Kids’ baseball is a really great American tradition. Fathers can relate to their kids who play Little League because male adults remember the experience as something vital that taught them life-skills and socialization during their youth. Little League is as American as apple pie and now the rest of the world is finally wonderfully acclimated to enjoying everything American including baseball.
Even an institution as wonderful as Little League has its critics. Some complain that it emphasizes competition too much and that the lesser skilled kids ought to get more playing time. Others cite that the risk of injury is all too real.
I believe that Little League is a terrific “coming of age” growth experience. It teaches kids organizational skills, division of labor, cooperation and competition. By organization I mean nine kids have to function like one unit working under one main coach. In division of labor those same nine kids must perform different tasks and responsibilities. They must cooperate with each other in order to defeat the opposing team in competition. Varga’s Drugstore versus Kiwanis is a small-scale version of Compaq going up against IBM or General Motors taking on Ford. That’s what makes Little League so uniquely American and why it helps to perpetuate this country’s unparalleled “free enterprise” value system.
For those critics who claim LL is dangerous, there is danger and risk everywhere. If every young boy or girl lived in a protective bubble, no kids would ever interact. Those vocal LL critics should not cross streets, should not walk down crowded aisles in Wal-Mart and should not mow their lawns or drive to Wildwood on summer vacation because something threatening might unexpectedly happen.
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Dangers are all around us, and in Little League competition, injuries happen by accident and they are not deliberately or maliciously inflicted. I guess that’s one particular reason I absolutely love Little League’ baseball. I have always been quite fascinated by physical danger and by competition, especially in sports.
In 1953 I played Hammonton Little League ball for the town Exchange Club. My coach was Mr. Reid, and his son Bruce was also on the team. Frank Reid would come to the practices and help his dad work with the players, and ironically, Frank’s son Scott wound-up working for me in my boardwalk arcade in Ocean City, Maryland two decades later. From my own life experience, there’s no doubt in my mind that LL promotes an appreciation of the American free-enterprise economic system.
I remember how thrilled I was in ‘53 as a ten-year-old getting my first hit, a bunt single. I also recall playing in a game when an older kid on the Dual Motors team hit a towering fly ball to me in left field. I backed up to the fence, looked up above the lights into the night sky, closed my eyes, and miraculously, the ball plopped into my glove as my knees were clattering. I opened my lids when I heard the fans on both sides of the field cheering my stellar achievement. That adventure was a confidence builder I could have never found living in a protective bubble.
In ‘53 I recollect kids still leaving their mitts on the field between innings. I still think about the thrill of playing night baseball at Hammonton (New Jersey) Lake Park just like the Phillies and the A’s had done under the lights at Shibe Park (later Connie Mack Stadium), and how terrific it felt playing ball in a league that had won the coveted Little League World Championship just four years earlier in 1949.
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Through the years Britain has developed their own unique sports that they are associated with. The use of recreational time has led to the development of sports that are distinct and influential in Great Britain. Polo is a mounted sport that has made its mark in England. The object of the game is like our soccer in which "each team attempts to score goals by striking a ball with its sticks between ...
Late that summer my family moved to Levittown, Pennsylvania where I had to make new friends and find a new baseball team to play on. I was assigned to Meenan Oil in the spring of ‘54, and there were so many kids out for each position. I had to beat out eight rivals to be the starting second baseman. The intense “competition” brought out the best in me, and I won the starting job. I played for Coach Siegel, who like Coach Reid derived satisfaction from working with kids. Both men (and most adults associated with Little League) were and are good concerned citizens volunteering their time and effort to help youngsters accomplish and grow.
In 1955, my friend Mike Hunter and I were selected from Meenan Oil to play on the Levittown National League All-Star Team. We went up against our bitter rivals, the American League squad and won the game. After another victory, my National League All-Star Team encountered Morrisville, which had two kids that stood six-feet-three. One was Dick Hart (who later was a lineman for the Eagles) and the other Tommy Keyser, who was their pitcher were very intimidating. It was a close contest, but then Hart hit a ball so high to the centerfielder that when it came down, it split the webbing in Jerry Friedrich’s glove. Hart was already on third base when the ball finally hit the ground and then he trotted home with the go ahead run.
I was devastated because I believed that Levittown National had a better overall team. But then Morrisville went on to win the Little League World Championship at Williamsport, and I listened to every one of their games on the radio. I became a loyal Morrisville fan that summer of ‘55 after being defeated by them.
So, I suppose that possibly the best things Little League teaches kids are how to handle failure and how to show good sportsmanship. And then in 1960 I was elated when Levittown, Pa. went on to win the highly coveted Little League World Series.
And so, I came from a league (Hammonton, NJ) that had won the Little League Championship in ‘49, played against a fine Morrisville, Pa. team that won it all in ‘55, and cheered for the old Levittown, Pa. (American) League squad that won it all in ‘60. Those three unforgettable fond memories will always remain with me as long as I shall live, and in 1954-‘60, the events could only happen in America.
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