You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.
How exciting the little league world series is.
As I sit here watching little guys from Japan play little guys from Hawaii, I think; man these kids are having the time of their lives.
It makes me look at the “Show” and think the pros have forgotten what America’s pastime is all about.
The kids versus the pros. To me it’s the difference between pure joy and “so-what.”
It’s the difference between singing spirituals in the choir and Girls gone wild in Cancun. It’s just two different spectrums of realization.
I watch these little kids from Hawaii playing Georgia and there is competitive fire, but more importantly, there is sportsmanship. Every pitch. Every ground out. Every hit, every homer. There is pure desire that I think is often missing in the big leegs.
When I watch Peurto Rico versus Canada, I don’t think performance enhancing drugs or contract year or who fathered what baby.
I am thinking back to a green field and blue sky in the memory of my own youth.
As I remember, I see me and my buddies on a warm Saturday afternoon in Mrs. Miller’s field playing for the fun of it. Out of bounds was the pine tree. Mr. Jenkins house was foul territory. Break his window, again, and everybody run.
Sure little leeg world series is pressure packed, but aside from the ESPN coverage and Brent Mussburger’s play by play and commercial breaks sponsored by NIKE, it is still sport at its purest.
It’s vanilla icing in the bowl and your mom let’s you lick the spoon.
The Little League World Series is a child’s game played by children. It’s for fun and for pride and maybe a McDonald’s Happy Meal afterwards. Who cares who won.
By comparison, the pro game is so boring and so long and every game looks the same. Until the playoffs, pro baseball is like warm milk on a hot day. It’s just monotonous and not very appetizing.
MLB is chewing tobacco and pitches high and tight to send a message. It just lacks joy.
I’ll take the little guys in little league who are playing their little hearts out any day.
And that’s crazy.
by the way: congratulations to Japan who won a hard fought game against Hawaii.