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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Little League World Series - Now Terrible

This morning, I was reading the Chronicle online about a writer known as "The Betting Fool." This writer enjoys targeting some of the big flaws and problems with sporting today, and his article was about the Little League World Series.

So I thought I'd share my views about the Little League World Series today...

First of all, the idea of a "World Series" where kids of the age of 11 and 12 can get their 15 minutes of fame is just a terrible idea. Kids baseball is not supposed to be competitive, but an opportunity to get some exercise, meet friends, have fun, and to learn baseball skills. But having young kids at young as 11 to compete for a "world" title is just outright silly.

It's so competitive that even the coaches, parents and kids are really getting nuts.

Some of these kids really show their bad side on national TV, and just watch the coach in this one, he slaps the damn kid!

For the parents, some reasons why sports that are extremely competitive than just for fun is just a really bad idea:

(Above: Parent arrested at Little League game)

(Above: Football brawl from parents)

(Above: Parent shoving kid at wrestling match)

Sometimes, parent involvement just goes to the extreme. I understand that some parents really want to be protective of their children in things like the PTA and sports, but sometimes, just think of them enjoying the fun, and respecting the other team's parents or opposing views.

Fights at PTA meetings:

OK... back to the Little League World Series:
And all the emotions... waa waa waa, just stop your damn crying that you fucking lost! In the most recent final game, the winning (American) team went to their crying counterparts, the Japanese team. So you lost, don't cry about the damn thing. Maybe its time to just head home and enjoy your young life before college starts chipping away at your youth.

What about the corporate sponsorships in this stuff? Do we really need ESPN to broadcast the world series to the entire nation? Do we really need sugary cereal companies promoting their product over the airwaves as well? Come on, all we need now is to promote some kind of muscle building herbal product for kids!

Has the Little League gone nuts? A few years back, a World Series winning team had to surrender their championship because the team pitcher was too old to participate. I mean, come on, how low do you have to go to win a major title? I wonder, will STEROIDS be the next scandal for the little league kids?

Even then, I'm a little bit suspicious about this one (on video below): The tallest kid in Little League. Did they feed this kid some testosterone to give it a growth spurt? Someone check if this kid has facial hair, and give him a piss test.

Let's summarize my rants:
Sports for youth is not supposed to be competitive, but it seems that the Little League organization believes that competition is necessary to survive as an organization.
There's some really bad rotten apple parents, coaches, and kids in these youth organized sports.
If you as a parent want to put your kids in sports activities, find things where there is no competition through such programs as tournaments. Martial arts works because it is self-achievement, as long as you don't do tournaments.
Corporate sponsorship? Is Little League going to go extreme like NASCAR?

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