I used to really like the LLWS but as the years pass I find something a slight bit off about how espn produces the show/talks about the kids. I'm probably just getting old and jaded though.

I'm wondering if anyone else feels the same, but I think this has got to be one of the least marketed LLWS in recent memories. It seems as if there is almost no excitement surrounding this year's tournament to most of the outside world...

Is that just me? A product of not having a Texas team in Williamsport?

I will have to say that, IMHO, the little league world series is the best pure baseball on TV today. I still watch a lot of MLB, but I am burning out quickly on strikeout, homerun, strike out, strike out. College baseball is also awesome, but the little league kids make plays that you just don't see anywhere else. I watched a Youtube video the other night of highlights from last years tournament and it blows away everything else.

I coach 8u and watch a lot of my boys' older brothers play 10u and 12u. Watching what these kids are capable of is amazing.

Definitely less homers this year which is a good thing

Have to think that MLB started using the Little league balls and that's why the increase in HRs

Ag_07 said:

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I've always though grown men watching 12 year old boys play baseball on TV is really weird.

I love baseball but I have no interest in watching the LLWS.

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you are missing out. It is fantastic baseball

Ag_07 said:

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I've always though grown men watching 12 year old boys play baseball on TV is really weird.

I love baseball but I have no interest in watching the LLWS.

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You probably enjoy watching 11 year olds

The only good thing about the LLWS is it is basically the herald for college football. When LLWS is on, football is juuuuust around the corner.

ABATTBQ87 said:

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One day when you have kids and you coach youth baseball, you will become addicted to the love of the game.

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So true. I've always liked baseball. But my kid played at the local league and was pretty good. I ended up coaching for a few years. Now I love the game and can watch kids play any day. Of course, the experiences of his youth baseball (along with the Astros' success!) has made this father/son relationship even better.
We've been watching the LLWS together and really enjoying it.

Same with me. I never watched the tournament before I had a son and coached boys. Now it is must watch TV.

Wish they'd go back to showing the pitch velocity. You start to take the velocity these kids have for granted.

Ag_07 said:

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I've always though grown men watching 12 year old boys play baseball on TV is really weird.

I love baseball but I have no interest in watching the LLWS.

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I am at a loss as how someone can say they love baseball but don't enjoy watching LL. I watch the LLWS every year but I also watch a ton of local little league games.

That Frazier guy is going to have offers pouring in for coaching positions.

To a man, that team hits for contact, can bunt, can go opposite field, can run the bases, and plays exceptional defense. That's incredible for kids that age. That guy can flat out coach.

I've always been shocked that they run " the shift" on mlb players. You are a freaking major leaguer and you are telling me you cant go opposite field when they leave the entire infield open? And now they are talking about outlawing it because mlb players don't want to learn how to hit?

Danny Vermin said:

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Man, those Louisiana kids were absolutely dominate the last two games.

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When the regional tournaments were being played and they waltzed through the Texas teams, I knew they had a good chance to win it all. They had the best hitter and best pitcher in Williamsport in my opinion. Add to that, they are extremely deep.

cevans_40 said:

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Danny Vermin said:

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Man, those Louisiana kids were absolutely dominate the last two games.

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When the regional tournaments were being played and they waltzed through the Texas teams, I knew they had a good chance to win it all. They had the best hitter and best pitcher in Williamsport in my opinion. Add to that, they are extremely deep.


Yeah after they destroyed Houston I thought this team was likely to win it all.

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A lot of the kids from the LA championship team have been together, playing select ball for years. They have a pretty stout 12U Majors team. My son's select team has tried to work it's way back into LL just for the All-Star aspect of it, but the local Little League would break the team up for season play.

This Lousiana Little League wanted to compete and probably made a few exceptions to put together a stout team. I am not saying there is anything nefarious with the All-Star team itself, but they probably did what they could, to get the best USSSA players back into the LL system.

https://www.usssa.com/baseball/teamHome/?teamID=2715115


https://www.littleleague.org/world-series/2019/llbws/teams/southwest-region/

Baseball-Junkie said:

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A lot of the kids from the LA championship team have been together, playing select ball for years. They have a pretty stout 12U Majors team. My son's select team has tried to work it's way back into LL just for the All-Star aspect of it, but the local Little League would break the team up for season play.

This Lousiana Little League wanted to compete and probably made a few exceptions to put together a stout team. I am not saying there is anything nefarious with the All-Star team itself, but they probably did what they could, to get the best USSSA players back into the LL system.

https://www.usssa.com/baseball/teamHome/?teamID=2715115


https://www.littleleague.org/world-series/2019/llbws/teams/southwest-region/

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Im confused by your points. Literally every single team playing are league all stars. So either they pulled people from other leagues illegitimately to win or they didn't.

Cy_Tolliver said:

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Baseball-Junkie said:

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A lot of the kids from the LA championship team have been together, playing select ball for years. They have a pretty stout 12U Majors team. My son's select team has tried to work it's way back into LL just for the All-Star aspect of it, but the local Little League would break the team up for season play.

This Lousiana Little League wanted to compete and probably made a few exceptions to put together a stout team. I am not saying there is anything nefarious with the All-Star team itself, but they probably did what they could, to get the best USSSA players back into the LL system.

https://www.usssa.com/baseball/teamHome/?teamID=2715115


https://www.littleleague.org/world-series/2019/llbws/teams/southwest-region/

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Im confused by your points. Literally every single team playing are league all stars. So either they pulled people from other leagues illegitimately to win or they didn't.

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Most USSSA players don't play Little League as well. This Little League has made an effort to get an established group of USSSA baseball players back into their system. Again, I am not saying there is anything wrong with this, but it's not very common.

Edit - The All-Stars are the best players from each Little League team in that league. You'll usually have one or two from each team, but they aren't cohesive when first selected to the team. USSSA isn't associated with Little League. It's select/travel ball and most teams have been playing together for years. Usually you're practicing twice a week and playing tournaments on Saturday/Sunday, so you don't have time to play elsewhere. Outside of that, a lot of Little Leagues aren't receptive to you trying to game the system just for the All-Star process.

I am not saying they did anything wrong or gamed the system. With that said, they had an advantage since a lot of them have been playing on the same team for years. Kudos to that Little League for doing everything within the rules to tip the scales to their favor. The results speak for themselves.

Cy_Tolliver said:

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Im confused by your points. Literally every single team playing are league all stars. So either they pulled people from other leagues illegitimately to win or they didn't.

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I think he's saying they were able to place their complete USSSA tournament team into the local little league as it's own team. Most LLs have tryouts and drafts, so their all star teams are kids that didn't play on the same team for the whole season (or multiple years if it happened as he described).

I have a kid who plays USSSA.
Even if they played some select tourney ball, they only played 4 tournaments for this year, which includes last fall. They didn't even play 20 games through USSSA ( didn't check nations and who knows on unsactioned tournaments.).
Most travel ball teams play 10 tournaments in the spring a couple in the fall, and maybe 1 or 2 in the summer.
This team beat Traction Canes Black. They are an organization that routinely travels to tournaments, including Houston and are competitive at the highest levels. To beat the Canes with relatively limited tournament exposure is an accomplishment.

I have enjoyed watching this team. Where they win is they do not miss the routine play in the field, pretty much playing error free baseball. They don't swing at many pitches they can't hit, and when they do swing they make solid contact. They are obviously well coached. They do not win with 300 foot bombs, and 80 MPH fastballs, and superman plays.

I see teams assembled from a much larger area, with much more raw talent and physical skills, that would have had a very tough time hanging in with this LA team.

Congrats to them. They played good baseball and won a very competitive and grueling tournament!

"Again, I am not saying there is anything wrong with this, but it's not very common. "

I'd go so far as to say it's actually the norm for any league that has a reasonable hope of making it past sectionals. "Who do they play for?" is always the first question about other league all star teams, assuming you don't already know.

jschroeder said:

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"Again, I am not saying there is anything wrong with this, but it's not very common. "

I'd go so far as to say it's actually the norm for any league that has a reasonable hope of making it past sectionals. "Who do they play for?" is always the first question about other league all star teams, assuming you don't already know.

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My son's team plays in a ton of USSSA tournaments and we're always scrimmaging other teams as well. It is not a question I ask, nor is my observation the end all be all, but I know zero tourney kids who are still playing Little League.

Our team tried to get in LL just for All Stars, but we would have to tear the team apart for that to happen. They wouldn't allow the team to stay together and there is no way you could meet practice and game schedules in that manner. If the teams remain intact, you could practice for season games and tournaments at the same time -- while also scheduling your tournaments around the LL schedule. If your tourney team had kids on 6 or 7 different LL teams, it's just not possible.

I am sure there are ways around all of this and some of the better LL All Star teams are making it work out somehow.

No matter what it is, the LA team is very impressive. I didn't think anyone had a chance to beat Curacao.

Edit - You seem to be a little more versed on Little League. How are they making the schedules work?

Not sure how other leagues do it, but we didn't play any games on the weekends. This allowed tournament kids the ability to play league games during the week, and travel with their tournament teams on the weekends. For the 12 year old group, games were only scheduled on Tuesday and Thursday.

As mentioned above, the first thing is no weekend games for the LL majors level. It allows the select ball kids to play their games without interfering with tournaments. Also, keep the minors teams with 9/10u select kids earlier on Saturday if you need to schedule their teams on that day.

Figuring out if you can schedule the weeknight games in such a way that they don't interfere with select ball practices helps as well. Try doubleheaders. The less time you require of the select kids the better.

As far as getting as many of them on the same regular season team as possible, good luck, you need to depend on your LL coaches 'playing ball' for that. Playing on the same regular season LL team isn't very important for all-stars though and the caliber of kids you need to get to that level couldn't care less about regular season LL. You must make it clear to anybody who drafts those kids that they'll likely miss some/all practices and several games.

It may sound like I'm saying your league is subservient to select ball .that's because it is. A LL mentioned on ESPN even when they don't make it tried pulling rank and putting demands on some of their uber elite level select kids this year and it was made clear to them where they stood in the pecking order.

Correct.

The TV coverage is a double edged sword. Without it, LL will just die off. With it, you get all the b.s. us overly involved dad's do.

One kid on my son's select team was straight up asked if he'd be willing to live with his cousin a few months. When his mother balked at the idea she said their response was "do you want to play on TV?"