Little League Softball World Series

[soupy62]

A quick search of USSSA's website will tell you that they are registered as a 14U team with a record of 63-11 and have recently won a 16U tournament, but elected to play down and beat up a bunch of 12U little leaguers. The team that won it last year, from Illinois, did the same thing.

Yeah for them.

Thats funny in 2003 Waco Texas beatup on a poor team from Naples Florida that had some slouch of a little league pitcher by the name of Jackie Trina you may know her she won a NCAA National Championship plays on team USA. That 2003 Naples Florida team had one of her Alabama teammates on it to and still couldnt win.
If you think for 1 min that the big bad Stingers team from New Mexico was the only group of travel kids that played in that 16,000 team tournament your nuts!!! The comical part is the travel fourms complain about travel kids that play in the Little League world series because they are too good in one thread and normally not to far away there is another thread talking about how terrible the teams are that play on TV and its not a true reflection of the game.
I would guess if 90% of the people saying these types of things could find enough quality players in their Little League boarders and if their kid had a chance to do this for 1 year they wouldnt think twice about it. The excitment that is generated around the community when this stuff is going on is crazy and for once the girls in town instead of the crappy boys teams take center stage and are important for a few weeks that summer. I have a 17 year old and a 13 year old, both played in the Little League World Series as 12 year olds. I without a doubt will say that when they are both 40 you ask them what there best softball experience was and hands down not even close they both wont hesitate and say the Little League World Series. They both played travel ball with their eventual All Star team mates (most of them anyway) and during the week played games with their in house league teams that their teammates were split up on and had a ton of fun playing against their teammates in front of the fans from town. Both also after the World Series moved on to pure travel to play the game at a higher level. I dont think that 1 late summer away from travel for each hurt them to bad. 1 won the other (that had a damn good travel team that went) got 3rd. If niether of them had played in those years a different group of travel kids would have taken their places.
I can see where outsiders would see it in the way some do! But i will tell you Little League continues to change their rules so that they can draw travel teams or girls into their program. So obviously Little League wants a better product.

[Dongers Army]

Perhaps I am in the minority, but I thought it was awesome to see softball on ESPN. I thought it was cool that a team from New Mexico was able to navigate their way through a nation full of All Star teams to reach the championship. I thought it was great to see 12u softballers having fun.

I was stoked to see girls on National TV that had not quit softball in favor of soccer, lacrosse, volleyball or boys.

I did not consider how the team was formed, nor give a rats ass what travel ball team they came from. Most importantly, my daughter who has traveled across the country playing in National Championships, sat next to me and enjoyed watching the game with me. While she made a comment or two about the quality of play, she was envious of the the overall makeup of the Little League Softball World Series.

[DunninLA]

So now I am familiar with (have known kids or Dads who participated in them, or heard about them) eight different ways for a 12U player to enjoy a National Championship tournament:

- Bobby Sox
- Little League
- Pony
- NSA
- USSSA
- TCS
- ASA
- PGF

in my perceived order of talent. I don't know much about NSA, b/c we don't see it much if at all in CA.

I just think of them as with college divisions: Division I (ASA/PGF), Division II (USSSA/NSA/TCS), and Division III (Pony/Little League/ Bobby Sox). Anyone who has been around ASA All-Stars and some Travel for a year or two knows what each tournament means in the context of what is available, and the average talent in each Sanction. Just as with College DI, DII, and DIII, there will be some kids who could have played, even perhaps starred in, a higher division, but for various personal reasons (geographic, financial, academic, social) played in a lower division.

I say the more the merrier. Heck, if I had a 9 or 10 year old, I'd look into Travel + Bobby Sox, just because I've heard their Championships back in the early 2000s were in Hawaii, and all the kids had a blast.

The only thing about any of them that stands out to me is that ASA is also called "Junior Olympic", and PGF is composed of 98% of the best teams in the country.

[DunninLA]

Perhaps I am in the minority, but I thought it was awesome to see softball on ESPN.

I enjoyed the little I saw before switching channels. I enjoyed the faces of the girls playing, their reactions, and to be honest, the slightly un-coordinated physical movements of a lot of the players. It was innocence and enjoyment rather than skill and mental toughness.

So why did I change channels? Honestly, it is sometimes painful to see kids playing at a level well below what is possible at a given age. I mostly watch college softball, both in person and on TV. Sometimes that makes it tough to watch age level ASA All-stars, or Travel Ball, unless I simply change gears mentally and understand and appreciate the level of play in its context. Still, even at 12U, its tough to watch poor mechanics and unfocused mental preparation for each play shown often in Little League fastpitch... so I switched channels.

[joemcq51]

LIttle league rules don't prevent TB teams, they just have boundries for their players. If this team had their goal of winning the LL world series, they did a great job. You would certainly do whatever you could to prepare your team for the run. Many TB teams are formed to imrove the local all star team. This one just accomplished their goal in the end

[DonnieS]

Perhaps I am in the minority, but I thought it was awesome to see softball on ESPN.

I enjoyed the little I saw before switching channels. I enjoyed the faces of the girls playing, their reactions, and to be honest, the slightly un-coordinated physical movements of a lot of the players. It was innocence and enjoyment rather than skill and mental toughness.

So why did I change channels? Honestly, it is sometimes painful to see kids playing at a level well below what is possible at a given age. I mostly watch college softball, both in person and on TV. Sometimes that makes it tough to watch age level ASA All-stars, or Travel Ball, unless I simply change gears mentally and understand and appreciate the level of play in its context. Still, even at 12U, its tough to watch poor mechanics and unfocused mental preparation for each play shown often in Little League fastpitch... so I switched channels.

Glad I read all the way through your post - I was reading part of the way through and I thought you and I must have seen the same game yesterday, NYY vs the Texas Rangers. Your description matched up with that game pretty well.

[Battle]

In one game his team was up 11-0 in the first inning and he was still stealing and bunting throughout the game.
I thought that the NM coach was a total asshat.

Would you have felt the same way if the other team came back in the 3rd, after NM took out their pitcher, and scored 11 to tie?

Nope. We'd be too busy watching the pigs fly.

Seriously though, this was obviously not the case of one fairly capable team pummeling another where "anything could happen, even with an 11-0 lead".

LOL...ummm...Yeah it kinda was. This team went up 11-0 in the top of the 1st inning. The team in the field hadn't even batted yet. The LLWS was winding down to the finals. Wouldn't that be too early to start sand bagging?

[Battle]

In one game his team was up 11-0 in the first inning and he was still stealing and bunting throughout the game.
I thought that the NM coach was a total asshat.

Would you have felt the same way if the other team came back in the 3rd, after NM took out their pitcher, and scored 11 to tie?

Nope. We'd be too busy watching the pigs fly.

Seriously though, this was obviously not the case of one fairly capable team pummeling another where "anything could happen, even with an 11-0 lead".

LOL...ummm...Yeah it kinda was. This team went up 11-0 in the top of the 1st inning. The team in the field hadn't even batted yet. The LLWS was winding down to the finals. Wouldn't that be too early to start sand bagging?

He did it throughout the game not just the top of the first

Oh, well oops. Guess I missed that.

[lefty92410]

The major problem with this is that little league softball has no business existing. There is no comparison to ASA softball and little league will never surpass ASA. ASA allstars was the best competition before we moved on to travelball. any little league program should take a look at the ASA competion and realize thet they are offering a lower caliber of softball to young ladies. Put anyone of those littles teams against a ASA team nd you will see the ASA dominate. Parents of little league softball need to branch out and see what better softball there is available.

[illini 1]

The major problem with this is that little league softball has no business existing. There is no comparison to ASA softball and little league will never surpass ASA. ASA allstars was the best competition before we moved on to travelball. any little league program should take a look at the ASA competion and realize thet they are offering a lower caliber of softball to young ladies. Put anyone of those littles teams against a ASA team nd you will see the ASA dominate. Parents of little league softball need to branch out and see what better softball there is available.

This is a little harsh... I have had my teams playing ASA for a great number of years. With that said, Little league is where a lot of girls got started at t-ball and maybe even coach pitch. The ones that wanted more went to travel ball, the ones that wanted it socially or not as competitvely stay in little league. I do think there defintly is a place for little league, as there is a place for ASA. Of course you cant compare the talent level knor shall we even try, you cant make a cookie cutter program for everyone, cus everyone may not love softball as much as you do. Just like in school, you cant make every kid take the accelerated courses, some kids struggle with the basic courses.