I know a lot of people don't care for the MLB. So, I can imagine what preconceptions some might have about Little League Baseball. But let me tell you, this is one of the best sporting events of the year.
For me, the best part of the Little League World Series (LLWS) is the complete random and crazy things happening almost every inning. Just the other day I watched Mexico blow a lead to Curacao because Mexico's pitcher just threw the ball into the outfield. It wasn't anything special: simply a terrible throw from 15 feet away that cost them the game.
You never know what's going to happen when! It's like ice hockey; a small rink with people moving at insane speeds and you feel like they could score at any point. Same with the LLWS. The games are only 6 innings after all.
As you get farther along in the tourney, craziness happens less and less as the teams that commit a lot of errors keep losing (I wonder why... not taking care of the ball might have something to do with it). I bet you couldn't watch two consecutive innings of the earlier games without seeing some spectacular error.
At the same time, I bet you couldn't watch two consecutive innings of the late games without seeing some spectacular web gems. Watch this video and you'll see amazing plays, especially by Tennessee shortstop William Satinoff, who has been amazing in the 6 hole. Also present in that game was Corey Kahn, who made amazing catches in back-to-back games that wound up on SportsCenter. The juxtaposition from one play to the next is really... breathtaking to be honest.
You have stars like Davey-Jay Rijke, who struck out 30+ dudes in 12 innings. And Chase Link, who basically hit a home run every game. And Luis Garcia, who made eye-popping plays
at short whenever he wasn't striking guys out on the mound.
Or amazing stories like Josiah Porter's. He is completely blind in his right eye yet still makes winning plays for a Tennessee team that is playing for the USA Championship. He hit a grand slam just the other day!
Or unbelieveable games like Japan vs Nicaragua. They faced off in an elimination game turned into a 26-hour, 11-inning affair! Granted, the 26-hour part was because of multiple rain delays, but still! 11 innings! That's basically twice as much as they usually play. That's like an MLB game that's 17 innings long. Oh, and by the way, a kid on Nicaragua (Dereck Alonzo) hit a 3 run bomb in the 6th inning to send it to overtime. Oh, and by the way: in those 5 extra innings, both teams had bases loaded with nobody out three times! And 0 runs were scored all three times! Oh, and by the way, the winning run scored on an absolute HORRID throw by Japan's third baseman. That game had it ALL! You can watch the highlights here.
Add the fact that literally every single game matters to these kids that love baseball purely and unconditionally; even when you aren't rooting for someone, it pulls at your heartstrings to see these shattered kids after they lose.
Unless they're from Texas.
Kidding.
And, of course, you have Hawaii. They've won their 4 games a combined 39-1. Just complete and utter dominance. They're my pick to win it all, but I'll get more into that in another piece that is probably up right now.
This article was a bit of a mess, but I thought that was fitting considering the topic. The Little League World Series is a bit of a mess at times, but that is part of the magic. Having kids and families and fans invested so heavily into this game of ours despite the mess is the magic.
Baseball is the magic.