Home Run Watching: What is Happening to the Little League World Series?

   Ok, so I watched the Little League World Series game between Curacao and Italy for a grand total of ten minutes and this is what I saw.  Three monster home runs from very good Curacao team...and three bat flips followed by slow home run walks down the first base line.

  What is going on?  Didn't the LLWS use to showcase the best teams the world had to offer, and didn't those teams use to have respect for their counterparts?  This display of showboating is absolutely disgusting.  If this were to happen in the bigs the next time the batter came up, save for a close game, he'd get drilled.  This isn't the line of thinking that anyone should bring up with little leaguer's, but some action needs to be taken and it's the coaches of the showboating teams that need to do it.  I remember when I played little league, if anyone on my team would have watched a home run, we would have run laps after the game.

   But why is this happening?  I have a theory.  Rewind a couple of nights, when Alfonso Soriano hit a monster shot and took just a little too long to admire his handiwork.  The next day he was nearly decapitated.  More and more MLB players are hitting home runs and watching them instead of running as soon as they hit the ball, as most of us were taught when we started playing.  This is influencing these kids in a big way given what I've seen today and in the highlights. 

   This is disurbing indeed, but can be easily remedied.  The coaches just need to take the initiative to stamp out showboating in whatever way they see fit, because this is just ridiculous.

   Don't get me wrong, I love watching these kids come out and play their hearts out, but it's just not fair for some of the other teams who can't match up to these powerhouses to have their noses rubbed in it as well.  Maybe I'm wrong and the few games I've seen are aberrations, and I hope I am, but when I turn on the LLWS I watch it to see them play for nothing but pure desire and the joy of winning.  To me, it's just wrong that any kid should have to endure that.  Now let's hope this doesn't continue because after all, wasn't playing little league supposed to be about having fun?  And who has fun getting taunted?

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?