Over the weekend, I had some television viewing choices to make because I was home trying to recover from a sports injury of my own. The New York Yankees were playing The Boston Red Sox. This historic sports rivalry usually makes for some good television, even though Boston is struggling this season. While I don't watch that much regular season baseball any longer, I usually will check out the contest between The Big Apple and Bean Town.
I started to watch the Little League World Series earlier in the week. I have watched this event before and have always thoroughly enjoyed it. I was particularly interested in it this year because local teams from New Jersey and Connecticut were in the tournament. After watching a few games, I got totally hooked. The kids, the families, the coaches, the human interest stories, the sportsmanship, the delightful atmosphere in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, watching teams from around the world interact and have fun and the quality of play were quite captivating.
The international aspect of the game actually reminded me a bit of The Olympics. Having coached lots of kids on the mental aspects of baseball and developed a program to break hitting slumps, I was especially impressed the fantastic defensive play displayed by most of the teams. Players were often in the right spot and made some outstanding catches and throws. Kids at this age can vary widely in size. Some of the young athletes are huge. They look like grown men. And others, who have not reached puberty or experienced a growth spurt are quite small.
Nevertheless, many of them show great talent, ability and passion for the game of baseball. This year's tournament has had some controversial calls, a no hitter and some dramatic extra inning games. If you like baseball, you had to love this stuff. I even came home early from work to watch two of the games during the week.
I don't know what the television ratings are for The Little League finale as compared with the Yankees and the rest of major league baseball. However, I was delighted that I elected to view The Little League World Series. In my view, the little guys clobbered the big boys in terms of pure entertainment.
In my view, this time, The Little Leaguers beat The New York Yankees, The Boston Red Sox and the rest of major league baseball. Now, I am looking forward to the rest of the tournament and the finals.
No comments:
Post a Comment