<p>I’m rooting for the team from CT. (No surprise there!) They just won their second game.</p>
<p>I’ve both coached and umpired LL in a Detroit suburb. We make coaches and parents sign conduct contracts due to incidents in the past. We have close to a zero tolerance policy and it’s enforced. The majority of the parents are really well behaved and they tend to police each other. I’ve had to ask a few parents to leave and their kids always look so relieved when we step in. I can’t imagine what it’s like to live with parents that intense. </p>
<p>I haven’t caught any of the games this year but I’m always amazed at how knowledgeable these kids are of the game. It’s quite remarkable.</p>
<p>Anyone catch that the CA kid (the one with the really long hair who just hit a home run) has the nickname of Sugarlips? </p>
<p>Thought that was kind of funny!</p>
<p>And the pitcher who just got hit in the thigh by a line drive and fell to the ground. While he was taking a couple of practice pitches to see if he could stay in the game, the kid whose line drive hit him and now was on first base, came over to the mound to wish him well. </p>
<p>And I stand corrected in Post #17; the decal on their sleeves says “I Won’t Cheat”.</p>
<p>Like others on this thread, I’ve coached for years - 15 in total in my case. I coached before I had kids and then I coached my son for the first few years of his playing career. He played all the way through his college years - and I very much enjoyed being a part of that journey both as a spectator and as a coach.</p>
<p>I plan to go back into coaching soon. Just a way to give back to the game I love. But I’ll never go back to coaching the 11-12 year old bracket. The parents are nuts at that age. There are always those that think that their evaluation of little Johnny is spot on - obviously the next Mike Trout/Derek Jeter/Clayton Kershaw - and then they act on their delusions. </p>
<p>This is the age bracket where the umpire asked me if I wanted a police escort off the field because one parent had flipped out when I took his kid out of the game. The fact that the rules said he couldn’t pitch anymore wasn’t important - he just knew his kid was coming out and he wasn’t going to stand for it. The police ended up coming when someone else called and escorted him out of the park. Despite that, when I headed to the parking lot after the game I had my son’s baseball bat in hand just in case.</p>
<p>The thing that so few of them understand is that this age is when puberty is the biggest decider of talent - and that in two years, talent will prevail over who went through puberty first. The national norm is that 60% of kids who make their Little League or equivalent all star team end up playing baseball as a high school senior. That’s an old stat from when I was on the Little League board of directors for my district.</p>
<p>A more recent set of numbers was clearly expressed as in this tweet from MLB News - </p>
<p>The MLB Life @MLB_News13</p>
<p>Little league-2 million players
High school-455,000 players
College-25,000 players
Drafted-1,500 players
MLB-750 players</p>
<p>It is a pyramid that gets narrower and narrower… If parents understood that these odds perhaps they could stay more in the moment.</p>
<p>What a classy move, ter.</p>
<p>In our experience, the kids who were really, really good (ie the one kid who is now playing in Minor League ball) had parents who were more realistic, more low key about the whole thing than parents whose kids were on the boarderline.</p>
<p>One year our District champs were 4 or 5 outs away from representing the Mid-Atlantic Region at Williamsport. But it was the first year that Little League imposed pitch counts so their starting pitcher (6’ 1" tall) had to be replaced by a different pitcher. They lost the game.</p>
<p>Little League was the only organized team sport back when I was a kid. You had to make the team, there was no minimum play rule, girls couldn’t play, and we didn’t redraft players every year. The team you were on at age 10 was going to be your team through age 12. And only the first place team got trophies.</p>
<p>I’ve watched just about every year since I was 12. This year my hometown is representing the Northwest region, which makes it even more fun to watch. Today’s game was really exciting even though they lost. It was obvious they were shaken up by Jacob’s injury yet still played hard until they end. I’ll miss tomorrow because of work (and Tuesday, if they make it that far) so I’ll have to clear room on the DVR before I leave. </p>
<p>Haven’t watched much of the international pool yet but last year I loved seeing Uganda.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Eventually that can happen, but it ain’t necessarily so. Gladwell cites a study of hockey players that indicates that there is a significant advantage to being born at the older end of your age cohort. Couple the older chronological age with earlier biological maturity and those are the kids who dominate in high school.</p>
<p>Having noted that, I’m enjoying watching the games. Its fun every year. I have noticed that ESPN has decided not to show the radar gun readings of the pitchers anymore. I think that shows how unusually physically mature many of the kids are. At age 12, 50th percentile in weight is 90 pounds, and 95th percentile is 130. THere are quite a few who are above the 95th playing in Williamsport.</p>
<p>Yay, my hometown team advances.</p>
<p>Hearing about A-Rod’s drama, being hit by a pitch in a game against the Red Sox, makes me so sad. I used to love watching pro baseball. Now, pro sports are just no fun at all.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I thought I heard them say that they would not show (or maybe tell) the radar gun readings unless a pitch was over a certain MPH… I think they said 63.</p>
<p>I missed that, but I can guarantee that the largest pitchers on all these teams are throwing at least in the 70s, and probably in the upper 70s in some cases. Possibly a few breaking 80. I mean absolute velocity, not the one where they adjust it to a major league equivalent based on it getting to the batter more quickly with a 45 foot vs 60 1/2 foot mound distance. </p>
<p>My last post wasn’t completely clear, I think. The absence of the radar gun is to head-off the comments about how unusually large and mature the kids are for their ages.</p>
<p>^^^ I thought that’s what I heard, but sometimes I’m watching a game while I’m on my laptop, and am not giving my full attention to what the broadcasters are saying.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’ve also seen graphics that show the record heights of the tallest and shortest players ever to play at Williamsport. The tallest player ever (can’t remember who or when) was 6’4".</p>
<p>I heard that, too.</p>
<p>To keep things more positive, I’ll note that I’ve been very impressed with the kids level of play, and the closeness of many plays. I saw a game with two ever-so-close plays at home plate, and also several close calls at first base that were reviewed and found to be correct by the umpires.</p>
<p>I think the toughest thing for kids at this level is that, for many, they are now playing other teams who are as good as they are for the first time. This is not an easy thing to get used to…the other team hits your best pitcher, they catch the balls that are normally hits, and they field balls that other teams can’t. It’s always good to seek out the best competition, and by earning their way to this spot, each of these teams has done that. </p>
<p>Its neat for these kids to have this kind of experience, I think. Also, it can’t be easy for parents who are making the trip. It looks like its a two week experience, and you’re not exactly at the Ritz Carlton up there in central Pa. But how else would you rather spend your vacation time?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Again, I heard this as I was multi-tasking (yea, I know… another thread), but one of the families from the Westport, CT team had to cancel a trip to Africa this summer so he could be a part of the LLWS. Yea, kind of difficult to feel sorry for them, but I can imagine the planning that trip took, only to cancel at a rather last moment. </p>
<p>
Thanks for letting me know I wasn’t hearing things that weren’t said! Do you remember if the cutoff was 63MPH?</p>
<p>I think it was 63, may have been 68? Definitely in the 60s.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I actually did a google search and could not find an answer very quickly.</p>
<p>Our South Nashville team won 10-0 (mercy rule) today and advances! Still alive!</p>