LLWS and Other Stuff

My announcing schedule has not allowed me to watch as much of the Little League World Series as I would like.  Not having cable or satellite makes it a little more difficult, but one is able to locate ways to watch the games if you're motivated.

I have a couple of observations on the eve of the World Championship Game.  The level of athleticism has always been high, but I believe these are the most athletic teams I have ever seen in Williamsport.  The straight line speed, the lateral movement, and the hand-eye coordination is astounding.  It seems to me the teams with the best athletes all the way through the lineup are playing for the title.

That said, the best team is not there.  Las Vegas looked like the best baseball team to me, and was let down today by undiagnosed injury and an inability to rise to the occasion.  Japan was the most sound fundamentally, but couldn't execute today.

Having said that leads me to my second point: the baseball IQ of every team in Williamsport, with maybe the exception of the Middle Eastern and European team is off the charts.  These teams are playing a lot more baseball than the two months and change of a regular Little League Season allows.  On the American side, I'd say there's a lot of travel baseball going on outside the LL season.  Internationally, I'd say they have committed to much more practice than play.  The style of play bears the point out: Americans look like they are playing game number 100, the overseas teams seem much more mechanical.

Should be a great final.  I would like to see the boys from Chicago pull it out, but I'm not sure who's going to pitch.  Korea has sound fundamentals, but we'll see if the way the pitch, from the outside in, is a little too predictable for the Americans.  The American might be able to small ball their way to a World Title.

-My bride of twenty-three summers and a lot more winters called on me to take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  I took it without flinching, and challenged two college coaches with over 700 wins in their career: Drew Peterson and Mike Lightfoot.  I also challenged ECA's previous athletic director, Craig Coffman and Jeff Scheck, the Little League President I enjoyed serving with a couple of years ago.

It gives me the opportunity to speak about something dear to my heart.  Ella Hunt just turned three years old.  She lives with a condition known as Spinal Muscular Atrophy.  It is in the same family of conditions as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and is just as fatal.  This condition is often undiagnosed and the Type I victims, like Ella, rarely survive past age two.

We have carpooled with the Hunt family to ECA for several years, and were at the reveal party when Ella's parents, Dan and Erica, found out they were having a girl.  They were given a diagnosis and told to go home and plan a funeral.

They refused, citing the fact that they were all still alive.  Gotta live before you die, and they decided to live.  What they have done has touched people who have no idea they existed before Ella was born.  A local TV station has followed their story.  They have been introduced to Dr. Mary Schroth, who advocates for SMA interests and provides treatment that has even lead for a couple of these little ones to reach their teens, even without the support of the entire medical profession.  Some see treating these little ones as a waste of resources.  Dr. Schroth sees it as a labor of love.

The Hunts have moved from our neighborhood, but the relationship goes on.  I can't wait to see where the train will go next.

So...am I off base?