2020 Little League Rule and Regulation Changes

The following is a summary of the changes between the 2020 Little League Baseball and Softball regulations and rules and their 2019 counterparts.

Also note that there is a downloadable version of this information at the bottom of the page.

Stealing Signs

The penalty related to stealing signs has been amended to read as follows:

The stealing and relaying of signs to alert the batter of pitch selection and/or location is unsportsmanlike behavior. If, in the judgment of the umpire this behavior is occurring, the team manager and those responsible including any player(s) and/or coach(es) shall be warned after the first offense. Those responsible including any player(s), coach(es), and/or manager shall be ejected from the game for a team’s subsequent offense.

Previously, the bold portion simply read:

those responsible including any player(s), coach(es), and/or manager shall be ejected from the game.

Thus, instead of an immediate ejection, the procedure is now a warning first, followed by an ejection if the action continues.

This affects:

• Rule 9.01(d) for the regular season in both baseball and softball
• Tournament rule 3(e) for baseball
• Tournament rule 3(f) for softball

Other than this, the only changes were minor alterations in the Tournament eligibility sections.

Downloadable Version of 2020 Little League Rule and Regulation Changes

To help you communicate these changes within your league or district, I have prepared a PDF version of the 2020 Little League Rule and Regulation Changes that you may hand out.

• All the changes – baseball and softball (1 page)