Little League coach Mike Jones called a time-out today to inform his team that he was raising the team's "Fielding Alert Level" to orange due to increased chatter from the opposing bench. In the bottom-of-the-sixth meeting, Jones let his team know that while there was no specific information as to what the other team was planning, their baseball chatter had reached new levels of loudness and nonsense which called for vigilance in the field.

"They're only down one run, and have a man on second with one out," Jones told the 12-year-olds in a rare infielder and outfielder meeting, "but with the number nine batter up, we've got to be looking for a bunt."

Orange is the second highest level of fielding alert below only red which is reserved for "rally cap" sightings.

On his way back to right field, outfielder Jimmy Hill said he still didn't know what he was supposed to do. "Coach is never very specific when he raises our Fielding Alert Level. It's hard to stay vigilant out here." Hill, who hasn't seen a ball hit deep to right since the third game of the season says, "It's hard to stay focused when I

"See that son? That's called a sacrifice fly. It's very much like a suicide bombing. You must always be on the lookout for things that look strange to you."

can't even see the ball from back here. After a season of 842 high-flying foul tips, I'm a little suspicious when I hear the 'ting' of an aluminum bat. I just assume it's another false alarm."

Left fielder Jason Jenkins agrees, "It is hard to know what to do, you want to do your part but are never really told how. I'm not sure if I should back up third or just continue to look over at the other field and wish I had signed up for spring soccer season."

Jones gets defensive over such scathing criticisms.

"We put a lot of time and effort into creating the alert system and now we just have to get the kids to use it. All they have to do is go to my website between innings and read the current Alert Level status and the recommendations for that particular level. If they had, then they would know that the third baseman stays put and the pitcher covers the third base side of the bunt area. If they just follow those recommendations, we'll all be looking at ice cream sundaes after the game."