With summer winding down, J and I headed to Williamsport, PA to visit my brother and sister-in-law and watch the International and USA finals of the Little League World Series.
I honestly can not remember the last time I had that much fun at a baseball game. Since tickets to the stands are difficult to obtain, we staked out a shady spot above the field and watched four teams of twelve year old boys play in 93 degree heat with amazing poise and discipline. At one point it felt as if I had entered a time warp, listening to to the crack of ball upon bat while watching young children slide down the hill on cardboard and adults try to create a breeze with old-fashioned paper fans.
We were also initiated into some of the LLWS traditions, such as the tradition of very grown men* buying and swapping dozens of Little League baseball pins from all over the world. Such men carry their bounty in cloth books.
*In his fifties, at least. He had statistics on all the teams and was predicting where some of the players would go to play college ball. Did I mention that these players were twelve year old boys?
How cool! Did you see the Lubbock, Texas team play? When I was in Lubbock last week, the Little League World Series was the talk of the town.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Lubbock Texas team played against Georgia in the USA final. Both teams were very good.
ReplyDeleteI recommended taking the trip one year to see the teams play if you can find the time. There has been a lot of recent criticism that it has gotten "too commercial" but I did not get that sense from what I saw.