Does anybody like the little league world series on TV?

The Game Room
1

Just curious if anyone likes to watch it, and why. It is something that just has no appeal for me, and I am puzzled as to why ESPN is showing it. I haven’t come across anybody who says they watch it, and yet the network isn’t stupid, they wouldn’t show it if nobody watched. I have just always watched sports because of the spectacle of top flight athletes doing what is impossible for of the population.

I don’t want to get into a ‘piss on somebody elses viewing habits’ thing, but I am curious who watches it, and what the attraction is of watching what are, relative to other televised sports, low-ability mistake-prone kids .

2

Nope. LL sucks. Way too much dominance by the pitchers. Not quite as bad as women’s softball, but close. Plus I don’t like the way they rig the tournament to guarantee the US a spot in the finals.

3

Not at all. I try not to watch. These are kids. Have fun playing baseball. I did. But I don’t want to be on national tv.

4

I’ll watch if there’s nothing else on. It’s far from gripping but sometimes good for a laugh: for example I saw an inning or two in the Mexico-Japan today, and for some reason ESPN saw fit to list the hometowns of most of the players.

Their hometowns were the same place the team comes from. Imagine that. :smack:

5

I’ve been deeply involved in Little League for 20 years, as a manager, board member and umpire (I’m still very active as an umpire).

I only watch the LLWS on TV to critique the umpires…which is easy, because they screw up a lot. It’s just not very fun to watch games on the little diamond, and even at this rarefied all-star level every fly ball is an adventure.

6

Absolutely not. I don’t get it. It’s just kids playing baseball. What’s the big deal?

Nowhere near as bad as Toddlers and Tiaras, though. :wink:

7

I watched this year, but mostly because I was rooting for the local team, San Antonio, TX. If you watched a San Antonio game, a bunch of them had other towns as their “hometowns”, because a bunch them weren’t born in San Antonio and they chose to write in their birthplaces on the ESPN questionnaires.

The first game between San Antonio and Chula Vista in pool play, the international final and the championship game yesterday were very competitive and well played. The rest, well, not so much.

Coolest questionnaire answer: A San Antonio kid whose favorite MLB player was Christy Mathewson.

And the San Antonio kids are getting a parade on the River Walk this weekend. Not bad for a bunch of middle schoolers. :slight_smile:

8

That’s a good policy, I say keep it up, you know, like tantra.

9

I wish it were easier for a casual watcher to tell if there’s a local team. “West” versus “Southeast” isn’t very useful. I realize the LLWS isn’t going to have pro-quality uniforms but can’t five people spend an evening stitching “Chula Vista” onto some unis?

10

Snarkiness aside, I confess to watching the games when I have a chance to do so, and have for years. It is entertaining, and while it also has plenty of warts, I like it.

11

The local team wears their local uni’s all the way from their local district tournament, through sectionals, divisional/state, regions…until they get to the World Series. Then they stop representing Chula Vista, and start representing “West”, apparently.