There are lots of strategies for T-ball game management. Do you play all players in a clump? Do you play them all in the infield? Do you really enforce OUTS? Here are my thoughts.
Positions
Play them all in correct positions. After every two or three batters rotate the positions. Have the pitcher go to catch, have the catcher go to RF, RF to CF, CF to LF, LF to 3B, 3B to SS, SS to 2B, 2B to 1B, and 1B to P.
Practice this and make sure it can be done in the time it takes the other team to get a new batter up. If you take longer, everyone will hate you.
The reason to rotate is that there is absolutely nothing going on in the outfield so this sort of makes it so something is going on.
Between innings, have assistants ready to go to roll balls to fielders so they at least do something.
Time of Games
Keep T-ball games VERY SHORT. Maybe 2 innings is good. You’ll face some coaches that are thrilled by the whole thing and after two say, “Hey Coach, wanna play one more?”
The right answer is, “NO.”
The players are generally done after two innings, so let it be, have a good snack, and use practice to really teach the game.
If it was up to me, there would be no T-ball games, as I don’t see much learning happening. But alas, everyone thinks the kids love the games. I guess they do — I didn’t see too much of it, but so be it. I saw kids picking at grass and kicking dirt as a T-ball game really has nothing going on.
Batting
While batting, make sure you have 2-3 bench coaches to get kids ready to bat, helmets on, bat selected, and ready to go. Make sure no kid picks up a bat until it is their turn to bat. There is no on-deck circle in little league, so no need to start pretending there is one in T-ball. There isn’t and it’d be a safety hazard if there was one.
I recommend moving the T around a little to make it so your batters don’t just hit the ball to the pitcher. Make sure you work with batters in practice so they don’t sit around and miss the ball for 40 swings. This really slows the game down.
Please play real OUTS. If the other team gets your player out, have your player return to the bench. If you get a player out, encourage the other coach to agree to have that player return to the dugout. There’s nothing worse than having your team work on getting someone out, pulling off the miracle it takes to get them out, and then the other team says, “Yeah, I know its the rules, but we aren’t gonna do that as it’ll make our players sad.” Kids get over it fast and you are missing a huge teaching opportunity and taking an out away from the defense is really sad.
Snacks
Finally, make sure there is a really good snack after the game.
