More Little League ridiculousness

yes, there is a reason. adult coaches are often dicks. not dicks away from the field, necessarily, justt when the games begin. i've seen it first-hand happen to good friends who are coaches. they become scary. you don't have to be a shrink to know they're reliving their youth days through their poor kids. and they never even see it.

 

They're not. The vast, vast, vast majority of the American public does NOT give a shit about youth sports, nor should they.

If YOUR kids are involved, you should care. Otherwise there should be next to no attention paid to it.

 

When I was in school, and even when I was first a lawyer, I made some extra cash as a ref for kids hoops games. It was unreal how into it the coaches were -- everyone thought that they were Bobby Knight. My standard line when a coach was over the edge was:

Me: Does your kid play for the team?
Coach: Yes. He's number 5.
Me: You are embarassing him.

 

My kid (far removed from LL, he's 18) and a lot of his friends love to watch these guys whenever they're on. YOU might not like watching the LL World Series and the road there, but a lot of people do.

 

I like it, but it's high time they did two things:
First, no curve balls. Not one. Not at any time. Not until you're a freshman in high school. If you can throw a change or a splitter or something off-speed without breaking your wrist, then fine. Otherwise, just throw a 2-seamer and a 4-seamer.

Second, make the damn field bigger. There is no room for extra base hits at 200 feet. Everything is either a homer or a single. Snooooze.

 

Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner.

 

1. No. You're wrong.

2. If you don't get Little League baseball as sporting event, you don't get it. No amount of explaining is going to change it.

3. The reason why 11-12 boys are big and 10-year-olds, 14-year-olds, softball aren't ... because ABC made it that way 20-plus years ago when they started blowing up the LLWS. And Little League had no problem with having a "marquee" division.

 

Shottie, I could be wrong, but I think LL always kind of considered the 11-12-year-olds the centerpiece division. Old enough to play well, but still young enough to really be "kids." And not yet teenagers.

 

Of course, you're right, SF. It's just that ABC took that and magnified it with its coverage.

 

Let's see if I can explain this. Because frankly, I'm just as amazed that some people don't get this.

If you don't get excited/impressed over a 12-year-old throwing 75 mph, then I don't see how you could get excited/impressed over a 17-year-old throwing 85 mph. And if you aren't affected by that, then you may be a total write-off short of major college/pro sports.

Add in the dynamic that this is the first time many of these kids are playing games that actually mean something to other people, the "wide-eyed" effect. To me and thousands, millions of others, it's an irresistible draw. The fact that these kids are just out there having fun, that they aren't jaded yet, and yet they're making athletic plays worthy of Sportscenter's Top 10.

 

The adults are the worst thing about kids sports.

A few summers ago, I coached my son's team in a local league sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. The head of the league was a Hitler type who played favorites with the managers he knew. The umpires were beligerent and callled the games differently depending on their mood. It was a miserable experience.

One of the rules had to do with time limits (I understand that some games take forever, but baseball ain't supposed to be TIMED). We were ahead of one of league's better teams. They were the home team and the clock was ticking. They had 2 outs and if the inning ended and we batted in the top of the next inning, they would get to bat in the bottom of that inning. So, the manager had one of his players intentionally step on the plate during the first pitch of his at bat. He was called out, the inning was over and the next inning started, beating the time rule. We won anyway but I thought it was a chicken spit thing to do.