Dear dimwit on the phone

So we're at the state tournament level for Little League at this point? That still leaves regionals, or is there something else before that? All I can think about is the South Park episode where there's one tournament after another, in spite of the fact that none of the kids wants to be playing.

And yeah, I know in real life if you go out and ask these kids they're all saying they're having the time of their life -- if you can find Little League kids who can articulate that. But I wonder how much of that is because all they want to do is make their parents happy, and since the parents are happy when they keep winning, the kids want to keep playing. I'm a cynic on this stuff, to be sure, but lots of times I think if the parents were happy with the kids for playing pickup games in the yard, the kids would have no use for these long, drawn out competitions.

And I suppose we're almost at the point where ESPN will start force-feeding us Little League tournament coverage, right? That I could do without.

 

The summer Little League tournaments are for all-stars, and yes, most of those kids are out there because they love playing.

It goes district, state, Regionals then the World Series...most kids bow out after one week-long tournament, a few are lucky enough to play in a couple other tourneys.

At the state tournament I'm covering, the players go straight from the field to the hotel pool for a swimming & pizza party or maybe to the local theater to watch Captain America.

ESPN has covered the Little League World Series for years.

 

Not exactly a phone call, but this is what's happened in my shop this week:

We were setting up photo shoots for our season previews that are coming out over the next few weeks. I'm in the process of calling the cross country coaches to set stuff up with them. There's one coach I don't and have never had a phone number for -- and have had difficulties getting in touch with her since she was named coach last season -- so I emailed two of her athletes on Facebook, asking if they could come to the paper today for the shoot.

I emailed the kids and their parents and said what it was about, that it was for the paper's season previews. My boss gets a call Tuesday from the school's AD saying he got a call from someone who wasn't happy we went through Facebook to get in touch with the kids. The AD and my boss thought it was one of the parents, even though I emailed them as well.

Come to find out, the coach was upset about it because I didn't call her first. Uh, lady? I would have if I had your number. And if you would have checked your email (her personal one, FWIW, because she almost never checks her school one) -- which you rarely, if ever, do in the summer -- you would have known what was going on.

But no. You show up today ranting and raving about how I shouldn't have got in touch with the kids and their parents, who were OK with it. It's not your place, IMO, to get upset about it, but whatever.

 

Dear emailer,

Look, I understand the tournament organizer called it "Nationals." But your son's 4th-grade basketball team did not win a national championship. The fact all eight teams involved in the tournament came from a 200-mile radius of the host city should have been the first clue that you got scammed for $495 and played in a plain-old weekend tournament.

 

STOP COSTING KIDS SCHOLARSHIPS!

 

Won't you think of the Lil Jimmies?

 

I didn't know the USSSA sanctioned basketball. [/national_tournament_with_8_teams_all_from_kansas_city]

 

R-Truth is the gift that keeps on giving. There is no better description for the kids of entitled parents than Lil Jimmies.

 

Nobody "force-feeds us" anything on ESPN. There's this great little button on the remote. When you press it, the channel changes, and the offending programming disappears.

If you can do without it, then that button should help.

 

And Lil Jennies. Can't forget them, lest we be accosted by the Truth ... and nothing but the Truth.

 

This is the creepiest thing I've read all week.

 

Why is there a PR guy on my phone talking about coming to Brazil for something related to the World Cup?

I can barely get approval to cross the county line. Somehow I think Rio is a bit out of the coverage area.