It's my understanding that the majority of the kids from California (Thousand Oaks) had participated and won the 9-10 year old LL State Championship a few years back. They also apparently went far their 12 year old season, making it to Williamsport and the LL World Series? I'm assuming that they just wanted a chance at one more run and chose to stick together this summer?
I'm with most of you, I'd never heard of the Big League World Series until tonight! True, the pitching wasn't very strong (although the closer from PR was decent and I'm sure both rosters had depleted their pitching?), but in the couple innings that I watched, the defense appeared to be solid.
I'd say the coverage for the older HS kids is coming along, the AFLAC game will be televised again and people are getting the opportunity to see how much talent there is around the country.