Little League announced the dates and locations for all division’s World Series events for the 2009 season. Click here to view the entire announcement.

Of note is the fact that the 2009 Big League Softball and Big League Baseball World Series tournament championship games will be televised live in prime time on the ESPN family of networks and all eight World Series finals in softball and baseball will be televised nationally for the third consecutive year.

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Email from Little League:

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/947715915

If the above link does not work, please cut and paste the text into your web browser.

Learn the Positive Coaching techniques used by thousands of Little League coaches, including those who led Waipio Little League to the 2008 Little League World Series title, in a *FREE* Webinar on November 18th at 5:30pm PST (8:30pm EST)

This one-hour webinar, led by Positive Coaching Alliance Founder and Executive Director Jim Thompson, and Little League International Sr. Director of Operations Nick Caringi, provides:

- Instruction in Little League Double-Goal Coaching methods, where your first goal is winning and your second, more-important goal is teaching life lessons through sports.

- Insight into shaping your Little League into an outstanding organization, where all coaches and parents help players strive for excellence on and off the field.

Positive Coaching Alliance is a nonprofit organization founded at Stanford University with the mission to transform youth sports so that all athletes have a positive, character-building experience.

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Received the following email from Little League today about a webinar they are hosting. My favorite part of the email is this “Instruction in Little League Double-Goal Coaching methods, where your first goal is winning and your second, more-important goal is teaching life lessons through sports.” We all need to remember the impact we have on these kids. Who doesn’t remember their Little League coach?

Email:

Little League- Positive Coaching Webinar

Join us for a Webinar on November 18

Space is limited.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/947715915

Learn the Positive Coaching techniques used by thousands of Little League coaches, including those who led Waipio Little League to the 2008 Little League World Series title, in a *FREE* Webinar on November 18th at 5:30pm PST (8:30pm EST)

This one-hour webinar, led by Positive Coaching Alliance Founder and Executive Director Jim Thompson, and Little League International Sr. Director of Operations Nick Caringi, provides:

- Instruction in Little League Double-Goal Coaching methods, where your first goal is winning and your second, more-important goal is teaching life lessons through sports.

- Insight into shaping your Little League into an outstanding organization, where all coaches and parents help players strive for excellence on and off the field.

Positive Coaching Alliance is a nonprofit organization founded at Stanford University with the mission to transform youth sports so that all athletes have a positive, character-building experience.

Join us for the education and inspiration that will help you create the
best possible environment for your Little League!

*Wondering what a webinar is?
It is a workshop or lecture delivered over the Web and participants listen in through the phone. A webinar is a very collaborative experience that includes polling and question & answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter.

Title: Little League- Positive Coaching Webinar

Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Time: 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM PST

Enjoy!

Congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies and the city of brotherly love. They were the better team this year and they deserved the series. How about Brad Lidge going perfect all season long in save opportunities? Pretty sweet! Congratulations to my friend Brian Kerrigan The Sports Uniform Guy a Philadelphia native and lifelong Phillies fan.

As a lifelong Yankees fan from the Washington, DC metro area, and now a Florida transplant, I have to admit the Rays made me believe. I had the opportunity to see them play the White Sox in mid season at the Tropicana in Tampa and it was a fun time. Hard to believe as I watched them all year knowing they would crumble at some point, but they didn’t, they stood strong, held their ground, won the American League Pennant, and played for the World Series Title. That Joe Maddon, the Rays’ manager, is something else. There is a role model we should all try to emulate. Class act, across the board. Made a plan, let his team know the plan, then executed the plan. Both managers were class acts in this series and always seem to be. Wonder why that is???…hmmmmm….

Anyway, congrats again to the Phillies, too bad the ‘Skins are not going to let them in the NFL playoffs!

OK, who out there knew that if a game was tied going into the bottom half of the inning that the game would be suspended and then resumed from where it left off? That’s what I thought. Since we were kids we knew that a game that is official, but does not complete an entire inning reverts back to the prior inning’s score! Using what I have always thought the rule was, the Phillies win the series!

It would suck that they won the series that way, but apparently up until last year, that’s the way it was. Tom Boswell of the Washington post lets us in on another secret of the game last night. No matter what the inning or the score, all parties had agreed and commissioner Bud Selig had blessed that they would play every inning of the game, regardless. Now there is a rule! A good one I might add! That should be the rule across the board. Why would we shorten a game because of rain when the teams are likely to play the next day, or at least again later in the season.

What if that one game cost a team the pennant? What if it cost them a shot at a wild card? We could all go home earlier as well as they wouldn’t normally wait in the middle of August until 1AM to continue the game. I doubt we will get the rule for the regular season, but in the playoffs, and the World Series at a minimum, it needs to be there.

This, of course, got me thinking. Did Little League change their rules as well? I know that is a game completes the first inning but is not official it is picked up where it left off. If the first inning is not completed, the game starts over. But what if it is completed in the 5th inning or tied in the top of the fifth? What is the Little League ruling then?

A quick check of my handy dandy 2008 rulebook confirms my suspicions. The Little League Phillies would have won the game. The game reverts back to the prior inning in an incomplete inning if the visitors tied or went ahead in their half of the inning. I think Little League may want to revisit this and go w/ the Major League Baseball rule. Or play every game all the way out other than time limits or 10-run rules. This includes during tournament play.

Do we really thing the tournament committee in Williamsport would allow the international World Series Champion to be crowned with a shortened game? I don’t think so. Why not make the rule universal?

I assume the reason for the rule in the first place was because travel was so cumbersome 100 years ago when the rules of the game were written. This is no longer the case, why would we shorten any game? That gives and advantage to the team against their next opponent as they didn’t have to use their bullpen, it also leaves less opportunity for success for record breakers.

I vote we never have a shortened baseball game again at any level other than time limits where allowed and 10-run rules where allowed.

Should a winner be determined in a shortened baseball game? What is your feeling?

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They may be down three games to one, but those of us in the great state of Florida still believe you can do it! Win tomorrow night and bring the series back home!

It is 1:15 in the morning, I have 8 lessons tomorrow starting at 9AM, what am I still doing up? I am either addicted to baseball or really stupid. I will let you decide. Is this game actually going to go into extra innings as well?

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Today we had our most challenging softball game. We are a team of 13 year olds with only 2 x 16 year olds playing in an interleague softball division that considers the senior division 13-16. It is a challenge at times, but most teams are young like us so we do OK.

Tonight we played a very experienced and aggressive team and we hung with them. I am proud of our girls. We were down 9-7 going into the last inning, very exciting. We bunted, ran, stole, they bunted, ran, stole, it was fantastic. A real softball game.

I told someone during the game that when all my kids get older, if I still want to coach, I am going to coach the senior softball division. It is the funnest division of all. Watching the College Softball World Series and Olympic games I have actually fallen in love with the game. This is unusual for me. I don’t usually care for women’s sports. Nothing personal, but women’s basketball is not very exciting and other than the olympics, I rarely watch women compete at all.

Softball is different. I think because there is no other game like it. Sure, it’s based on the same principles as baseball, but it has little in common. It has taken me years to learn this game and every day I figure out how much I don’t know about it. All I know is I love it. It is fast paced and furious and before you know it, you can be down 4 runs or up 4, in the blink of an eye.

Every play is close and every strategy exciting. Aggression is the name of the game until the other team proves they can stop you. It is really fun to watch. Heck, we ended up losing the game by 8 runs but the girls had more fun than during the games we won.

My only problem with softball is a dominant pitcher can completely overpower another team. I don’t know what the solution for this is, but I do know at the most elite level it takes away from the very thing that makes the game so great. If the ball is not being put into play, the game is boring. But when teams are hitting, running, bunting, and slapping, it is a fantastic spectacle to behold.

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As I write this, I am watching out of the corner of my eye, the cartoon depiction of the American League Championship Series that MLB.com provides as a play by play for every game. This would be fine if it were the middle of August, but this is the American League Championship Series and I can’t watch it because it is on TBS and I don’t have that station on the DirecTV family plan.

How crazy is it that I live within driving distance of Tampa and I can’t watch them play on TV? I thought to myself, no problem, they will have a local station broadcasting the game so I can watch it, certainly there is some kind of exemption. I know when the Redskins used to play on ESPN they would pick it up on the local station and rebroadcast it there, but no. Me and millions of others can’t watch the American League Championship Series! That is asinine.

And they wonder why the ratings are down? Here is someone that would be watching every pitch, but I can’t. Certainly there are millions of people just like me, I am not that unique, who would be watching the game if they could, but they can’t! This is just stupid.

Do you feel the championship series should be on cable? We are depriving the country of their pass time, the poorest among us can’t find pleasure watching the game they love taking them away from daily crisis and financial crisis providing an escape, because it’s on cable. Horrible decision MLB. Maybe a few more dollars today, but a loss of many more in the future.

Found this information at Little League’s site and though you would be interested in it. I was surprised about all of the extra coverage ESPN is offering. This tournament is out of control! Awesome!

SATURDAY (AUGUST 23)
12:30 p.m. (ABC): International Championship – Japan (Edogawa Minami Little League,Tokyo) vs. Mexico (Matamoros Little League, Matamoros, Tamaulipas)
3:30 p.m. (ABC): United States Championship – U.S. West (Waipio Little League, Waipahu, Hawaii) vs. Southwest (South Lake Charles Little League, Lake Charles, Louisiana)

SUNDAY (AUGUST 24)
Noon, ESPN: Consolation Game
2 p.m., ESPN: Little League Webgems Show
2:30 p.m., ESPN: Little League Baseball World Series Preview Show
3:30 p.m., ABC: Little League Baseball World Series Championship

Word to the wise! When Hawaii won the world series a couple of years back I Tivo’d it and was smart enough to extend it for 3 hours beyond the time it was scheduled to end. The game went into extra innings, no problemo right? Ummm….WRONG.

At the end of the sixth inning they moved it over to ESPN for the seventh and final walk off home run. I missed it. Don’t know the answer for this, other than maybe record ESPN as well? What if they move it to ESPN2? Trouble, trouble, trouble.

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