“It’s about the All Stars.”
It’s the kind of proclamation you’d expect to hear from Fox Sports baseball announcers Jack Buck or Tim McCarver during their coverage of the MLB All Star game. Every year around this time, in early July, baseball mania reaches a fever pitch. climactic as the best baseball players, arguably in the world, come together for two days to entertain fans with 450 ft. home runs, 100 mph fastballs and two dream teams made up of the brightest young stars of the future playing alongside the biggest names of the past 20 years.
The All Star Baseball Arena is unique in all of professional sports, if only for being the only venue that can enjoy the sports spotlight in the absence of other competitive sporting events. With basketball and hockey seasons suspended for the summer, and soccer still several weeks away from training camp, All Star Baseball is the only professional game in town for sports enthusiasts in early July. Even Major League Baseball shuts down for nearly a full week to acknowledge and shed light on its own event. So, for this short period each year, it really is all about the All Stars. But that’s not where I heard that statement.
Little League, Great Expectations
If you’ve ever coached minor league baseball, as I have for many years, you’ll be familiar with the annual team “drafting” process. Before the start of each season, a group of presumably well-intentioned volunteer coaches, also known as parents, meet at their local rec hall after work and choose rosters for teams from a general list of registered players. I have found that it can be a stressful experience, as I usually come to this meeting with a few personal goals in mind: 1) I need to select my son’s best friend, 2) I need to make sure I remember to write my own. child, 3) I need to select a child whose father is known to help, 4) I need to avoid selecting the rambunctious child, 5) I need to avoid selecting the child whose parents are idiots, and 6) It would be nice to recruit at least one child capable of throw some strikes. The game is less painful when we keep tickets per inning below 10.
Fortunately, my own personal experience with “draft night” hasn’t been too bad. I’ve seen occasional disagreements over player selection (eg, “Ms. Smith asked me to pick Johnny, so we can carpool together.” Oh, are you sure that has nothing to do with what? Johnny is 5’11?” and throw 72 mph fastballs?) But for the most part, the meetings were uneventful and excruciatingly long.
But I remember one specific draft night, attended and coordinated by one of our town’s Little League Committee members. At the end of the three-hour meeting, as we walked out of the conference room and were still joking about who picked who, this committee member leaned into me and whispered, “These regular season drafts don’t mean anything at all.” modes. It’s all. about the All Stars.” Bingo.
the boys of summer
As big as the MLB All Star extravaganza is, the Little League All Star season creates a mania that is literally in a league of its own. The media attention and commercialism surrounding the Little League All Stars is unrivaled in youth sports. The Little League website even called it “one of the hottest sporting events of the summer.” And they may be justified in stocking advertising with that claim. After all, Little League and ESPN are in the sixth year of an 8-year contract that will televise 66 games on ESPN or ABC in August. Those are pretty big stakes, especially for a group of 11 and 12 year olds playing America’s pastime.
So it’s no surprise that in small towns and villages across America, the mania begins in earnest several months earlier, when some of the most enthusiastic “coaches” (dads) are already entertaining visions of ESPN greatness. even before the first child has been assigned. a roster for the regular season; a list, by the way, that’s efficiently filled with kids who’ll never think about their hometown’s All-Star teams, let alone play on one.
If any of the youth sports organizations in your city are run by an “it’s all about the All Stars” mentality or equivalent thinking, then it’s time to advocate for a change in leadership for that group. To say that “it’s all about All Stars” is to say that it’s about a few kids, and not all kids. And this goes against what experts and the prevailing wisdom in youth sports suggest, which is that the under-14s should focus on inclusion and fun.
Two All Star Games: One Bang, One Bang
This year’s MLB All Star game was played in Kansas City on July 10. That game ended in a blowout with the National League winning 8-0. Ironically, that same day, another All Star game was played in Columbus, Georgia between two Little League teams vying to advance in the tournament. That game ended with parents arguing, then starting a fistfight, and then arresting and charging two parents with disorderly conduct. I guess for them, it was really about “All Stars.” A little too much.
The lesson for all of us should speak for itself. No, most of us aren’t so enthusiastic and unrestrained that we end up beating the opponent’s parents in a game of Little League All Star. But even the most moderate of us is probably dangerously close to losing perspective as we try to enjoy the our son’s involvement in youth sports. So remember, even when you’re watching Little League World on ABC this August, youth sports should never be “all about the stars.”