Virginia district annex's planet Mars

The administration was looking for a theme to excite some interest.
McLEAN, Va. (AP) -- One Little League baseball district has a roster of talent that's out of this world -- literally.
That's because Little League Baseball this year granted its northern Virginia district sole jurisdiction over the planet Mars and any players the Red Planet might produce.
District Administrator Michael Pobat wanted a theme this year as northern Virginia prepares to host the annual state tournament, whose champion competes for the right to represent the United States in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
He thought a Martian theme might be a way to get kids excited about science and technology, so he petitioned Little League to annex the planet into the northern Virginia district, which serves about 5,000 boys and girls on teams in the Washington suburbs of Arlington, Alexandria and northern Fairfax County.
"It sounds soupy, but you never know what will get a kid charged up about something," Pobat said. "If one or two kids get turned on to science because of this, great. If not, we still had a lot of fun with it."
Of course, the expansion to Mars raises several logistical issues for Little League, particularly with the always sticky question of age.
Children must be age 12 or under to participate in Little League's core program. The Martian expansion muddles the issue, because a Martian year lasts 687 earth days. So a 12-year-old in Martian years would actually be 22 in Earth years.
Also, Martian gravity is a third of that on Earth, so a 200-foot home-run fence would have to be extended to 600 feet on Mars. Lastly, NASA has found little evidence that the planet harbors kids with good throwing arms or batting prowess.
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