Journey will get tougher for state
4-team Metro Division will be very difficult
Can a Rhode Island team still reach the Little League World Series even though the regional road to Williamsport, Pa. is set to become more difficult come the summer of 2021?
Why should we think any differently? Rhode Island in the 21st Century has entrenched itself as a LLWS mainstay. Starting with Lincoln’s appearance in 2001 and continuing right through Barrington’s recent run, Rhode Island has been privileged to see eight teams make it out of the New England bracket. Five of the past six New England squads that left Bristol, Conn. as New England victors have addresses based in the good old Ocean State.
It’s been a dominant stretch that will certainly be put to the test, a test that can best be described as a mystery wrapped in Little League’s version of an enigma. Come 2021, Rhode Island will be grouped into something Little League officials are calling the Metro Region, a bracket that also features fellow New England brethren Connecticut along with New York and New Jersey.
Excuse me? You are electing to rope off two teams that hail from New England and group them with two states where in theory they would be the prohibitive favorites due to a wider net that
New York and New Jersey can cast in terms of talent?
On the surface, it makes little to zero sense – not to mention it raise numerous questions where the answers at the moment are in short supply.
“It’s a much tougher division, but the whole idea of getting more teams involved seems to be an admirable one,” noted Lincoln Little League President John Sharkey while making note of Little League’s expansion plan to bump up the World Series bracket from the current 16-team arrangement to 20 teams in two summers.
“I think they picked Rhode Island because they think they can compete based off the past several years. We’ve had a pretty darn good record of competing in Bristol, but it seems we’ve been penalized for having good baseball,” Sharkey added. “Now we’re talking about states that are notoriously much better based on their success in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Throw in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and you’re talking about four teams that finish head and shoulders above the others. Whoever wins that bracket is going to earn it, that’s for sure.”
To put Sharkey’s words into context, New Jersey and New York have combined to make 10 trips to the Little League World Series since the turn of the century.
Expansion desires aside, did Rhode Island’s stranglehold on the New England Little League tournament help to lay the groundwork for getting moved? In terms of regional dominance since 2000, Connecticut ranks second behind R.I. with five LLWS appearances, followed by Massachusetts (four appearances) and New Hampshire and Maine, each with one In the nearly two-decade old century, Vermont is the lone New England state that’s yet to fly the New England flag.
You can bet that no one from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine will be shedding a tear at Rhode Island and Connecticut bumping heads with New York and New Jersey. The two rulers of the New England regional have been removed from the grid, hence the odds no longer scream severe underdog status when gathering in Bristol.
“It’s not unfortunate that Rhode Island has been so successful,” said Dave Belisle, a twotime LLWS participant as Cumberland American’s manager and someone who continues to remain around the sport as an ESPN analyst. “You want to give teams more of an opportunity, but if you’re Rhode Island, you’re probably part of the toughest bracket outside of the Southeast regional. That’s a tough one.”
Added Sharkey, “When we were in the New England region, typically there were a few teams that weren’t as strong.”
Perhaps the biggest quibble has to do with Little League still calling it – at least for now – the New England Regional even though Rhode Island and Connecticut have been removed. Belisle summed up the development as, “very strange. It doesn’t upset me that Rhode Island is being split up and has to play with those three other teams. To take us away from the word ‘New England’ … Rhode Island and Connecticut are just as much a part of New England as the other four states that are still in it. Maybe they should rename the New England Region to the Northeast Region. It’s not New England.”
“Maybe they don’t realize that New England encompasses six states,” said Sharkey
Sharkey said the news that was first publicized last Saturday – the same day as the U.S. Final and International Final – “caught me by surprise. We were all caught by surprise.”
It’s worth wondering what the thought process was behind creating a four-team field for the New England, Metro, and Mid-Atlantic regionals. Meanwhile, the Southeast and Midwest regionals will each feature an eight-team bracket.
“I think they’ll revisit it after a few years,” Belisle believes. He noted that there’s a definite throwback element in place with Little League’s decision to redraw the regional boundaries.
“It’ll be like the old Eastern championship when the New England and Mid-Atlantic teams faced off and the winner went to the World Series,” said Belisle. “It’s not quantity, but it sure is quality. Rhode Island is going to have to step up their game, that’s for sure.”