I can actually watch this event now. Pitch counts finally made its way to little league, no more 150 pitches for 11-12 year olds. Thank God.

That Dalton Carriker, he's a True Yankee. They need to dump that A-Rod guy that's always hitting those selfish home runs and sign Carriker, who clearly hits team-oriented, selfless home runs.

Make it three straight Little League World Series championships for the United States.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

Make it three straight Little League World Series championships for the United States.

No more steroids for them furrin kids.

There should still be a rule that if you have one more than the pitch max with one batter to go to a no hitter, you don't have to come out. That was the most disappointing thing i've ever seen in baseball. One more hitter won't ruin Garrett Williams's arm, throwing 50 curves a game as a 12 year old will do that just fine.

There was a time during which I was involved with my local Little League, and I did a lot of detailed scorekeeping. I searched my computer files and found writeups of 16 All-star games during 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998. These were all from the district tournament - the very first level of the path to Williamsport. It's a pretty strong district, and has sent teams all the way within memory. As it turns out, my writeups do contain pitch counts for every one of these games. Here are the individual pitch counts for those 16 games; numbers separated by a + sign represent successive pitchers for the same team, while the semicolon separates teams. Each game gets its own line:

95; 114
41+60; 83
57+67; 75+40
77; 105
131; 94+45
144; 119+8
69+10; 105
33+105+5; 101
108; 80
166+22; 120+16
87; 87
17+89+23+23; 25+60+22+31
76+33; 56+50
80; 26+97
91; 97
54+54; 31+49+9+14+5

So there was a violation of the current 85-pitch rule nearly once a game - I count 15 (maybe 14) in the 16 games. (I'm not counting that twin-87 game as having a violation; both pitchers struck out the last batter in the 6th.) The current rules also contain some pitchcount-triggered rest rules that are different from what the rules were back then; those rules might also have been violated, but less often.

There were rules in the late 90's - they were based on innings, not pitches. I was the only person around even keeping track of pitches. And a pitcher could go as long as 9 innings in a game. The most egregious example in my list was a 10-inning game, and both starters pitched 9 innings. Amazingly enough, the pitcher who threw 166 pitches in a game (the majority of them breaking balls), and whose 3-run HR in the top of the 9th wasn't enough to win the game as he couldn't get through the bottom of the 9th himself - he got drafted and is now pitching in double-A.

Thank goodness they implemented a pitch count rule so these kids can miss out on the chance of a lifetime so that they can retain their one in 10,000 chance of making the bigs.

In partial answer to BLB, he're part of a rant I wrote to someone I knew about the 10-inning game referenced above. And most of it is about the guy who threw 120 pitches, not the guy who threw 166. I think the pitch count rules are needed to keep LL managers from doing stupid things; I think pitch count rules are needed to keep LL managers from acting as if they only have 2 pitchers who matter.

You’ve long heard me complain that Little League pitcher usage rules are given in innings rather than pitches and that the rules seem to give the managers incentives to misuse and abuse their 12-year-old pitchers. This game was about as bad an example as I’ve ever seen. The operative rule is that any pitcher who pitches more than one inning may not pitch in that team’s next game (so [W] could not use [Z] in this one even though he probably had adequate rest), but a pitcher is allowed to go as long as 9 innings in any one game. This leaves managers reluctant to make pitching changes for fear of reducing their flexibility for the following game - but look at what actually happened here. [X] gave up the three-run home run to [Y] on his 111th pitch of the game. Had I been running the team, there’s no way he would have been on the mound for that to happen. [X] never looked particularly sharp in this game - he didn’t look smooth on the mound, and he didn’t ever seem to be throwing as hard as I’ve sometimes seen him do. By the 7th or 8th inning, I knew he was losing it, his mother knew he was losing it, his grandfather knew he was losing it - how hard could it have been for his manager to see that he’d lost whatever effectiveness he had? But that’s not the worst of it. [Y] threw 166 pitches in the game. One hundred and sixty six! And I’d bet that 120 of them were curve balls. How can this possibly be good for [Y]?

one in 10,000 chance of making the bigs

Not necessarily. At least 4 players from Warner Robins little league have made the majors.

I agree with you though.

As someone who blew his shoulder out in a pickup basketball game, I would like to note that there are reasons besides pitching in the major leagues to avoid major arm injuries.

Thank goodness they implemented a pitch count rule so these kids can miss out on the chance of a lifetime so that they can retain their one in 10,000 chance of making the bigs.

A college scholarship would be kinda nice too.

I mentioned this in the Lounge, but I was at the Somerset Patriots game tonight, and before the 9th inning they ran through the scoreboard. They gave about half a dozen major league scores, and there was some reaction from the crowd. Then they announced the Little League score, and a noticeable cheer went up (including me) - nothing huge, but maybe even a little louder than anything from the major league games. The PA announcer says "I can't believe you guys are cheering for the Little League World Series." I was amused.

Honestly, I'm sorry for re-posting this, but I find this Little League World Series thing to be absolutely my least favorite televised sports event in the history of everything. It completely and utterly takes all the fun out of baseball for me. The seriousness, the pitch counts, the kids thumping their chests and showing up on baseball tonight, the parent's histrionics especially. Little League is to learn and play and watch your kids play and have pride in them. Not all this horrendous crap. And I can't believe at 37 I'm the grumpy old man.

Ick. Please put me down for an absolute, unequivocal NO. I'm glad it's over, and it can't be too far away for me to see again.

As someone who blew his shoulder out in a pickup basketball game, I would like to note that there are reasons besides pitching in the major leagues to avoid major arm injuries.

Are you suggesting dribble counts for pickup basketball games? :)

man, you just know Boras is going to bring this up Dalton Carriker opts out of his contract. Warner Robins, GA is going to have to pay through the nose.

In retrospect, I probably should have let the guy have the two points.

I will say I love the LLWS final and it was a great ending to the game.

I threw 12 innings in a high school game in 1991. Nobody kept track of my pitch count as far as I know. I was our emergency pitcher, so I wouldn't have been pitching if the good pitchers weren't tired. If we hadn't scored in the bottom of the 12th, I'd still be pitching.

Honestly, I'm sorry for re-posting this, but I find this Little League World Series thing to be absolutely my least favorite televised sports event in the history of everything.

My vote is for team dominoes, with team paintball a close second.

You do know they televised a Magic:The Gathering tournament once?

You do know they televised a Magic:The Gathering tournament once?

Let me guess, it was on Versus and 1st place paid like $50,000.

I can't believe they (Versus) televise a barbeque championship and it pays out more than my freakin PBA tour.

Am I the only one who hates the U.S. free passage to the final game thingy?

How the hell is a team from Georgia entirely white?

That goes for the whole US bracket. It was whiter than a Rotary Club meeting there.

How the hell is a team from Georgia entirely white?

You do understand that the team does not represent Georgia? They all come from Warner Robins, GA, which has just 54,000 people. I would guess that WR has two Little Leagues, one from one-half of the town, the other from the rest, which is the norm for towns its size. So this 'all white' all-star team is from one part of one town, not the entire state.

Warner Robins as a whole is 62.5% white. But if it is like most places in the United States, most whites live in mostly white parts of town, and most blacks (32.1%) live in a mostly black part of town. Therefore, it is not too surprising that the team is 'entirely white.'

It may also be the case that, as in many other places in the United States, black kids* choose not to play baseball, opting instead for football, basketball and other sports. And if that is the case in Warner Robins, then the black boys who do live on the "white side" of that town are not playing baseball.

* My theory (unsubstantiated by any hard evidence) is that the decline of the African American father has resulted in a decline in baseball-playing among black boys, because most boys (of all races) first learn to appreciate baseball from their dads or from friends who learned it from their fathers. But when an entire neighborhood is mostly female-headed households, as is common in poor black neighborhoods, boys never learn to appreciate baseball.

An extension of my theory (again without any hard evidence) is that the current African American major leaguers (and minor leaguers) are far more likely than NBA or NFL players to have grown up in 2-parent households, are far more likely to have grown up in suburban communities (as opposed to inner cities), and are far more likely to have grown up in middle-income or higher families.

Am I the only one who hates the U.S. free passage to the final game thingy?

I don't know about "hates," but its time seems to have passed. Shouldn't the series also be hosted in different countries?

That said, I like the LLWS. It's actually decent baseball. I'm amazed at how well the kids catch the ball. I like how quickly the pitchers get rid of the ball as well.

My vote is for team dominoes, with team paintball a close second.

I'd rather watch Texas 42 than World Series of Poker.

Why is "all white" in quotes. I didn't see the team, were they all white?

In Champaign, it had to do with neighborhood zoning for leagues. When they zoned the leagues, they just drew around the segregated black neighborhoods. Finally, some guy asked if he could put together a team of kids from those areas, and it was agreed that he could. I don't know exactly, but I don't think people really thought he would be able to do it.

It was interesting because some of the team had never played baseball before.

Anyway, so the final constitution of the team was all-black. There was one kid that my students would call "light-skinned" (I know, not PC, but what they would say). They rolled through the league, and then in the tournament quarters, they won, but were told that they couldn't play the next game because they had to forfeit because they had violated a league "playing time" rule.

It got a little nasty and there was some stuff said that everyone probably regretted, including some speculation that the coach shouldn't be in the league if he doesn't understand the rules and is going to whine about it.

Anyway, it turned out that it was the coach of the other team who misread the rules (I think he was using the seasonal rules instead of the tournament rules) and then talked the league officials into the forfeit.

The decision was reversed and then the kids were told a couple hours before the game that they would actually be playing in the semis.

They won handily. But I can't remember now, I think they may have lost in the finals but I had to work during that game, so I don't remember it as vividly.

Anyway, there was clearly some racial tension involved and general non-race related idiocy and over-competition, and I have no idea where they started and ended, but it did make me wonder whether some of the best players had been excluded in previous years, like when I had played.

Is there a way to describe the color of someone's skin that is politically correct?

Is there a way to describe the color of someone's skin that is politically correct?

Non-pigmentationally challenged?

Best Regards

John

A great game, btw. I love the LLWS.

The coach called the opposite field GW HR a few innings earlier.