By Anthony Panciocco
America’s favorite pastime has been, and still is, baseball. But who is to say that Major League Baseball is the right place to satisfy our need for this very important sport? The league is constantly surrounded by steroid scandals, dominated by teams with the highest payrolls and plagued by millionaire divas who refuse to play hard unless their needs are met.
No, that is not America’s favorite pastime. For our baseball fix, I suggest we think smaller. About as small as 208 little leaguers from around the globe in the small town of Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Since August 1947, 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds from around the world have competed for the opportunity to represent their country in the Little League World Series. In this, the dreams of every little leaguer in the world come true as they step onto the field to play baseball with the best around. While they put forth an inspiring amount of heart into competing for a championship, we are reminded of how baseball should be played: Hard, fair and for fun.
It has been difficult to watch baseball through the years as teams like the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees have often dominated due to their ability to spend freely without a hard salary cap to restrict them. It seems that everything revolves around money, with no real regard for the game. In the Little League World Series, there is no money.
The players are not compensated, the coaches are not compensated and even the umpires receive no money for their work. Even the grounds crew are volunteers. All of these people come together for their love of the game, to ensure that these kids have the best experience possible. There have never been any arguments or disagreements about being paid; the coaches, umpires and grounds crew realize that it isn’t about them. It’s about the kids. Kind of beautiful, isn’t it?
Major League Baseball has been grabbing headlines for nearly two decades for the wrong reasons, with the aforementioned steroid scandals being the main topic of conversation. Our spirits were lifted with the home run chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa during the 1998 season, then crushed as we found out they were both juicing. Time and time again we have believed in players that seemed to be larger than life, only to realize years later that it was a steroid-laden facade.
The Little League World Series has been a great way to elude such controversy. The only scandals that troubled the LLWS were about age restrictions, which hasn’t been an issue for over a decade. With these issues seemingly curbed for the time being, it is refreshing to watch a broadcast of a baseball game without having the announcers interrupt the commentary by reminding everybody that the player is breaking a record that will have an asterisk, or that the pitcher is returning from a lengthy suspension due to his use of performance-enhancing drugs.
In the Championship game of the 2013 LLWS, Chula Vista, California shortstop Giancarlo Cortez was struck in the head by Japan’s starting pitcher, Kazuki Ishada. While Cortez collapsed into a heap on home plate, a fearful hush fell over Lamade Stadium as coaches from both sides rushed out to tend to him.
Close to five minutes later, when Cortez was deemed to have avoided a concussion, he walked slowly down the first base line. The stadium of 40,000 erupted as he reached first, but something was different. Japan’s entire infield had crowded around Cortez to give him high fives and make sure he was okay.
At the end of the line was Ishada, who wrapped him up in a hug and seemed to exchange a few words before returning to the mound. These were kids who didn’t speak the same language, who were born and raised nearly 6,000 miles apart, but were brought together in a moment of compassion for a fellow baseball player who had felt hurt and embarrassed in front of the largest audience he had ever played in front of.
Would this happen in the majors? I would guess not. They had gone from giving their all for a championship, to one of the most heartwarming displays in sports, then back again in a matter of minutes. Kind of beautiful, isn’t it?