Everything Wrong with the Little League World Series

I love baseball, to me there are few better things to do than watch or play America’s past time. I loved playing as a kid with my friends. I loved going to the park to play catch, or go up to the school yard to do a homerun derby. It was all about fun, not about business or being scouted at the age of 12. It was pure and innocent. Yet, like most things pure and innocent, something comes along to exploit it, to me, that is the Little League World Series (LLWS).

In 2012 ESPN and Little League Inc. signed an eight-year, $76 million dollar contract to air the tournament. That’s big money for a tournament of kids who are about 12-years old. You’d think that’s a high amount of money but on August 11th, 2015 the game between Texas and Colorado was the third highest viewed sporting event that day and South Carolina vs Florida was fifth in the ratings. Considering the volume of games during the tournament that are aired that brings in a high number of commercials and sponsors that ESPN can gain revenue from.

From a business standpoint ESPN is only doing what every other sports network would do as well, they are a business, not the moral police. But when you think about it, would you ever go to a u-12 baseball game if you knew absolutely no one playing or attending? Imagine at your kids game if some random guy was next to you and you asked who’s he there to cheer for and he says, “Oh I don’t know any of these kids, I just like to watch them play.” You’d be worried I’d imagine, but that’s totally cool on TV.

As for Little League Inc. they netted $25 million in revenue in 2012 and in that same year the 100 person staff at Little League Inc. made $7.5 million in salaries, headed by CEO Steve Keener who since 2007 saw his salary double to $430,000. As a tax exempted non-profit organization that is a bit high since the vast majority of the estimated 1.2 million volunteers don’t earn anything.

But aside from business aspect and money it’s also about the message putting kids under the lights of primetime can mean. At 11-13 years old these types of teams that travel in tournaments and compete year round are basically taught if they don’t succeed at this age, then they will never make the high school team which means no college or pros.

Kids see that Todd Frazier played in that tournament and they see the telecast often list current and former pros who played in the LLWS and associate that tournament with eventually becoming pro. They don’t see that of those guys that still means that one maybe two actually make the pros later in life. Why so few? If this tournament is the best of the best in little leagues what happens to all these kids once we forget their names after the tournament?

Well most of these kids are playing year round and (especially pitchers) burn out or get tired of the sport. You have pitchers throw year round and develop curveballs and sliders before their body develops then they have to have Tommy John Surgery (thus the rise of Tommy John Surgeries in baseball). Also, parents put a lot of pressure on their kids to “succeed.” I’ve seen it, parents get mad at their kid for going 0-4 or for making an error. I’ve seen parents go off on umpires for what they assume are balls and strikes or outs. Parents, these are kids playing a kids game! Calm down. Success in sports isn’t about making money, it’s about giving it your all as a person in everything you do.

Finally, each year we see a controversy in the LLWS. Some years it involves a team tanking for a favorable matchup. But more times than not, it is about teams cheating when it comes to players eligibility. Last year a fellow coach whistle blew on Jackie Robinson West claiming their team had eight players from other districts, when asked how he knew that, he said he was doing the same thing. In other years kids lied about their age to play. Year after year we see coaches of little league teams cheating to make the tournament. Somethings not right about that.

I love this sport, I love to see it grow and be a sports kids of all ages can play. I love seeing the RBI leagues of the world help urban communities get fields and teams. I love kids making friends and playing as a team. But I can not enjoy watching children on TV play pretend big leaguers while others bank roll off them as they hope mom and dad don’t get upset when they go 0-4. It’s a game, enjoy it.

@scottcriscione