Little League World Series insights

Hi all...our local team Gresham National qualified for the Little League World Series today, so I'm preparing for the trek to Williamsport later this week. Sounds like mayhem converging on a small town for 10 days, but wanted to post here and see if people had stories and insights to share about their experiences covering the event.

What works well...what doesn't. Basically, what am I walking into?

thanks,

 

Went once.....our hotel was maybe 20-25 minutes from the park...access was good, food decent. They keep the kids pretty well sequestered in their village/haven but if you have good relationships with the coach/parents it shouldn't be roadblock tough, kids are often out and about watching the other games and you can catch them then.

Games were easy, plenty of space, wi-fi, etc. Losing coach was sometimes a pain in the neck and they don't generally bring out losing players, thankfully my guy always came out after a loss and was willing to grab a couple of his players for me but I saw others that were really crunched when their teams disappeared near deadline.

Best advice is try to keep in touch with coach/parents so you can make sure you have enough stuff on the off days.

 

My advice: Don't cover it.

Seriously, you paid for four years of college so you can ... interview 12-year-old baseball players?

I'm sorry, but I'm way above that.

 

@ PE Teacher...sorry, but I think you're missing the boat. It's caught our community by storm and all our numbers are reflecting that.

The attitude that a reporter is "above" covering something strikes me the wrong way, too.

Personally, I'd rather go watch 12-year-olds play for the joy of playing over being at a Super Bowl or NBA Finals with a bunch of violent, overpaid, unfaithful you-know-whats, who couldn't care less about talking to you.

 

If your handle is accurate, I'm guessing you spend all day talking to 12-year-olds.

 

Or at least telling them to go run laps.

 

yeah, i get your point, but please don't throw out "what's your favorite flavor of ice cream?" over covering the super bowl.
that shit really isn't flying.

 

No disrespect meant here, but this is the freakin' LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES! Little League attracts a lot of attention among readers. Just sayin.

 

And here you have Exhibit A for the demise of newspapers: The idiocy and arrogance among so many who have decided what is newsworthy and what is not. Thankfully you are not teaching my kids. Whatever money you paid for college, it was wasted.

 

I've covered the local team in a Dixie Youth World Series, and if I would've taken the approach that I was above covering it, I would've been ridden out of town on a rail. Rightfully so. There is a big difference between a travel team playing in this weekend's [cough] national tournament and the LLWS (Dixie, Cal Ripken or whatever your local youth league offers). Despite what some travel mama says, the majority of the readership, thankfully, realizes that.