[David Emerling]

Originally posted by Jim Porter

While that might be true, none of them come close to the numbers of countries participating, or the number of participants involved worldwide. Little League still dominates the world of youth baseball - none of their competitors even come close to their numbers on a global scale, a fact most competitive programs sweep under the rug.

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No, I think most people would readily admit that the number of young men playing at the recreational level far exceeds the number playing at the competitive level. And, as it should be. I would be surprised if it was any other way.

Why do you think there are more MINOR leaguers than BIG leaguers.

I never considered a competitive team an "all star" team. Rather, I just consider them a collection of young boys who have above average baseball skills who love the game enough to dedicate more than an average amount of time to the sport.

They are the type of kids who may take private batting or pitching lessons in the off season. They don't put their glove on the top shelf of their closet when baseball season is over, only to blow the dust off it when the weather breaks.

They're not *better* kids ... they're just more dedicated. They tend to be more intense. Baseball is *their* sport. It's usually their favorite sport. It's not just sport du jour for them.

Of course this is a generalization. But generalizations exist for a reason ... because, they are generally true!

Everybody has their niche in life. The world of baseball is no different. There is a level of baseball for everyone to enjoy!

The group of boys I know would be bored to the very core of their souls if they were not allowed to take leadoffs ... if they couldn't pick runners off ... if the catcher would seldom have an opportunity to throw out a stealing runner ... or they could never execute a suicide squeeze. It's fun! It's the spice of life! It's what they see on TV and it's what they want to emulate. And they can DO it!

All these kids that I know, at one time or another, have played a modified version of baseball. My boys played T-ball and LOVED it. But they were 5 and 6 years old at the time. My boys played coach pitch and LOVED it. But they were 7 and 8 years old at the time.

Many of the players on the competitive teams were extracted out of the local recreational league, where some of them have restrictions regarding leadoffs, much like Little League or Dizzy Dean. They adapt. But the adaptation is a process. The reason these kids survive the transition is because, fundamentally, they are very talented baseball players. They can field ground balls, they can throw accurately, they can hit.

I've seen the Little League World Series. Any competitive team would LOVE to have many of those pitchers. Those kids throw hard and they throw strikes. They would have to adapt to the complexity of holding runners ... but their level of talent would make that transition fairly easy.

There are always competitive-caliber players in recreational leagues. And those are the teams you see in the Little League World Series.