LLWS Pressure Point

...just a theory from an ex LL dad....

The "talk" at the little league is to "go to Williamsport".  Once that is realized, the kids play pretty loose.  At some point actually winning becomes a reality, expectations get raised, bigger crowds, more attention.  Just a theory.

On the US side, the Las Vegas team was the clear favorite, in my mind.  The others were underdogs.  Props to the Chicago team, they kept their composure.

I would think it's no different than any other team....in any other tournament.  The deeper you get, the more pressure....so there obviously will be more stress on the players as they get closer to the final.  You see it every weekend...at all levels of play....it's always tougher to play when you get deep into tourneys

Other tournaments don't run national TV ads with 12/13 yo kids pictures and names printed in block type across the screen....ESPN/ABC hypes the kids more than I've seen the players in the CWS.

I agree. This is what happens to most teams no matter what the level. 

We have to keep in mind that these are children. Kudos to their coaches for getting them to the LLWS!

No matter what, high 5 to the team from Chicago, proving that the inner city baseball programs work!

On a related note, when will we stop seeing 13 YOs in the LLWS? How long will it take to phase in the new age restrictions/rules?

Starting in the 2018 season.

http://www.littleleague.org/Page60086.aspx

The new age deadline starts this coming year. But all the kids nine and older are grandfathered to the old deadline so they don't miss a year of all stars. With the change a kid could go from being eleven to thirteen and miss his big LL year. From my view 9/10 and 10/11 all stars aren't that big of a deal. LL only needed to grandfather two years of kids for 11/12s.

Its never been a popular opinion here - but I'm not much of a fan of televising 12/13-years old baseball with all the hype and ex-pro players commentating in the manner that happens for this event.

As such, I don't watch it.  Just how I feel.

Agree 100% with this. I've seen firsthand the negative impact the LLWS can have on kids (some of my former teammates: http://www.philly.com/philly/s...hand_can_relate.html). The rules are questionable (not a new discussion topic here), the competition doesn't feature *the* best players in that age bracket (not new either), and the stress placed on these children is sometimes overwhelming for them. No thanks.

while I agree with you 100% we still watch it if we are home everynight from the regionals on, my wife watches if the boys aren't home...we had this very conversation in the office this morning.

The kids from Chicago were awesome, I believe it was in the Chi/NE game a kid from Chicago hit a homer and did something I don't recall what it was some motion or whatever and his coach sent him over to the NE bench to appologize...it was great. the NE coach said heck no son you did great have fun but the fact that the Chicago coach was on top of it and had the kids acting classy was great. Hats off to them they are great bunch of kids and coaches.

ditto what old_school said.  

I don't like the short fence, so many curveballs, not the best talent, short pitching distance and base distance, wide strike zone and probably some more that I can't remember BUT it is baseball and I love watching kids play the game!

(and I admired what that the Chicago coach did too )

JBB & JH, I understand your point of view on it, although JH, the linked article seemed to put a positive spin on the event in many ways.  I didn't see where the article tied any problems the older players had to LLWS participation, but more so to the environment they grew up in.  Sounds like you probably have more insight as to how the event tied into the equation for some of those guys.

Overall, I take the good with the bad with this event.  It is baseball and kids.  The LLWS has been a staple of the overall game for a long time.  For me, the imperfections are part of the appeal. 

I do think they are regressing in the way it is produced on TV.  Mone is a great story... a talented, personable girl - pretty cool that she was such a contributing member for her team.  But there were plenty of other kids with interesting character and background that they could have touched on instead of hammering the Mone story to death.  I liked it better when they used to talk more about what the kids' personal interests are outside of baseball and about their hometowns and when they didn't isolate the kid that just made an error for so long.

But anyway, back to my original OP question... I wonder if the kids start to wear down mentally being away from the comfort of home for so long and having to be so careful about what they do or say every minute.

cabbagedad- Good post. To address the article I posted - yes, there were other extenuating circumstances outside of the ballfield for some of the kids on that team. What I noticed was more about two things. One was the expectations set forth on them from the age of 12 on. There was some sort of weird following that they attracted as they moved into high school (where I played summer ball with them) and the ruthless negativity either beat some of them down or tainted their own perception of themselves as teenage ballplayers. The other was a blatant racism from outside communities. Some of the comments that these kids were hearing were amazingly bigoted and incomprehensible. When you're 17 years old and you've been beaten down by racial slurs since middle school, baseball becomes less fun and more of a stressful experience. 

These circumstances are probably not the "norm" for post-LLWS experiences, but my witnessing of them firsthand leads me to have skepticism about how appropriate it is to treat 12/13 year old kids as celebrities because they happen to play baseball well together for a summer. 

I don't "boycott" the LLWS or have any ill-will towards the event. I love the fact that these kids are creating (mostly) positive memories that will last them a lifetime, and I wish each and every one of them all the best moving forward. However, combining some of RedFishFool's sentiments along with my personal experience witnessing the aftermath of the LLWS, it's sort of tainted my view of the entire event.

I know a few kids who played and did very well.  I never heard of any of that being an issue.  Most had parents at the event, and they all loved being there.  Getting the rock star treatment when they got home might have puffed up one or two egos  temporarily but other than that the kids I know seem like any other kids.

Fortunately, there is continued progress on that front... I think just about everybody had some degree of attachment to the Chicago kids.

I think so too. There was an air of skepticism surrounding the Harlem team after the Danny Almonte fiasco. Lots of irony in that - given the fact that Harlem is not in the Bronx (where Almonte's team is from) and thus the leagues had no connection whatsoever. Almonte entered high school at one of the better baseball programs in the Bronx, while several of the Harlem LLWS players went to one of the better programs in Washington Heights (which is in Manhattan). As they all progressed in their careers they all intermingled (the age old "baseball world") and began associating with one another. The questions were still coming even when all the kids were graduating high school six years later. It morphed into some nasty things and wasn't very fun.

I'm always glad to see the positive press behind the players. I don't particularly like the press they receive much, but positive is far better than the negative I witnessed.

Two things I hope for coming out of LLWS:

1)  For every player that at some point in their life they have something better that happens to them that they can talk about.

2)  That the Chicago and Philly kids stay with the game and that there are more behind them in LA, Houston, DC, Pittsburg and 15-20 other major markets that will chase baseball rather than basketball or football in larger numbers.  It will improve the game.