Little League Baseball teaches valuable lessons

Earlier this month, my college-bound son finished a recruiting process, which finally ended with him signing to play baseball at Westmont College in Santa Barbara. He is part of the alumni for Gallinas Valley Little League and I wanted to take a brief moment to recognize its contribution to his life.

Little League gave my son a place to learn how to struggle. For my generation, the context was sandlots, cul-de-sacs and park fields. But in a time of smartphones and gaming consoles, these outdoor venues have slowly passed away along with their rites of passage.

If not for Little League, my son would have had even fewer places to learn some of life’s most important lessons like fair play, perseverance, teamwork, how to win and, most importantly, how to fail. Further, countless volunteers model what it means to be part of a community. All of this will serve him the rest of his life, especially in a world that rewards these qualities, in spite of much of the world’s inability to teach what it rewards.

As for the game of baseball, I cannot recommend it enough to your kids. Other sports, more often than not, celebrate the individual. While baseball has its personalities, at its essence, it is a team sport that venerates the collective over the conceited.

I can see it in my son’s character more than other sports he’s played. He despises ego and selfishness on the field, while struggling with his own. Baseball has always aimed to do this.

— Allen W. Coleman, San Rafael