Record-Setting 41,184 Little League World Series Attendees Need New Priorities

In his 1980 sports journalism book Sports Illusions, Sports Reality, the late New York Times sportswriter Leonard Koppett pronounced his opposition to organized Little League, stating, "There is an element of self-aggrandizement for some adults, of course, and mindless rooting by some parents.  By and large, though, they believe they are doing children a favor.  But they're not."

While ending organized Little League seems a bit extreme, ending the large-scale promotion of it is not.  On Friday, a record-setting 41,184 people attended a Little League World Series opening round game in Williamsport, PA, while perhaps more than half a million more watched it on ESPN. 

Three things are wrong with this picture.  First, ESPN decided to capitalize on these children playing a child's game by making the Little League World Series a nationally-televised prime time event.  Second, 41,184 people turned out to watch a bunch of kids play baseball.  In this crowd, 98 percent of these people never met the kids or their parents in their life.  Third, some hundreds of thousands more people thought it would be a good idea to set aside some time on a Friday night to watch a game featuring kids they had never met before born by parents they had never met. 

What makes this worse is that ESPN sent some of its top baseball broadcasters to the event, as though Gary Thorne and Orel Hersheiser have nothing better to do on an August weekend.

That makes a big group of people who need training in feeding the hungry.

Now, to debate the merits of televising child entertainment would leave all involved in a hypocritical mess.  Therefore, the conversation should be limited to Little League.  First, children are generally innocent people.  This class of child athletes is too young to drive or drink—even at communion.  This point excludes any player who sneaks into Little League by lying about his age.  Most of them don't care too much about being televised playing baseball before age 14. 

Second, only the most imaginative children tell adults, "I want to take my baseball team to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and play a team of our age group from another part of the country.  Then, after beating the best teams in the country, I want to take my team against the best teams in the world."  Very few children would continue the argument after their parents ask them how they know about Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and why they would choose to play the game in that town.

A vast majority of children at that age cannot take their baseball ambitions much further than their local area.

For children of the Little League age group, a Little League World Series is an elite event—one to which many baseball leagues for that age group in the United States are not connected—that only plays in their wildest imaginations.

Leave it there.