Little League provides refresher

By DAN HOEHNE

daniel.hoehne@newssun.com

If you didn't catch any of the Little League World Series last week, you missed out on some great action, wonderful moments and a good look into the children leading the way.

Well, the children aren't exactly leading the way, considering it would have been adults that decided to use expanded instant replay during the tournament - but they were on the stage the showed how well replay can work.

The thing that got me most, however, we'll get back to replay in a minute, was how much fun the kids seemed to be having - a reflection of the coaching they were getting.

I remember in years past, seeing those brow beating type coaches who only ramp up the pressure on the little guys.

But from numerous coaches this time around, I saw men cajoling the kids, not condemning them.

Urging them to enjoy the moment, not to dwell on a downturn.

Twelve year olds are emotional and soak in a lot.

They've reached this level of competition and often times they can blow it a bit out of proportion, the overall importance of it.

What I saw from so many of the coaches was that, in addition to wanting to win, of course, was in stressing to the kids how great it was to be where they were.

The Canadian team, even in defeat, seemed to be having the time of their lives, as they should have been.

A pitcher for the Texas team was having a rough outing and was obviously getting down on himself.

Instead of his coach, and uncle, gruffly telling him to suck it up, talked to him supportively, told him to keep his chin up and just to have fun.

I am definitely not one of those in favor of the trend of rewarding every kid for just showing up, but I am also against a winning at all costs attitude, especially at these lower levels of competition.

Try to win, sure, but don't lose sight of growth, improvement and enjoyment along the way.

And it was that prevailing attitude I was refreshed by as I watched those games.

I should also mention that from what I saw, I certainly think our Dixie Ozone World Series Champs could have done just as well in the Little League World Series.

What also did well was the instant replay, in the expanded form that Major League Baseball seems to want no part of.

During the Series, 16 calls were disputed, eight of them overturned, with barely an interruption to game play.

It kind of shows the level of umpiring that half of the challenged calls were overturned, but that in itself shows the value of it.

I just read a piece this morning by Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer, a writer against instant replay - in any form, in any sport - again bringing up the human element aspect of the argument.

In his defense of his stance, he cites the perfect game that never was when Jim Joyce missed a call on the final out of Detroit's game where Armando Galaraga missed his likely only chance at history.

I wrote about it afterward, taking note of the class and grace Galaraga handled it with, and what a good lesson it proved to be.

Daugherty took it a step further and said it was the moment of the year for this Major League season.

The moment of the year was a pitcher who didn't get his deserved perfect game and the umpire whose career will now be defined by missing that call?

How they handled the moment was something worthwhile, but don't you think that moment, for both of them, would have been better had replay been available to quickly make the correct call?

He also sees it as a way of "do overs," saying that if a receiver drops a pass, he doesn't get a do-over, suggesting that the human element transcends to all aspects of the game and that replay is messing with that in one area.

Umpires are human, and are going to make mistakes, just like a receiver, just like a batter who swings at a two-strike pitch in the dirt.

But the players are playing the game, the umpires, officials and referees are governing the game - the aspect of the game that you'd want a way to correct a mistake.

If I spell some words wrong in the writing of this column, sure I could let it run in the paper and any complaints I get I can just chalk up to "the human element."

Yet, I have a means to correct such mistakes with this little thing called spell check.

Wouldn't you rather I make use of such technology, to have this little "do-over" and get it right?

Think of the use of instant replay as an umpire's spell check.

And now, any notion of how much using the replay would delay baseball games can be put to rest as well, with those 16 challenges totaling 52 seconds of delay.

They may not have lead the way themselves, but these Little Leaguers and their coaches sure did show the way, in many regards.

Dan Hoehne is the Sports Editor of the News-Sun. He can be reached at daniel.hoehne@newssun.com.