Little League World Series

In case you missed it, the Little League World Series (or LLWS) concluded yesterday with Warner Robins, Georgia beating Tokyo, Japan 3-2 in 8 innings (regulation LL games are 6). This is a great event, it brings boys (and for the record there is a girls version that just isn't as widely known, but did get airtime on ESPN this year) from across the US and around the world together to do something they love - play baseball.

I didn't watch a ton of the series this year, okay very little. I did see part of the American championship on Saturday. To be 12 years old these guys are very good. And just when you start to forget they're so young they'll do something to remind you of it - get really excited like kids do or make a error on a routine play (then again the pros do this occasionally as well). It's good baseball and for those who say they don't like baseball because it is so slow I would recommend this as a form of the game to watch. The innings move fairly quickly and they only play 6 (most of the time) so games tend to be much shorter. Plus this is baseball at its highest level (for this age group), this too helps move things along. Plus these kids are playing for something and you can read it on their faces.

I have one beef with the LLWS. The fences are too short for 12 year olds. In the short time I watched on Saturday I saw a kid hit one out to straight-away center that he just barely caught a piece of. No shame in getting a hit on a chip-shot, but at that age they shouldn't be going yard when they didn't event hit it well. The fences in Williamsport are 225' (all the way around). By placing them there I feel like they're featuring the long-ball too much in a kids game. I'd rather see longer fences that would bring things like an honest triple into play (then again I never was a power hitter). There is a hedge out beyond the fence, it looks to be about 25' further from home plate. My suggestion would be to move the fence back to where the hedge is. I think that would eliminate a lot of these cheap home runs and force guys to hit line drives (something they'd better get good at if they want to play in high school and college).

My wife abruptly informed me that the fence depth is regulated for all LL games. I suspect that she's partially right. I'll bet that by the time they get to state and regional playoffs those distances are probably regulated, but I doubt that every LL team is fortunate enough to have a field of their own that has a fence of 225' (to all fields, which is more like a softball field than a baseball field if you ask me). I'll bet there are a bunch of these teams from little towns all over the place that share a field with older teams and play on fields with fences of 300' or more, just because that's all they have.

I'm off my soapbox. As I started with, the LLWS is a great event. Congrats to the team from Georgia for wrapping up the 2nd straight LLWS win for a Georgia team (Columbus in 2006) and the 3rd straight for the U.S (Hawaii - 2005).