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How did your paper play the Little League World Series championship game

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Mr. X, Aug 29, 2011.

  1. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Lexington Little League does not compete in the national Little League state, regional, etc. playoffs. It is self-enclosed. I think that's a good thing. It gets coverage in the local weekly in which coaches write game capsules which are efforts to get as many player names from both teams in the paper as possible. Again, a good thing.
    IF, however, a town in my paper's circulation area was in the LLWS, I sure as hell would play it as big as possible (and the Herald did the one time it happened when I was there). Other than that -- it's a national news brief or filler wire story.
     
  2. Small Town Guy

    Small Town Guy Well-Known Member

    Yeah but Shooter wasn't a drunk because of what happened in the 1927 Little League World Series. His scars came from the "Sectionals of '33. One point dow. Five, four, three, two, one...let 'er fly. In and out."

    By the way, if the timeline was accurate, that meant Shooter was only 37 years old during Hickory's run two decades later. Um, no.

    Anyway, if we're putting blame for Shooter's struggles, it lies with the Indiana papers who covered the one class state basketball tournament, which was only the biggest event in the state at the time. Should they not haver covered the tourney? I don't think Max Mercy or anyone else needs to apologize for how they covered Shooter or state hoops.
     
  3. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I would not concede that point.
     
  4. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Sorry, STG (and others for the aside), but I think it was completely plausible that Shooter's age in the movie was 37, and that he had a son when he was around 20. And looked like that because of all his lifestyle wear and tear.
     
  5. I cover preps in a town that had a recent LLWS champ, and it's interesting to talk to those kids about the attention they still get, five years later, from that. Their images are still on newspaper boxes, phone books, all sorts of stuff around town, and a lot of them still play together for a very successful high school program so it still comes up a lot in feature stories.

    Some of them look back and love the attention, and a few others seem to make it out like the attention isn't much of a big deal any more.
     
  6. Agree with Dick Whitman.

    The annual parade of Little League games on TV makes me want to vomit, but unfortunately it's cheap, profitable programming for ESPN and it's only going to get worse.

    I have done many demeaning things in my career, but I don't think I could handle covering Little League, even in Williamsport.
     
  7. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    Well, I guess I'll just have to disagree with you and Dick. I see it as a positive thing.
     
  8. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Also, I really don't think it will get worse. It's kind of where it's going to be, it seems to me (whether that's good or bad).
     
  9. OklahomaSports

    OklahomaSports New Member

    It's Rec ball. And they're putting it on television. No leads, 46 foot mound, 200 foot fences. Rec ball. There are 12 year olds all over the country that don't play in this because they are playing in leagues that are far superior to little leagues during the regular season. I would know, I was one of them. In Oklahoma, little league is a joke and I'm sure that's not the only state where little league baseball isn't taken very seriously. So should Rec ball get national media coverage? Hell no. But is it really an issue for a small local newspaper to have a story about their town's team making it to Williamsport? I don't think so
     
  10. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    Our local youth league switched from Little League to Cal Ripken a couple of years ago because LL was very inflexible when it came to resetting boundaries to reflect changes in population trends and other issues. Even if they had stayed LL, I still would have played it where I did, below the MLB roundup on B2 ... unless there was a local team involved. It's 12 year olds, for cryin' out loud. Just let them play.

    Wetzel had a good take on the LLWS over the weekend, suggesting the players be paid. At first I thought he was doing something satirical related to the BCS, but, doggone it, it made sense:
    http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=dw-wetzel_little_league_world_series_pay_kids_082411

    This time, thought, it was Tim Kewon of espn.com for the win:
    http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_/page/keown-110823/elite-travel-baseball-basketball-teams-make-youth-sports-industrial-complex
     
  11. Den1983

    Den1983 Active Member

    Agree as well. I hate Little League. Completely agree with you and Dick.

    The world would be a better place without the glorification of 12-year-olds and the like, and I know, at least our public, couldn't give a hoot about it.
     
  12. BB Bobcat

    BB Bobcat Active Member

    In 1994, a team from our area made the LLWS. This was during the MLB strike. There was a lot of talk around town about throwing a parade for the Little Leaguers because they "weren't like those arrogant major leaguers."

    I remember saying: "Do you know how major leaguers got to be arrogant? By people throwing parades for them because they were good at baseball when they were 12!"

    I think 12 is too young for anyone to have that sort of public success or failure.
     
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