Dan Wetzel: Pay the players -- at the Little League World Series

Bingo. I get its kinda fun to glance at them playing but if the choice is to pay the kids, get out of here. You want our kids to become the hockey junior leagues or the Euro basketball leagues where the kids are essentially pros but oh yeah they leave the house at 12 to become a minor leaguer?

 

That's the other thing. It frequently seems like the purpose of a Little League is one big tryout for the All-Star teams. Take the U.S. teams in this series. They've probably spent more time on the tournaments than they did playing on their own teams in their own league.

 

I know that in my town, Lexington, Mass., Little League ends with the town title, which I think is wise. Then again, Newton, a suburb as wealthy and academic achievement oriented as ours, had one of its LL teams be the Mass state champ.
I do not watch the LLWS. It gives me the creeps.

 

If you're the star of your neighborhood LL team, and all the parents on the team love you, woohoo, good for you.

That's pretty much where it should end.

 

Season runs from April to late June, then I think there is two weeks of Tournament of Champions for league champions. All-Star teams start play next, so yeah about right.

 

I think he's written it at least three times. This is not trolling, and I honestly agree. The Little League World Series is the worst thing that airs on ESPN. Flipping by it legitimately makes me upset.

But we almost exclusively hear about the affluent American teams, so yay! Kids are cute!

 

I think it should end at being able to tap that ass of the area's hottest middle school teacher [/poinstar]

 

Oh for the days when a Dwight Gooden or Gary Sheffield led Tampa team reached the WS final.

 

Agree with this 10,000 percent.

My son — a decent baseball player, but who admittedly is more into football and basketball — began playing youth baseball in a town whose league was associated with the Pony League organization. The teams (this was the "minors" Little League equivalent, where kids first start pitching) played each other several times each, had a postseason league tournament, and that was it. Was a great learning experience and lots of fun for kids and coaches.

At the next level, 11 and 12 years old played in the same system, but with the bases a bit farther apart and the mound a bit farther from the plate. Again, the emphasis was on learning the game and winning the league postseason tournament, not all-star teams.

We moved out west to a town with a Little League-affiliated system. They picked the teams to group players together who would play on the eventual All-Star team. Those kids basically did all the pitching, played every inning, received most of the coaching in practice, etc. And of course, most of these players play travel ball the rest of the spring/summer, anyway.

The entire league is built around the All-Star team and the slim chance it could someday play on ESPN in the Little League World Series.

Maybe a few 11 and 12 year olds will have their dreams come true with this system. But in our town at least, it drove many others out of organized baseball.

 

A age group below and above is not televised nationally. Why this one?

I am OK with a local all star playing to win their own state title, but outside of that, it's too much.

 

Does Little League (or Ripken ball, for that matter) offer any financial assistance on travel to the finals? I can't imagine what it would cost to fly anywhere full fare nowadays, let alone a dozen kids and 3-4 coaches.

 

Good point.

When was the last time a Richmond City or Houston City All Star team played in one of these on TV? I have no idea, but they all seemed like suburb teams to me.