POLL: No More Saddleback Little League?

Pint-sized Dodgers and Rays took over Heroes Park this weekend for the start of the Little League season.

A decline in membership in two local leagues—Saddleback Little League and Lake Forest Little League—prompted their recent merger to one league, operating under the Lake Forest Little League moniker.

The decision to get rid of the Saddleback name altogether has angered some participants, who say that the merger disregards the history of the Saddleback league.

An online petition titled "Save Saddleback Little Leagues' name and place in Lake Forest History!" has garnered 133 signatures, mainly from people who list their home town as being in Orange County. However, others are signing in from as far as Texas and North Carolina.

"Once Saddleback, always Saddleback. Keep the name. It's bad enough that my hometown changed its name from El Toro to Lake Forest," wrote Dan Robles, from Orange.

A one-time local Little Leaguer wrote: "I played in Saddleback Little League for 7 years....u have to save the name. I'm 40 now but me and a lot of my friends that played [there] continued to play [through] high school, college and some MLB," wrote Stefan Rohr, now of Mission Viejo.

Here's an excerpt from the petition:

"We all know change is hard, but do we need to erase history because we need to change things? Certainly not in the case of Saddleback Little League, which is looking at being absorbed by Lake Forest Little League this coming year. While this union makes sense due to decreased player numbers for both leagues over the years, it does NOT make sense that Saddleback will lose its name entirely, and just become Lake Forest Little League – a decision made by a handful of Board Members and NOT the membership itself. Does this sound right to you?"

Read the full petition here.

A letter sent out after the merger to Little League families posed the uniting of the leagues as a way to boost the finances of both leagues in the face of declinging participation.

"The bottom line is both leagues' enrollments have been in continued decline, not only due to the City’s demographic changes, but also due to so many other options available to our youth. This presents serious financial challenges while trying to provide a great experience for our member families. Over the last few years we have already engaged in interleague play to provide a diversity of teams in each division. We now simply come together as one cohesive league to enjoy the benefits and camaraderie of the union, and to present a unified, citywide Little League baseball experience," read the statement.

The statement also addressed why the league had adopted Lake Forest as its name, rather than combining the two.

"In order to provide baseball without interruption, and needing to conform to the rules of Little League International, we needed to abide by the charter of one league or the other," it reads. "The only other option would have been to disband both and start from scratch by establishing a brand new charter with LittleLeague—a very tedious and time consuming process that would potentially negatively impact our players and families."

Lake Forest Little League has a "more recognizable identity for the community overall," read the letter. "It was decided that the best way to move forward was to establish one community wide, easily recognizable identity: use the existing charter and name associated with Lake Forest Little League."

What do you think? Is it a mistake to get rid of the Saddleback name altogether? Or is uniting as Lake Forest Little League the way to go? TELL US IN THE COMMENTS