Darn rain delay to start, which means 30 or so minutes before we get to hear the first 46 foot to 60 foot MPH conversion. Great drinking game to play if your scoring at home...or even if you're all by yourself.Brent, Joe Morgan and Orel Hershiser, who gets to pull the trigger first on the reaction time equivalent conversion? My money is on Orel, ex-pitcher, more animated of the two. Brent should just tee it up and let the HOF'ers knock it out.
Erin Andrews is down squeegeing the field. Good for her, at least she's not hawking mobile ESPN phones in the stands. This rain delay is probably the worst thing that could have happened from a ratings standpoint, short of letting the Taiwanese back into the competition.
We're switching off to yesterday's Georgia-Oregon matchup. Beautiful.
One thing I still haven't figured out:
1) If the outfield fences had to be moved out from 205 feet to 225 feet because of the recent HR barrage, why doesn't LL make a similar adjustment to the infield dimensions as well as the mound dimensions. Changing the eligibility cutoff to allow some 13 1/4 year old kids to compete has obviously allowed bigger, stronger kids to take aim at the fences and wreak havoc with the scores. Shouldn't the pitchers also be moved further back, if only in the interest of safety?
Seems like a common sense move if you asked me. I know, nobody asked.
{Fade to Black - Game postponed until Monday 8 PM}
{Uh-oh game moved to 5 PM due to rain}
This is going to hurt ratings as most of the country is either at work or in rush hour traffic, but as I'm sure Erin Andrews would point out, if we all just had a ESPN Mobile phone we could keep updated. Our bad.
Great game, pitchers duel so far through two innings.
Japans big bats reach King Kong Carter who is just throwing bullets. Yada gets a hit and advances to second on an infield tapper. A seeing eye bouncer up the middle knocks him in.
Joe Morgan mentions that the infield is hard due to the rain, that seems strange, you would think it would soften the field a bit, but whatever.
Japan up 1-0 after 2 and a half innings.
Carter reaches out an laces a single to lead off the third. Sometimes he seems like he tries to do too much, but he's a man among boys in this tournament. One of the few that can harm Go Matsumoto, the Japanese pitcher. Erin Andrews interviews Josh Lesters dad, the scout in the stands, right before his son laces a hit to advance Carter. Carter however races through the stop sign at third base and is thrown out on a great throw by the center fielder. Great block at home plate by the catcher.
Cody Walker the proceeds to go oppo-field line drive home run to make it 2-1 Georgia after three innings. Geogia's 1-2-3 and certainly the cleanup hitter can reach the Japanese pitcher so they are looking good so far.
Carter seems to have more life on his pitches that the Japanese pitcher at this point.
Good point brought up how the Japanese team carries the fourteen player maximum roster while Georgia is at 12, only playing eleven was mentioned, I assume due to injury. This is one point that doesn't get mentioned from the booth much when hey highlight the "must-play" rule.
The "must-play" rule from a coaches standpoint, would be name the "must only carry twelve man roster" rule, which costs two kids per league across the country an opportunity to participate in a tournament at all. This is entirely due to coaches fear that the fourteenth man is significantly lesser player than the twelth player, plus all that messy, confusing administrative stuff, having to get fourteen players in and all.
Kudos to the Japanese team for giving maximum opportunities to the maximum number of kids. I haven't heard one analyst yet complement any team that does this, yet they seem to be required to genuflect at the greatness of the "must-play" rule without examining this underside to the issue.
Anyway, back to the game. Georgia 2-1 bottom of the fourth. Lead off strikeout and ground out to first to start it off. Georgia putting the sticks to the ball a bit. A long fly ball to left field ends the inning. That would have been a home-run last year, I feel compelled to report. This year, it just ends the inning.
Georgia 2-1 after four innings. Still not sure if I like the Georgia coach a lot. He can't be the most popular guy on the grove. He argues what he sees as a HBP, a sleeve knicker at best. Asks umpire for help and the first base ump when asks if he saw anything, says "not in this lifetime". Funny. I'm sure he meant, he's not getting that call in this lifetime. Good job, blue.
Carter strikes out the leadof hitter in the fifth, not even close. Second hitter is a strike out, these are the last of the subs to bat, as the announcer are pointing out. Tough to hit this guy off the bench cold. Yada hitting with two outs. Carter toys with him to end the inning. And I think throws in a Destrade-like pose to rub it in.
Not highlighted by the announcer of course, but noticeable. They won't highlight bad sportsmanship, even when their mikes or cameras pick it up, as we've seen throughout the tournament. Not saying they have to but boy the live mikes are probably a bad idea. Or a great idea if used properly.
Georgia 2-1 after four and a half innings. And Carter is feeling it. If they get a tack on run here it's over, even this one run lead seems large.
Matsumoto strikes out the leadoff hitter for nine K's on the day. A solid but unspectacular effort at this level. Nice play by the third baseman to dive for a popup and retire the second hitter. Carter's not going to see a fastball here , oops 2-1 FB outside corner, then he curves him for a flyout to CF to end the inning. Good sequence.
Georgia 2-1 after five innings. Three outs away for Georgia and Carter is dealing. Gotta like there chances right now. The kid has to be feeling it, but these are the toughest three outs to get. In a way, sometimes kids all of a sudden realize where they are and what's at stake. Sometimes they squeeze the ball a little too tight. If he can relax and throw however, it should be over fairly quick. Plus, he's in good shape in that Yada made the last out, even though he's a lefty bat, he's one of the few capable of hitting this guy on this day.
Well, Carter walks the lead off guy and later hits another, but maintains his poise and more importantly his velocity to shut down the Japanese team. Noticeable was the shots of the Japanese kids crying even before the final third out was recorded. The runner on first had tears flowing and he was carrying the potential winning run. It shows that both physically and emotionally these kids are not miniature adults. Sometimes, with all the hoopla and web gems, I think it becomes all too easy to lose sight of this fact. My wife even mentioned how she doesn't like how they seem to highlight this "thrill of victory and agony of defeat" angle.
For all the highlighting of the "new pitch counts limit as the solution to the arm injuries epidemic" I can't help but think that maybe, just maybe what we really need is a "televised games count limit". Little League and Travel ball snipe that one or the other is the problem when in reality both are. Little League with it's money grabbing and travel ball with it's year round approach. The race for "exposure" has led to events like the Almonte incident which only exposed the kid, the family and maybe the league as a fraud.
My enduring memory of this LLWS is the interview with the mom from Illinois keeping score while her son pitched, dutifully keeping his pitch count with a coaches clicker, but what asn't really highlighted was that she was wearing her son's travel team pullover, not his Little League's. Little League used to not allow players in the tournament to play in other leagues, and I know they'll cite a lawsuit for access as the reason for breaking down that law, but this is why both are guilty.
Everyone fighting for more and more glory and exposure and dollars at the expense of the kids.
You have to wonder when there will be a backlash against this type of borderline child abuse. Or , if that is too strong a term, at least child neglect. It just doesn't seem as if the best interest of the kids are paramount anymore when youth sports rises to this level. I hate to sound old-fashioned, but it used to be kids were happy to be their city's champion. Now we have to have national champions and world champions and Top ten lists for 10 yr. old players. And the tournaments have to be extended down to the T-Ball level for crying out loud.
It borders on insanity. If something is good, it doesn't always translate that more and more of that something is better. We have to find a balance point somewhere. I just hope it doesn't take something foolish or tragic happening before we decide to truly confront the issue.
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