So Jackie Robinson West was stripped of the U.S. Little League Championship they won this past summer. That’s a bummer.First of all, let’s remember what we’re discussing here: a kid’s game played by kids for fun. Many people like to act like youth sports is a matter of life or death, but it’s not. It’s youth sports. It’s kids playing a game, just like kids have been doing forever. It’s the same as the kids in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book Little House in the Big Woods playing with an inflated pig’s bladder.Kids playing a game.Following this kids-playing-a-game way of thinking, I’m left to ponder why we make such a fuss over kids who win in youth sports in the first place. Jackie Robinson West hit, caught, and threw a baseball better than some other kids. That’s great. It’s exciting for those kids to play teams from different areas, and travel a bit, maybe see some places they wouldn’t have otherwise seen.But what does any youth sports championship actually accomplish?The team learns to play together. They learn the importance of sportsmanship. They learn to persevere. They learn that hard work is rewarded. They learn discipline. They learn they feel better after getting some exercise.All of those same lessons can be learned when a team loses, too. Millions of kids play Little League baseball across the country every summer. Are we to believe that only the kids on Jackie Robinson West learned these lessons because they won more than any other team?Ridiculous.Now, before you think that I’m just some stuffy anti-sports guy who never played or watched baseball in my life, let me stop you. I’ve loved the Cubs and Wrigley Field for as long as I can remember. My parents were involved with my local little league for fifteen years, some of those after I stopped playing. Dinners most nights every summer consisted of hot dogs or pizza from the little league concession stand.And I played the game for twelve years when I was a kid. I was good. Not great, good. In the past five years I’ve managed six little league teams. As a math expert you’ll notice that means that I managed two teams at the same time a couple of years ago.The best record of any team I played on when I was a kid was 8-8. My sons are young enough that they have not yet begun to keep score during games. Did I learn nothing because my teams were always mediocre? Have my sons played six seasons of baseball and not learned a thing because they haven’t won a game?
Every coach and manager in youth sports will eventually say something like “I do it for the kids,” or “I just want the kids to have fun,” or “It’s nice to win, but it’s more important to play hard and do your best.”Some of them even mean it when they say it.But some choose to live vicariously through their children, or make up for some other deficiency in their life, by pursuing a meaningless victory.Most of the time that pursuit of victory is exhibited by coaches who act like they’re coaching in the NFL or Major League Baseball, or try to turn kids into one-dimensional sports machines, or parents who pay ungodly amounts of money for one-on-one lessons or special equipment.However, when that doesn’t work, some are willing to break the rules.Jackie Robinson West isn’t the first case of Little League cheating.In 1992, the Philippines won the world championship with a team almost entirely of players too old or not local by using false birth certificates and assuming names of other players. In 2001, a team from the Bronx had a fourteen-year-old pitching for them. In 2008, a team from Miami entered Florida’s Little League tournament, despite being a travel ball team that didn’t even play Little League that year.The problem with Jackie Robinson West is the same problem that countless youth sports programs around the country have. The adults in charge of the program chose victory over fairness and good sportsmanship. They chose the trophy over the experience.Some people are quick to mock the attitude that everyone should get a trophy. I hope those same people mock the adults who are willing to do anything to get a trophy.Because after all, it’s just kids playing a game.PREVIOUS POST: Sybaris is Nice, but Not for MeIF YOU LIKED THIS POST I BET YOU'LL ALSO LIKE: The Years I Played Baseball+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Hey, did you like reading this? If so, you should Share it on Facebook so you can bring joy to others. You can also find tons of other posts by me here. And you can like my Facebook page, Brett Baker Writes. Please.
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