By SCOTT LAWSON
Sports Editor
Published August 30, 2011
For the past couple weeks, you could not change to ESPN without watching or hearing about one of the biggest events for young athletes for the past couple of weeks. No I’m not talking about what is going on with the NCAA and the start of college football which is starts this week, I am talking about the Little League World Series.
Many of us have grown up playing some form of recreational sport, and it is fairly difficult to find someone who hasn’t played little league, both softball and baseball.
For those of you who do not know, the Little League World Series is the national and international tournament for kids around the age of 12. It is an experience of a life time for these individuals because typically teams will not compete for sectional and state tournaments until they reach their high school athletic programs.
The tournament is held in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and the big story of this year was the team that was representing the Mid-Atlantic. The team from Pennsylvania set records by drawing the highest attendance rates for a Little League World Series game of all time with 41,848 fans at a stadium that seats a maximum of 9,000. This was more than most major league teams drew. Yeah, they drew more fans than the New York Yankees.
Although they were knocked out of the tournament in the National Semi Finals, they still exemplified one of my favorite aspects of sports, they had fun. As they tipped their caps and took their victory lap, all of them had smiles on their faces despite the fact that they lost. Having fun is something I feel most people lose as they progress through their athletic careers. I do understand the competitive aspect of the sport, been there and done that, but it is refreshing to see sports in the eyes of a kid who you can easily see that have the aspirations of going as far as they can in their careers.
