West Seattle Baseball

Our Vision

Our goal is to provide a comprehensive program of baseball that is noted for appealing to kids of all levels of enthusiasm and ability; for treating its players and their families in a fair and caring fashion; for rewarding effort, improvement and striving to excel over winning; for outstanding coaching, instruction and player development; and most of all, for being a fun and enjoyable program that our players, their families and their coaches want to participate in again next season.

Our Values

The objectives of the WSB shall be to firmly implant in the boys and girls of the community the ideals of good sportsmanship, honesty, loyalty, courage, and reverence so that they may be finer, stronger and happier children and will grow to be good, clean, healthy men and women.

The objectives will be achieved through providing supervised, competitive baseball and softball games. The supervisors shall keep in mind that the attainment of exceptional athletic skill and the winning of games is secondary to the above objectives and that the molding of future men and women is of prime importance.

Provide supervised competitive athletic games under the Official Baseball Rules (OBR) as issued by the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball in theSporting News Edition, except as amended in the Official PONY Baseball Rules and by amendments adopted by WSB as allowed by Official PONY Baseball Rules. The attainment of exceptional athletic skills or winning of games is secondary and the type of leadership extended to our player members is of prime importance. Provide solid training and development for our players, coaches and umpires. Treat everyone with respect and fairness. Most of all, HAVE FUN!

To paraphrase John Wooden: “We prefer wins with character rather than characters with wins.” Players should be playing to win as a team and at the highest possible level of expertise, but coaches, and parents, should bear in mind that few, if any, of your players will even play in high school, let alone college or professionally.

Fostering a Love of the Game

The majority of children (73%) never participate in organized sports after age of twelve. The most important things we hope our participating players learn with West Seattle Baseball are not how to turn a double play or develop the perfect swing, but how to be a good teammate, how to win and lose with grace and dignity (along with the lessons available from each), sportsmanship, and most importantly, how to set goals, work to achieve them, and strive to improve. What they will remember is not how many hits they got or games they won, but how much fun they had, the friends they made, and whether the adults around them provided a positive or negative influence on their character and development as people.

Why West Seattle Baseball?

We understand there are a lot of choices for baseball around Seattle. As you consider your optionss, here are some things that make West Seattle Baseball unique:

West Seattle Baseball is a member of Pony Baseball. PONY is taken from the first letters of each word in the slogan, "Protect Our Nation's Youth."  Unlike some other local leagues, we do not have any geographic boundaries restricting who can and cannot participate in our program.  Other organizations force families to play only in a league based on their home address, potentially preventing friends and neighbors from playing together. West Seattle Baseball is open to anyone who wants to play here, even if they've moved away from the community or just want to commute from beyond the neighborhood to be a part of this great league. Most WSB players naturally reside in West Seattle, but the league has also had players from Burien, Beacon Hill, Covington, Federal Way, and more neighboring areas over the years because they love the atmosphere and community so much.

Among the unique aspects of PONY are the field dimensions (base paths and pitching distance) used for play. The distances are gradually expanded as the players age into new divisions to match their growth and development as young players. Other leagues have field dimensions that do not change from tee-ball all the way to 14U!

PONY also plays more to the rules of Major League Baseball, allowing things like leading off, pick-off moves, dropped third strikes, and head-first sliding, depending on age level. Despite all being major facets of the game, most other leagues do not allow or teach them.

We also closely monitor pitch count starting in Pinto (8U) Division. It is closely watched and enforced all in the name of the players' arm health. This also allows for more kids to have an opportunity to pitch during the season.

As a result:

• Players learn base stealing and defending against it earlier than peers in other programs;
• Pitching starts sooner than in other programs;
• Kids get to start leading-off and stealing (things they all love to do, by the way) sooner.

If you have any other questions as to why West Seattle Baseball is the right home for your child's recreational baseball play, please contact the board of directors via the "Contact Us" page.