On the eighteenth, The New York Times bemoaned the lost innocence of Little League Games. The main thrust of the argument is, like so many other moralizing sermons, "but what about the kids...?", sprinkled with a dash of "money...BAD" and even a pinch of Norman Rockwell nostalgia.
By 2000, it was carrying 12 World Series games. In 2001, Little League entered the modern era of sports rights fees, signing a six-year deal with ABC and ESPN worth more than $7 million. That August, the networks carried 25 games.This year, including regional championships, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 will televise a combined 35 games. That is at least 210 innings of children running a gamut of emotions for all of America to see.
Increased coverage has clearly seized some of [the Little League World Series]'s innocence and ignited a debate over whether children should have to risk public failure in front of millions and whether it is right to make unpaid, unwitting commercial endorsers out of schoolchildren who still have a bedtime.
What those big-brains at the NYTimes fail to realize is that not only are Little League games great to watch, the kids love playing in front of cameras, a grassroots-level cultural exchange, and the largest organized youth sports program in the world.
Surely it must be the organization's staggering success of the that created "ignited a debate" in NYTimes' newsroom. Here are some figures on the growth of the Little League Organization, per their press release:
The Little League Baseball World Series was first played in 1947. Back then, only two states were part of Little League, and there were only a few thousand players in the program.Little League has grown a bit since then. In fact, since the International Tournament began in the first week of July, about 16,000 games have been played worldwide in order to determine the 16 teams that are playing in the World Series. That’s more games than are played in six full seasons of Major League Baseball regular season play.
Now, more than 2.7 million children in all 50 U.S. states and 104 other countries play Little League baseball and softball. That makes Little League the largest organized youth sports program on Earth.
ON EARTH.
So let's see what the NYTimes says these horrible men who have to say for making their living exploiting kids, shall we?
"When Norman Rockwell was painting, the bats were wood, the uniforms were wool and there wasn't any cable television," said Stephen D. Keener, the president and chief executive of Little League Baseball. "Not to be flippant, but these kids today grew up on `SportsCenter' and the Internet. No one puts baseball cards in their bicycle spokes anymore to hear the flapping sound. It's a different time. We had to change."
So it's bad for this kids because of the relentless march of progress? Hmm. Well, surely they put the crybabies on, then, those cruel bastards.
"We're not trying to hide or patronize the coverage," said Tim Scanlan, the networks' coordinating producer for the Little League World Series. "But you don't want to sensationalize those moments. It's about the experience and the competition. It's pure. It's almost innocent." ... "We do talk about not lingering on kids' crying and overcelebrating," Mr. Scanlan said. "A lot of us have kids in Little League. We try to stress the importance of not making a kid cry the central focus of a shot."
Changing gears, I'm sure that putting kids on television is bad because, well, because, it's bad for the environment, yeah, yeah, it's bad for the environment.
In 2001, pine trees were bulldozed to make room for Volunteer Stadium, erected behind the old Lamade Stadium, and the World Series expanded to 16 teams from 8.
And, since it's bad for the environment it must mean it's good business. And, as well all know, business is bad, B-A-D.
According to its 2001 federal tax filing, Little League, a nonprofit organization, received $1.2 million from the networks. That same year, Little League received an unspecified amount of contributions from ESPN and ABC, which are owned by the Walt Disney Company, toward a $20 million construction campaign, much of which went to build Volunteer Stadium.The World Series game last season between Harlem and Worcester, Mass., drew a 3.0 rating — the highest-rated Little League game in ESPN's history. About 2.5 million households watched.
The horror, the horror. You know, I was one of those households. Watching these kids compete, enjoy themselves, boy, I must be contributing to some serious psychological damage later on in life.
The people who broadcast the games insist on making one point: kids recover quicker emotionally than adults."One second, the kid is crying, he's devastated about losing," said Harold Reynolds, the ESPN and ABC announcer. "Within a half-hour, he's asking his friends who's going to the ice cream party or the swimming pool. The adults hold on to it, not the kids."
(Flooding the Zone: Reynolds never got his Ring.) But you know, maybe we should ask the kids themselves, becauseafter all, , as the majority of non-anthropomorphic Disney movies teach us, we can all learn from these innocent, kids, untainted by the base desires of adulthood, doing what kids have always done.
When the ESPN announcer Dave Ryan asked the players from Tallmadge who among them collected baseball cards, no one raised a hand."None of you guys collect baseball cards?" he asked, surprised.
"I used to," one of the players said, as if he had passed that phase in his life.
"I have a Griffey autograph, but it's not worth anything anymore," Matt Keen, Randy Keen's son, said through pursed lips.
Mr. Keen said: "We used to just collect and keep cards, but there's a financial component to everything these days. They got PlayStation, Xboxes and computers now."
Kids these days. Anyway, we all know that there are no good lessons to be learned on the television.
The best thing about here is playing on TV," said Mike Julian, an 11-year-old from the team representing Wilmington, Del. "You make a good play, there's a chance you can get on `SportsCenter.'"Asked about the potential down side of celebrity, he said he hoped not to cry if his team lost a close game. "But if you do cry on TV," Julian said, "it just shows how bad you wanted to win."
Maybe the NYTiimes guy should start listening to the kids, and watching them play too. For those of you interested, here's where you can find the schedule. As for the standings so far:
- Boynton Beach Little League, Boynton Beach, Florida 2 - 0
- Chandler National Little League, Chandler, Arizona 2 - 0
- Saugus American Little League, Saugus, Massachusetts 2 - 0
- Asia Musashi-Fuchu Little League, Tokyo, Japan 1 - 0
- Arabian American Little League, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia 1 - 0
- Altagracia Little League, Altagracia, Zulia, Venezuela 1 - 0
- Olmeca Little League, Mexico City, Mexico 1 - 0
- Lamar National Little League, Richmond, Texas 1 - 1
- Europe Khovrino Little League, Moscow, Russia 1 - 1
- Naamans Little League, Wilmington, Delaware 1 - 1
- Pabao Little League Willemstad, Curacao,Netherland Antilles 0 - 1
- Glace Bay Little League, Glace Bay, Nova Scotia 0 - 1
- Tallmadge Little League, Tallmadge, Ohio 0 - 2
- Richland National Little League, Richland, Washington 0 - 2
- Central Little League, Agana, Guam 0 - 2
- North Scott Little League, Eldridge, Iowa 0 - 2
But seriously, how could anyone really think that televising kid's athletics is a bad thing? All that network money doesn't go into the pockets of fat cats, or even Dick Cheney's Halliburton. It goes to providing kids, from all over the world, the chance to play America's pastime in an organized league with proper equipment. You want to talk about "Soft Power"? You're lookin' at it.
Organized leagues are good for our society, often knitting entire communities together. This is a forum where parents can be involved in their children's lives (okay, maybe too involved) and take pride in their kids' accomplishments. As for baseball? The game might have lost some it's marketing punch, but it teaches kids the virtues of discipline, fitness, competition, and teamwork, and let's not forget -- it's fun!
And all of this is possible because they broadcast the games on television. The kids want to be on TV, the networks want to put them on TV, I want to watch them on TV, and commercial sponsors will pay for me to watch them play on TV. Lost innocence? Lost innocence? It's public service! Forget about Midnight Basketball -- this is the real deal.
UPDATE: I just wanted to add a little personal experience to the idea of grassroots cultural exchange and "soft power". While many of these Little League teams no doubt draw mostly upon expatriate American kids, I remember very clearly one time when that was not the case. In the Philippines, were I lived for a year in Manilla, I remember going to go use the gym and pool at Seafront, a U.S. Government installation (located on Roxas Blvd. next to Manilla Bay) who in its heyday must have been the R&R capital of Southeast Asia, but was now part of the U.S. Embassy, when I bumped into a friend of mine, who was intent on watching a Little League game. My friend, a divorced father of two, was watching his son play, and while sitting alone off to the side, was clearly enjoying the game.
I was surprised, to say the least, because my friend, who was a weatlhy mestizo (in this case, a Filipino with most or all Spanish heritage) and I had engaged in a number of political arguments over U.S. power and foriegn policy. His attitude was generally one of dislike for U.S. policies, sprinkled with liberal amounts disdain for free-market principles (mistaking them for mercantilism), but he was exceptionally honest and forthright (intellectually speaking), and we never let our mutually exclusive political positions interfere with our friendship. I got down from my car, sat on the grass, and cheered his boys' team on.
I asked him why, "If you're generally opposed to the U.S., does your kid play Little League Baseball?"
"Because I love America and baseball," he responded, "and I love to watch my kid play. I don't get to see him enough, you know."
I was a little confused, to say the least, so then I asked him, "How is it that you love America, baseball--"
"And apple pie?" He interjected. "Because you guys are amazing. I used to play baseball in Hawai'i, you know."
"So why--?" I began to ask.
"Because America doesn't do enough. Because America usually doesn't do the right thing most of the time."
We sat and watched the rest of the game.
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: The indominable Jane Galt takes aim at a similar case of liberal journalistic sneering at Assymetrical Information.
I very much enjoy Little League Baseball, and since the Boston RedSox let us baseball fans down every year, there is nothing like watching kids "playing" the game, having fun, and taking us along for the ride. We want to watch baseball, to -watch baseball games, and nothing else. We want to watch teams play because they love the game, not because they have to live up to their $106M contract. Watching the "pros" is watching an advertisement.
My 2 sons play, and we are also, from Saugus MA, and what a game tonight (semi-final vs. TX). My sons and I rode the roller coaster through that game watching furiously captivated at every play, the emotions were running high, but they DO run just as strong in the community games that are played every season around town in little league. Just because the games are on TV (which are awesome!), doesn't mean the children are somehow going to be scarred for life. I think the opposite is at play. The kids know they are into something tremendous, and only comes around once in their lives if they are lucky, and these kids are lucky. I feel lucky to be able to watch them play on TV. If adults feel this is stripping our children of their youth, then maybe they never got to do anything this ecxiting as children, or even as adults. Every kid in little league plays to win, of course, winning is great, but they also know right off the bat, losing comes along with it. I think some of these adults are acting very childish over something they obviously don't understand.
I bet these whiners never had a child in a little league playoff game. Because if they did, they would love to see their kids on TV, and their kids would embrace it just as these kids have.
Posted by: Carole | Thursday, August 21, 2003 at 10:47 PM
Dear Carole:
I couldn't agree with you more.
There has to be something missing form their lives (or a dark and ugly case of childhood cowardice) that leads to this kind of resentment and sneering at children's games.
Enough on them.
In case you didn't watch the game, here's the recap:
His reaction to his play, was vintage Massachusettes:
Congratulations!
Posted by: REDUX | Thursday, August 21, 2003 at 11:28 PM
Personally I am really disturbed at the thought of putting the Little League World Series on TV being wrong. People like the author of that article found all the bad in that and thats not many. Most of these kids never forget their times in Williamsport and LOVE being on Sportscenter and ESPN. They do not drag on the kids being upset after a big loss, they show how the kids usually feel better pretty darn fast. I mean those kids had the times of their lives and love baseball. I have talked to plenty of the 2003 players and they don't feel like they were showed wrong on ESPN or ESPN 2, they loved their time there.
And on the fact that kids don't collect baseball cards anymore and stick them in their bike tires, thats obvious, times change. We don't expect kids to play stickball with a stone anymore do we? No, we expect them to use their metal bats and go out their and play till their hearts content. Yes they have XBox and Playstation 2, who cares if they use it. People who watch TV are normal now, but many years ago that was frowned upon! The main thing is that times change, the whole baseball card phenomenon couldn't last forever.
The Little League World Series being on TV is a blessing. It gives people who love baseball a chance to watch kids play. It give 10 year old Little League ball players something to try for. Of course it has some cons, but you don't focus on those you focus on the pros. Come on, we are talking about 12 year old boys, they go to the LLWS looking for girls and a good game of baseball, why give that a bad name?
Posted by: Alisha | Friday, December 12, 2003 at 08:15 PM