Little Leaguers true role models
Declining fortunes of the Red Sox got you down? Too many months until the Celtics and Bruins play? Tired of waiting to hear if Tom Brady will be allowed to play in the Patriots’ opener? Well, I’ve got the cure — the Little League World Series, which wraps up today.
I’m serious. If some deranged lunatic gained control of the sporting world — I mean, aside from Roger Goodell — and aimed a gun at my head, saying, “You must choose one sporting event, and one sporting event only, to watch this year!”, I would choose the Little League World Series without hesitation.
Not only do these kids display amazing talent for their ages — all of them are 11 to 13 years old — but they also display more maturity and class than any comparably sized group of professionals. They don’t swear, they don’t cheat, they never argue a call by the umpires, and they don’t greedily hold out for an extra million bucks.
They always hustle until the final out and never dog it. They listen respectfully to every word said by their coaches. They laugh a lot — and sometimes cry a bit — and otherwise care in ways rarely seen in a big league ballpark. At the end of every game, without fail, they line up and congratulate the other team, and some of the winners will even embrace a tearful loser and say a few kind words to make him feel better.
Nobody disrespects their opponent or, for that matter, the game itself. You won’t see a single instance of in-your-face taunting or trash talk; no touchdown dances or crotch grabbing. Nobody flips the bat after a home run and takes a leisurely jog around the bases to antagonize the opposing pitcher. And the pitchers never purposely throw at batters.
Perhaps the best thing about the Little League World Series is that it really is a world series. There is always an American team in the finals, which is as it should be since it is our sport and Little League was invented here, but teams travel from all over the globe to compete for the other spot in the finals. This year, teams have traveled from Japan, Taiwan, Canada, Australia, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Uganda. How can you not root for a team of underdogs from a country you never expected would even know about baseball?
There is always at least one foreign squad that turns out to be entirely endearing because of some quirk in their cultural attitudes. For instance, the Japanese team won a couple of years ago. Japan is, after all, a baseball hotbed, same as America, so it wasn’t a shocking result. What was wonderful about their victory was that the entire team charged out to center field after winning, where a bust of Howard J. Lamade — the founder of Little League — sits atop the outfield wall. The young boys stopped in front of the bust, lined up in an orderly fashion, and then ceremoniously bowed with respect to what they considered “The God of Little League.” Then they returned to the infield and bowed similarly to all of the spectators in the stands.
In sports, it doesn’t get any better than that.
Not only do these kids display amazing talent for their ages, but they also display more maturity and class than any comparably sized group of professionals.