Let’s remember these are kids: How to make the Little League World Series more fun

Let’s remember these are kids: How to make the Little League World Series more fun We love to celebrate our kids. For a week or two at the end of each summer, we adopt someone else’s. We follow their every move from a small ballpark in central Pennsylvania, or from the television screens in our living rooms. We hang on their emotions, too: Their deep breaths, their clenched faces, their triumphant leaps into coaches’ arms. Many of us have been part of teams that have tried to get to Williamsport, or we just used to hop into the “way” back of our coach’s station wagon on the way to the diamond. Most of us never got to play on national TV in front of millions of viewers, with broadcasters who normally call major league games detailing our actions. Maybe we even forget, at least momentarily, they are kids. They are sometimes in tears, too, as are their parents, during and after the most excruciating moments. “I promised myself that every minute of these games I was gonna enjoy it,” Michelle Anderson, whose son Chase plays for the Lake Mary, Florida, team and husband Jonathan manages, told ESPN this week. “I was a stress ball to get here, but once we got here I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to enjoy the moment.’ ” It’s a moment where kids’ games are broadcast to the world and their coaches are miked up. With all the scrutiny, sometimes it’s difficult to decipher the purpose of the event. While it’s tempting to look at the Little League World Series a showcase of the most talented 12-year-old baseball players, it’s purpose is much more simple: It’s once-in-a-lifetime event for kids (and their parents) fortunate enough to soak up and experience it. We love the Little League World Series, but there are subtle ways to make it even better. Those are on-air comments from ESPN’s Karl Ravech and Todd Frazier in a game leading up to Saturday’s United States championship, which will feature Boerne, Texas, and Lake Mary, Florida. Maybe it’s because 64 confirmed “graduates” of the LLWS have played in the big leagues. One of those players is Frazier, who went 4-for-4 in the championship game to help his Toms River, New Jersey, defeat Japan in 1998. Now 38, he coaches his son’s baseball team. “That was a perfect executed bunt,” he said when Hawaii’s Kolten Magno sacrificed a runner to second base during a tense elimination game with Florida this week. “Only thing better, (if) he would have gotten it down more to third base … that would have been a knock.” Magno also singled to start a four-run, third-inning rally to tie the score 4-4. Florida’s lead began to evaporate when two of its players couldn’t turn either end of a double play. The Florida shortstop bobbled the ball and recovered, but the second baseman was looking at first when he received the throw and dropped it. “And everybody’s safe!” Ravech said. The scene ramped up, as everything connected to youth sports seems to do. “Once the bobble happens, understand: Gotta get that first out,” Frazier said during a replay. It wasn’t a dismissive look you might see on a major leaguer when he makes an error, but a look of distress. Had the words come from Frazier, a big leaguer as recently as 2021, the kid would have heard them on the replays of the clip. “You can see he took his eyes off the ball,” Frazier might have said. “Tough play those guys are capable of making.” He and Ravech struck a more age-appropriate tone the day before when Florida played Staten Island, New York. Jessica Mendoza, a major league broadcaster who is also a Little League mom, was also in the booth. “He yells all game long,” she said. At one point, Laterza called timeout and gave one of his hitters an earful of information in between pitches. The kid looked straight ahead and nodded as his coach spoke, perhaps more confused than when he stepped out of the batter’s box. “I think he was,” Frazier said. Can’t remember everything.” Coach Steve: Some parents need to rethink how they talk to their child athletes Have more Julie Foudy moments What question will ESPN reporter Julie Foudy ask next? “How did you get your kid to eat eggplant?” she said to Jana Grippo, mom to Stephen, a left-handed pitcher for Staten Island. “In my house, we have a rule: You’ve gotta try it before you say you don’t like it,” the mother replied. She played pickleball as a partner of Florida’s Liam Morrisey while asking about his care for his flowing dark hair (shower, brush, conditioner, blow dry). She challenged Henderson, Nevada’s Gunnar Gaudin to solve a Rubik’s cube in under 39 seconds while she chatted with him and teammate Wyatt Erickson about their squad. She talks to parents while their kids are in the act of playing, often pitching or hitting, a humorous exercise even without her commentary. 1 is watching your son,” she told Texas parent Dru and Jessica Steubing as they looked away from her and at the field. In the middle of one about the low-salt sunflower seeds the couple makes, they shot up and gave their complete attention to a ball their son Gage put into play. I love when that happens,” Foudy said. Be more selective in miking up coaches During a Nevada-Texas game this week, Nevada’s catcher fielded a bunt with a runner on first and errantly threw the ball to second base. The kid immediately knew he made a mistake (as most 12-year-olds do), and you could see him crying through his catcher’s mask. “We gotta get that out at first, man,” Nevada manager Adam Johnson told his catcher during a miked mound visit a few moments later. Johnson caught himself, like we all do sometimes as coaches when we say something that’s slightly off. Usually, we have the privacy of our team correct ourselves. “Forget about it, though,” he said. “You’re all right.” It was a one of those personal instances a coach should be allowed to have with his young players without everyone watching. For example, the one of Johnson, the assistant equipment manager for the Las Vegas Raiders, speaking to his team before an elimination game with Florida showed us how he inspiring he could be: “Enjoy the moment and understand what’s at stake,” he said in a calm yet firm voice. Enjoy the moment.” Play every kid as much as possible All teams are required to bat their full 12-to-14-man rosters during the Little League World Series. However, they don’t have play everyone in the field. This responsibility falls on coaches as much as Little League’s governing body, which did away with defensive requirements in part due to logistical headaches and violations (intentional and unintentional) of the rules. In the meantime, coaches can strive to play everyone as as much as possible. Teams that have a few large, dominant players (height can be a huge advantage at age 12) can ride them all the way to Williamsport. Let’s all remember these are 12-year-olds, and they are all about teamwork Relying on more players also builds team unity. During that game, Foudy spoke with his mother, Anjanette, about how he and some kids he knows had mental struggles when they played baseball and in school. “There is really no safe space to talk about it,” Anjanette told Foudy. Anjanette, a psychiatric case worker finishing up her master’s degree in social work, helped them start the “Pass the ball” podcast to give young athletes that place. With the nerves and pain visible in his face, he lined a hard, two-strike single to left field. “Atta boy, Caleb,” he said. “Man, you got the big hit. Shows how much it means to these kids.” Let’s hope we see Caleb playing again on TV someday. In the meantime, he gets to go home and be one again. Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. For his past columns, click here. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2024/08/24/how-to-make-little-league-world-series-better/74930379007/