DownSwinging.com

Watching the Little League World Series is fun. You get to watch 12-year-old kids with an incredible amount of talent for their age participate in a worldwide event covered by ESPN. Sounds like a dream to me. Unfortunately, I’m going to speculate that behind the smiles in the dugout, things aren’t exactly as great as they seem. My grandfather always tells me he accidentally ran into a reunion for a team that went all the way in the LLWS, when the kids were all in their twenties. He talked to them about the experience, and they all said the same thing: It was the worst year of their life.

Sure it seems great to put some kids in the spotlight for once and celebrate the hard work they’ve put into their game over the course of the year, but maybe it’s a bit too much. We have to remember that we are throwing 12-year-olds onto ESPN and expectingt them to play and act like professional athletes. I’m not saying necessarily to take it off TV, but maybe just cooling off the media attention would make it a little better for the ones who really matter, the kids.

But that’s not even my major issue with LLWS. Currently, there are seven major league baseball players who played in the LLWS. They are Jason Bay, Sean Burroughs, Jason Marquis (pictured right), Lastings Milledge, Colby Rasmus, Gary Sheffield, and Jason Varitek. You know what’s interesting about those group of guys? Only one of them is a pitcher. Granted, this is an incredibly small sample size, so it’s hard to draw any conclusions from it. Regardless, I’m willing to bet if this list were expanded, we would see very similar results on a much larger scale.

The fact of the matter is that in the LLWS you see kids throwing curveballs, sliders, screwballs, and all sorts of pitches that dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge out of the way of the bats. I have no idea what percentage of breaking pitches are thrown in the tournament, but from watching the games it seems to me to be higher than in the major leagues. And that’s a serious problem. Because 12-year-old kids’ arms can’t handle breaking pitches. It’s terrible for them. And inevitably, a few years down the road, their arms break down and their “career” is over. I remember Cal Ripken Jr. saying that kids this age should be throwing fastballs and changeups, and maybe a knuckleball if they can throw one, but that’s it. The way kids were being made to pitch was bad for them and it was hurting the game. So maybe if recognize that these are just kids out there on the mound, there might be a little less pressure for them to win, and therefore a little less pressure to ruin their arms.