When it comes to Little League, kids usually know best

Sporting News, The, Sept 9, 2005 by Todd Jones

Like most baseball fans, major leaguers watch the Little League World Series. True, many players watch just to see who the kids say is their favorite big-leaguer, but, still, they're watching. The kids are amazing. They are so fundamentally sound. They hit behind the runner, they go first to third. They do all the little things that even big-leaguers have a tough time executing. Then you see backdoor sliders and 2-0 curves and you start thinking: These kids may be risking their baseball futures by using breaking balls to help their Little League team win the World Series.

For the most part, Little League is fun. It's a tool to teach kids a lot more than just baseball. You learn to play well with others. You learn good sportsmanship. You learn that whatever you're going to do, you should do it to the best of your ability. All good lessons.

Now let me emphasize that kids today have so much going on in their lives that they don't need an overzealous parent breathing down their necks, telling them they're the next Derek Jeter and on their way to the major leagues.

It's Little League; it should be treated as such. Win or lose, you go get ice cream after the game. The best kid doesn't play shortstop the whole game. The pitcher always wears sleeves when he's pitching. The coaches don't teach kids how to throw curveballs. Curves are a cop-out, anyway; you can get out just as many Little Leaguers--and big-leaguers, for that matter--with an old-fashioned changeup. If you don't believe me, ask Trevor Hoffman.

Play the game as hard as you can, and when it's over, it's over. It's not life or death. But you know, many parents live to watch their kids go to battle. And the truth is some parents feel better or worse about themselves depending on how little Johnny does in his game. And the kids want to do well in front of Mom and Dad and the grandparents.

They are learning at a young age how to compete, and they will compete their whole lives. It's up to parents to provide the life skills the kids need to compete. The kids don't need an overreacting parent yelling at them for not hitting that pitch a country mile. You know, a lot of parents do more harm to kids by the way they act at the park than they realize. Our kids learn more from how we handle or don't handle their successes and failures than from what any coach can teach.

When you watch the Little League World Series, you see that the kids are focusing and executing and the parents are out of control. The composure of these kids at Williamsport is unreal. Interview them before the game and they'll talk about video games and baseball cards. Interview the parents and they'll ramble on about how proud they are of their kids and if they could just win it would mean so much to these kids.

What they should say is, "If my son could just hit the winning home run, it would be so great for me." You know, I'm probably not far from the truth.

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