PONY league baseball dates back to the summer of 1951, when organizers in Washington, Pennsylvania, established the youth baseball league to help kids grow into productive adults. The name PONY stands for “Protect Our Nation’s Youth,” and the organization still prides itself on providing children with a safe, fun athletic activity. In official PONY league tournaments, children 13 and 14 years of age qualify as PONY, while other age groups use horse names such as Colt, Shetland and Palomino. PONY tournaments follow most standard baseball rules, although they do follow some slight changes in substitution protocol.
Roster Replacements
Once a PONY team presents its official roster to the tournament director, the team may not replace a player on the roster except for illness or injury. In order to get a replacement, PONY teams must present the tournament director with a physician’s written certification declaring the reasons for the replacement. The team will then pick a replacement player from all legal and eligible players who competed in the league that season. Rules prohibit a player from competing for two PONY tournament teams in the same season or from being replaced and then returning to the team for the same tournament season.
Pitching
PONY tournament pitchers may not throw more than seven innings in any single calendar day. However, if the player’s team plays more than one game in a single calendar day, the pitcher may throw in each contest provided he doesn’t throw more than seven total innings. If a pitcher throws at least four consecutive innings on the same day, he may not pitch another day until resting for at least 40 hours. Rules also prohibit PONY pitchers from throwing more than 16 innings in any single round of tournament play.
Starters
Any starting PONY league player may be removed from the lineup and return one time each game. However, the player must return to his original place in the batting order. Rules prohibit any substitutions from changing the original batting order of the other starting players. Pitchers may also be removed from the game and re-enter the lineup as a hitter, but they may not return to pitch.
Injuries
In case of injury, PONY teams may substitute a healthy replacement even if the team has run out of eligible bench players. Once a team’s final replacement player enters the game, the manager must inform the umpires the player exiting the game is his last player removed from the lineup. If an injury occurs, the aforementioned “last player” will be allowed to re-enter the game as a legal substitute. This player will assume the batting position of the injured player, even if the substitute originally held a different position in the batting order.
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