are taking the first steps toward setting up a complete independent fall league in the Valley.
"This year we're just seeing if we have enough interest to run a league independently," Bottino. "We're going to work with Carson for this season and do some home and away games. We're hoping to have about four teams from down here.
"We'll let it grow from there."
Perhaps the largest different between fall ball and regular spring Little League, Bottino said, is the focus is shifted primarily to player development.
"It's truly a developmental league," Bottino said. "Kids that want to work on specific things or try new positions, they get that opportunity. Kids just get more exposure to the game.
"For the fall, we really try to take the focus off the competitiveness of the game and give kids a chance to really have some fun and learn."
Among the concepts Bottino is hoping to bring to the growing league are everyone hitting through the order every inning, free substitution, players spending no more than two innings at any one position and allowing only five runs counted per inning.
Among the other things would be to discourage stealing home at the younger levels.
"It went pretty well last year," Bottino said. "The group I got was a really nice mix of kids that were there to learn and grow and others who had a lot of previous experience. They were able to teach the kids of less experience and it was beneficial all the way around."
Bottino distributed information on the fall league at the end of the spring season.
"It appeared as though there was a true general interest for this," he said. "We might surprise ourselves and get a lot more than four teams out of the deal, but whatever we get will be great.
"The whole idea is just to keep it fun and give the kids opportunities."
The final sign-up session for the fall league is Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Douglas County Senior Center, 2300 Meadow Lane in Gardnerville.
The league is open to players between the ages of 5 and 12.
"This is for every level, from T-ball all the way through majors," Bottino said. "Depending on the final numbers, they may group some age levels together, but we want to make this available to as many players as possible."
Cost is $40 for a minimum of 12 games. Players must bring a valid, state-issued birth certificate and current utility bill with current address at the time of registration.
The season begins in September and ends in October with home games at Lampe Park and away games at Edmonds Field in Carson City.
For more information, contact Bottino at 783-6455.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
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