When Yoshi Wada was throwing a no hitter on Sunday, more than ten times as many viewers were watching the Little League Championship featuring Chicago's Jackie Robinson West All-Stars.
Chicago's Little League champions are a compelling story. City kids who have stable, two parent households, supportive coaches teaching fundamentals, the confidence to overcome adversity and a sense of pride in themselves and their sport. The maturity and sportsmanship shown was well beyond the average 13 year old.
Even though they lost to a powerhouse Seoul, South Korean team, Jackie Robinson West is still the pride of the U.S.A., the highlight of the Chicago baseball season.
After watching several games in the LLWS, major league baseball can learn a few things.
There were no controversy about the umpiring which I think is because no matter who was behind the plate, there was a very consistent letters to knees strike zone. A consistent strike zone is the key to speeding up the tempo of the game.
Another is that the pitchers go the baseball back, found their point on the rubber, and threw. There was hardly any batters getting out of the box after each pitch to adjust something. Pitchers may have only two signals (fastball or curve), but the rhythm between pitcher and catcher was very sound.
And the pitchers were not just throwing toward the plate. They understood the basic concepts and strategy of pitching: throwing inside to set up an outside pitch.
Hitters were also very polished in their approach. A few did overs-wing at times, but they made adjustments as the game went on. By shortening up their swing to make contact on fastballs, the hitters were spraying the ball hard all around the yard.
The coaches also understood that speed is an important part of baseball. Using speed on the base paths puts pressure on the defense which led to a few errors, extra bases and better scoring opportunities.
Yes, some players were out of position on defensive throws or covering the bag or hitting the cut-off man, but there were some kids who really can pick tough hoppers and throw accurately across the diamond.
What the national audience saw last weekend were kids playing baseball for the love of the game. And this seems missing in most of major league baseball.
