JJ Says: Little League All-Star time is special

As high school athletes scatter to pursue their passion in different venues - from travel teams to summer camps - my focus will switch for about a fleeting month to one of my favorite sport: Little League baseball.

Little League is perhaps the purest of all the sporting activities I am privileged to observe each year. From T-Ball to Major League, the enthusiasm and innocence of the players is infectious. Almost every coach in any sport right through high school admonish their players to “have fun.” Most Little Leaguers truly do have fun.

For most area Little Leaguers, their season is already over. Only the best are still playing. First there is the Tournament of Champions playing this week at different venues, most in Petaluma, featuring the championship teams from all District 35 leagues. Then the real competition starts with All-Star play.

I am not going to go into how a player gets to be an All-Star. There is no easy way to select a star team, and, unfortunately, too often there is controversy. Let’s just fast forward to the teams who take the field and let someone else sort out how they got there.

All-Star competition occurs on basically three age levels 10 and under, 11 and under and Major League for 12 and unders. Only the older group has a chance to reach the ultimate of the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Only one Petaluma team has ever climbed that high. It is a long an arduous road.

Regardless of how far our All-Star teams advance, it will be a special experience for them. Every game will be important and every game will see their best efforts. I wish every kid could have the All-Star experience, but if that were true, it wouldn’t be special.

I love T-Ball and the cute antics of youngsters who are just beginning to grasp the concept of hitting, throwing, catching and running the bases, but it is also fun to see how quickly kids who truly love the game develop.

One of the most enjoyable All-Star age groups for me is the 10 and unders. Every summer, I am amazed to discover how well these very young athletes play the game. It is astonishing to watch their approach to the plate and how quickly they understand things like cut-off plays and force outs.

By the time they reach the 12-year old age group, they are really playing excellent baseball. Still, they are youngsters, with all the high and low emotions that go with being in that in between age between childhood and teenage.

Little League baseball is also a family affair. Parents are definitely invested in their baseball-playing children and games are often a social event with families bonding as their teams advance up the playoff ladder. Life-long friendships have been made in Little League bleachers.

The concept of the wild-eyed screaming Little League parent is pretty much an urban legend. To be sure, there are parents of both genders who take the game way too seriously and are quick to loudly blame everyone from the umpire, to the manager to divine misguidance for their son’s or their team’s failures.

Fortunately, they are in the minority. Most parents adhere to the basic principle of “let the kids play and have fun.” It is great to win. It hurts to lose. At the end of six innings, the fun is in the playing.

What Little League baseball is all about is the love of the game.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com.)