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The Federation League "expanded" this season, despite reducing the number of teams from 10 to nine.

The "expansion" came from the games going from seven innings to nine. The schedule has also been expanded from 27 games in 2004 to 32 in the regular season this summer -- each team plays the other eight four times.

"Going to nine innings was discussed before the season last year, but we couldn't come to an agreement, so it was dropped," Greentree manager Bob Bartell said.

"We looked at this issue again for this season after some of the managers who were around last year were no longer around and we were able to convince some of the new guys coming into the league that this is a pretty good idea."

Bartell, St. Johns Lambros manager Tom McCarthy and Mt. Lebanon manager George Strasbaugh were the veteran coaches who pushed for the additional two innings per game.

Strasbaugh believes this significant change is comparable to the change the league made five years ago when it went from metal to wooden bats.

"A lot of the people who are complaining about playing nine innings, were the same people who complained about going to wooden bats," Strasbaugh said. "When we went to wood, some people said each team was going to break at least five or six bats every game. But that didn't happen.

"You don't hear much complaining about the league's use of wooden bats any more because we're playing baseball the way it was intended."

One of the residual effects in going from metal to wood has been shorter games.

"When we played with aluminum, the games were taking about 2 1/2 hours because both teams were scoring a lot of runs," Strasbaugh said. "In the past five years when the scores have gone way down, we've been playing seven-inning games in less than an hour-and-a-half and sometimes less."

Games that begin at 6 p.m. are not allowed to start an inning after 8:30.

"For the past few years, we've been walking off the field at 7:30 or quarter to eight and we're still leaving about a whole hour of daylight, Strasbaugh said.

"To only play two more innings, which baseball is supposed to be, it hasn't been much of a stretch. People have been concerned about not having enough time to play, but we have had enough time."

Strasbaugh said only two Mt. Lebanon games out of the first 20 have been halted before the ninth inning due to darkness. Both were due to special circumstances.

"We only got in eight innings against South Hills when the game was delayed a long time when one of the players was injured in the middle of the game," Strasbaugh said.

"We also came up an inning short against C.I.T. last week when the game only got started at quarter to seven because of a rain delay. Otherwise, we haven't had any problem playing nine."

While those favoring nine innings believe it has been a plus for the league, there are some who are adamantly opposed.

"I don't like it personally," said Steve Wolota, 20th Ward player/coach. "It's going to start getting dark earlier and I just don't think it's going to make the league any better. We're going to end up with guys who don't usually pitch, throwing in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, which definitely isn't helping the league at all.

"I have no idea why they wanted to go to nine. I'm really not sure."

South Hills player/coach Jimmy Lowen echoed Wolota's sentiments.

"With not too many guys on our team coming out of a college season, none of my guys are ready to go that amount of innings," Lowen said. "It's just been a horrible situation. It's a bad idea.

"There are too many games and the games are too long. They want to make this some sort of collegiate league, so these kids don't run off and play somewhere else. Over the course of two months, we're playing almost as much baseball as the Wild Things, who are getting paid to play."

Former Wild Things infielder Jason Foreman, who now plays for St. John's, also believes nine-inning games are "pushing it" for many players.

"Baseball was my life [as a college and professional player], but there's all kinds of other things on my priority list," Foreman said. "I liked it better when it was seven innings.

"To play nine innings with the amount of games we play, is kind of ridiculous. With people who work, it's hard to get the games completed by 8:30 when you can't start until 6 o'clock. A lot of people just don't have the time."

"I like playing nine innings because you can get more pitchers into the game," Bartell said. "If you have two or three pitchers come to a game, last year you could have one pitcher throw the entire game. But this year, very seldom will you get a complete game out of one person because of the nine innings. It gets more players involved. I think all-around it's better for the league.

"Although I understand some of the players are not happy about it. When the games drag on until it's practically dark, you then have a safety concern. We put this out there to see everyone's reaction. If most of the players are not satisfied with it, maybe it shouldn't be done."

"It would be nice [to play nine innings in the playoffs], but from a safety standpoint, we might not be able to do it," Bartell said. "No one wants to run the risk of a kid getting hit by a ball that you can't see properly because it's too dark."