LITTLE BALL
Are you ready for some... baseball?

Mid-August means it's that time of year again. Time for the Little League World Series (LLWS) in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.. I absolutely love watching the LLWS. Watching Major League Baseball on television doesn't hold a candle to the LLWS. The main reason I enjoy watching it so much is simply because the players enjoy playing it so much. And their joy comes across plain as day. They are fully invested in the Game. Not the game, but the Game. To these kids, it's not just a job. They don't want to do well for the sake of professional pride. They just want to do as well as they can because it's a game they love and so they can spend longer enjoying the great atmosphere at Williamsport. And win or lose, they let their emotions run freely. It's not a sterile atmosphere. When you watch LLWS, you feel the humanity involved in the game.

I must admit there's part of me that's ambivalent about the whole thing. Ambivalent that a kid's game is being broadcast around the world. All Little Leaguers make errors and strike out; some of them cry after unfortunate plays or losses. But most don't have their embarassing or painful moments shown live to an international television audience. It's almost a little voyeuristic, in a way. Then there's the part about LL being yet another intrusion of adult structure into the world of kids' exploration and discovery. I suppose it's ok here, as I'd say 11 or 12 is about the earliest that kind of structure is appropriate, in my opinion. I'm less comfortable with the kind of hyper-structure for sports for kids of 6 or 7. The final, albeit less significant, downside is that you have to suffer TV announcers prattling on about how pure Little League is, blah blah blah. It may be true but it gets tiresome to hear constantly. Although, in fairness, you hear it less over the course of a dozen LLWS games than during one Army-Navy football game.

But that said, I still enjoy watching the LLWS. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, and that's the most important thing. Even most of the coaches seem to have a pretty good attitude. Even in the course of the game, they are teaching the kids and most of them do a good job in maintaining a positive, constructive and sportsmanlike attitude. This isn't always the case in youth sports; fortunately it seems to be the norm in Williamsport.

The Little League oath, recited before each game, goes:

I trust in God
I love my country
And will respect it laws
I will play fair
And strive to win
But win or lose
I will always do my best

It's interesting that 19 years after my last Little League game, I still have that committed to memory.