Cover Story

Untitled Page

Little League’s Big Challenge

These days, not all boys of summer play baseball

By John WeylerPublished: February, 2005

“Georgie aggravates me at times… but then at times I am so proud of him I could die. He is out for Little League, so eager. He tries so very hard. He has good fast hands and even seems to be able to hit a little.”
Former President George H.W. Bush, in a letter to his father-in-law

In 1955, 9-year-old George W. Bush was dreaming of playing in Yankee Stadium instead of occupying the White House and was aggravating his dad instead of liberals. Video games didn’t exist, a skateboard was a steel skate pulled apart and nailed to a two-by-four, a few hundred Hawaiians and a handful of Californians surfed and soccer was a sport played almost everywhere but in the U.S.

In those days, the boys of summer all played Little League.

These days, there are a lot more choices and the grand old game is losing its hold on America’s youth… if not its appeal altogether.

Little League an association of teams divided into various age divisions for boys and girls that guarantees all participants playing time is still the largest youth sports organization in the world, with leagues in 67 countries and all 50 states. In 2004, 2,119,380 kids registered for regular-season play in the U.S., and another 6,780 played in international leagues, according to Little League Baseball.

But the numbers have steadily declined over the last several years.

The largest overall enrollment was in 1997, when the number reached nearly 3 million (2,993,760). Since then, Little League’s overall enrollment has eroded at a rate of about 2% per year. Almost 300 leagues out of more than 6,400 in the U.S. have folded in the last seven years.

Overall sales of baseball equipment and accessories have also dipped. And the average number of children playing baseball of any kind in the U.S. is down nearly 20% since 1997, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Assn.

Little League officials admit they would be lying if they said they weren’t concerned, but they’re at a loss to pin down the specific reasons for the regression.

Some kids are swept away by the individual glory and speed of action sports such as surfing, skateboarding, inline skating and BMX cycling. Some are stuck in the couch playing video games that offer a different kind of adrenalin rush. Some are still playing baseball but have progressed to more competitive travel teams. And others have moved on to alternative organized sports, such as soccer and lacrosse, that are more fast-paced and don’t involve standing around in the outfield watching the grass grow.

“I have to be careful how I say this so I don’t offend anyone,” says Bob Knapp, a longtime board member of the Costa Mesa National Little League whose sons, Ryan, 13, and Jake, 10, both play. “But in baseball, especially when the kids are younger, you conceivably might play a whole game without touching the ball. And then you compare that to the number of touches you get in soccer or basketball.”

When it comes to baseball, Knapp says, familiarity breeds fondness. He thinks Little League should emphasize introducing the game to kids barely out of kindergarten.

“Ask any Little League coach and he’ll tell you that getting the kids’ attention is a major factor,” he says. “But when you start them when they’re young, it’s not nearly as much of an issue. I think baseball’s lifeblood is in tee-ball, when the kids are 6 or 7. That’s when you start to develop their love for the game.”

More than 380 youngsters played in the Costa Mesa National Little League last season. A month before this year’s tryouts, only about 270 had registered for 2005, although Knapp says usually at least 50 sign up at the last minute. The league which maintains an up-to-date website and has an informative, interactive phone system sent out multiple mailings, passed out fliers at local schools and even scheduled a first-ever second registration weekend in the middle of the Christmas holiday season.

But you can’t turn back the clock.

“When I was growing up, I’d call some guys and you’d call some guys and we’d play baseball in an open field,” Knapp says. “Now, kids couldn’t do that if they wanted to. In Costa Mesa, if nine or more kids want to play a pickup game in a city park, they’d need a permit. I understand the reasons, the limited space. It’s just a sad reality of urban growth.”

It’s difficult to get exact numbers for Little League participation in Orange County because a number of districts overlap county lines. As of Sept. 30, 2004, districts that included players from Orange County had 157 leagues, 5,308 teams and 74,312 players.

In the areas of the county that have reached buildout, the percentage of decline is similar to the nationwide trend. The West Fullerton Little League had 43 teams in 2000 and 33 last year. Yorba Hills had 69 in 2000 and 54 in 2004. Westminster had 38 in 2000 and 21 last year. Fountain Valley went from 53 to 40 in the same five-year span. Santa Ana Southeast went from 25 to 18; East Anaheim from 29 to 25; and Southwest Garden Grove plummeted from 20 to 5.

Where new homes continue to go up, however, Little League registration is burgeoning. District 55, which at one time spread from Irvine to San Clemente, was split last year and a new district was formed. Together, District 55 and the new District 68 have 20 leagues, 1,060 teams and about 14,840 players. San Clemente, which had 48 teams in 2000, had 59 in 2004. Newport Beach went from 59 to 83 in the same time. And Mission Viejo South grew from 39 to 48.

Baseball isn’t dead check the skyrocketing attendance at major league games but Little League may be too old-fashioned for its own good. It isn’t just losing players to other sports. In Southern California, the explosion of elite travel baseball teams has greatly contributed to Little League’s decline in popularity. The best baseball players in the region increasingly are choosing to play almost year-round on one of the more than 1,300 private travel teams that have formed over the last seven years in the Southland.

In fact, the majority of kids who play organized sports in this country do so on private teams. Whether it’s baseball, soccer, hockey, lacrosse or volleyball, it usually means 10-month seasons, multiple practices every week, hefty participation fees, often paid trainers and coaches and travel.

And as much as parents want their children to make these elite teams, it may not always be in the kids’ best interests.

While striving for excellence is valuable, the win-at-all-costs model can undermine a child’s physical and social development, says Gregg Heinzmann, director of the Youth Sports Research Council at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He preaches the benefits of letting kids choose teams, make their own rules and mediate their own disputes.
It’s an altruistic approach that, unfortunately, is totally out of touch with the times.

The emphasis in organized youth sports in the new millennium is clearly taking the other tack and it seems Little League is losing kids in both directions. For some it’s too recreational; for others it’s too rigid. Some are opting for the more rigorous and competitive style of travel ball and club teams; others are drawn to the undisciplined, individual action sports. And still others would rather hit the virtual beaches of Normandy on D-Day with the help of their PlayStation 2.

Clearly, thousands of Southern California youngsters are or would like to be tossing their bats and gloves in the closet and grabbing a board. A board for the street, for the waves, for the slopes, it doesn’t really matter.

Board sports are cool, dude. Baseball is B-O-R-I-N-G.
Action sports, apparently, are relevant to the contemporary youth experience. They’re fast, furious, even rebellious. There’s no coach yelling at you, or, just as bad sometimes, blathering on with an attempt at halftime inspiration. And how many parents shout advice at their kids while they grind the curb on their skateboard?

With action sports, you don’t even have to worry about winning or losing; you can just hang with the gang and do your own thing. Performance is measured on an individual basis, or, more often, not measured at all.

Baseball, it’s been said, is a failure-oriented game. The best players only get a hit about a third of the time. Who wants to strike out with the tying run on third, when you can land a new trick on your skateboard or spend a second or two in the barrel of a wave and recount the accomplishment for weeks?

Those lures continue to draw Southern California’s youth to the beach or one of the many new city-run skateboard parks blossoming in the region.

In the early 1990s, there were 1.2 million surfers in the U.S., according to Marie Case, a consultant for Boardtrac, a Corona del Mar firm that specializes in action sports market research. Last year, there were 2.1 million.

In the decade between 1993 and 2003, the number of skateboarders increased from 5.3 million to 12.3 million.

And there are plenty of outlets not to forget prestige for surfers with a competitive nature. At San Clemente High, for example, a spot on the many-time national champion surf team is as coveted as any spot on the football team… and the surf team may make you a bigger man on campus in many circles.

Heck, everyone knows that chicks dig surfers.

And the numbers of girls in the water continues to swell as well. It’s definitely cool to be a female surfer. A girl who plays second base on a Little League team? Well, not so cool.

Just ask Peter Townend, a former world champion surfer who coaches the surf team at Dwyer Middle School in Huntington Beach and recently guided Surfing America’s U.S.A. under-18 team to the silver medal in the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championships in Tahiti.

“When I started coaching Dwyer Middle School in ’97, when my sons were there, we had like 20 kids,” says Townend, whose Dwyer teams won the national middle school championships in 2003 and 2004. “Eight years later, sign-ups for the current school year were over 100 and 40% were girls.

“It’s pretty much the same around the country and when you add to that the proliferation of surf schools, particularly in Southern California, the ‘Newbie’ surf population has probably increased tenfold since the ’90s.

“It’s cooler to surf and be a surfer now than any time since the ’60s heyday of Beach Blanket Bingo, the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. And the success of mainstream movies like ‘Blue Crush,’ ‘Step Into Liquid’ and ‘Riding Giants’ has only added to the numbers of people especially kids who want to learn how to ride waves.”

“Little League was my first, and best, exposure to organized sports. I learned a lot: what it feels like to have to perform under pressure; how to be part of, and have obligations to, a team; how to win; and how to lose…. We Indians were pretty good at losing.” Dave Barry, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist

Parents wringing their hands because they always dreamed of little Johnny playing shortstop on his high school team and now he’d rather turn a back flip off the halfpipe at Mammoth than turn the double play in the CIF playoffs might want to look in the mirror before they curse the brave, new world in which we live.

According to the National Council of Youth Sports, 70% of children give up sports by age 14. Many of them, frankly, are just sick and tired of parents and coaches who suck all the fun out of the games.

“Parents wonder why their kids quit sports… just look at the pressure put on them by their parents, coaches, and friends,” says Dave Currey, the athletic director at Chapman University and an expert in the place and perspective of athletics. “It’s sad. Kids don’t play ball in the streets, parks and playgrounds anymore. They have to have carpools, ‘disorganized’ organized leagues run by overzealous parents, pricey equipment… and winning is the only thing.

“(Legendary Green Bay Packer Coach Vince) Lombardi would be sick.”

Indeed, it’s too often a lose-lose situation these days. Either a youngster is athletic, shows potential and is pushed to the brink of burnout, or he or she is not seen as talented and is discouraged from competing.

Recent studies conducted by Little League have attempted to determine the causes of its eroding popularity and discover ways to reverse the trend. The research has revealed that those most vulnerable to leave the sport are marginally talented players who feel like they don’t get to play enough, that their coaches ignore them and that their teammates don’t like or respect them.

Bob Bigelow, a former pro basketball player who is co-author of the book, “Just Let Kids Play,” says too many parents and coaches take their cues from the professional ranks and the ESPN highlights. In their dedication to nurture the kids they think are the best, they ignore the rest.

“When do you get to just be a kid now?” Bigelow asks. “When are the games just games if it’s not when you’re a kid? It’s not just that they’re starting younger and younger, it’s that they’re geared toward a winning-at-all-costs philosophy younger and younger. There are too many adults out there who have to live through their kids’ accomplishments.

“You have 6- and 7-year-olds fighting for playing time. Come on. Everyone should be playing at that age. How can you possibly tell if one 7-year-old is better than another?”

Chris Pawlik, an assistant coach in the Tustin Western Little League, has a son, Christopher, who was a 9-year-old playing with 10- and 11-year-olds in a AAA league last year. He says that while it’s often not that hard for a coach to determine who has more talent, it’s much more difficult to maintain the proper perspective.

“So many coaches take it far too seriously,” Pawlik says. “They’re strictly out there to win. But I have to point out that, from a coach’s standpoint, it’s really a no-win situation. If you don’t win, you’re not considered a good coach. But if your strategy is to play the kids in the positions that give you the best chance to win, then some of them are stuck in the outfield all the time, out of the action and not having any fun.”

And Pawlik could see that Christopher wasn’t getting much joy out of Little League, certainly not the glee his father sees on his face when he’s bouncing on their backyard trampoline or frolicking in their pool.

“There were times when he wanted to quit, even asked to quit, and then he’d have some fun and it would be all right,” Pawlik says. “As a younger kid playing with older kids, he was a little less mature and he just got fewer opportunities. There were plenty of disappointments, but we’re going to stay with it for now and see how it goes.”

Times have changed and Pawlik doesn’t think our youth are better for it.

“I just wanted Chris to get out of Little League what I did,” he says, “have the camaraderie, be able to goof off with your pals. But the goofing off part is a lot less tolerated these days and the social part seems to have been reduced.

“They grow up so quickly now with TV, the Internet and the pressures of school. I think Little League should be fun because in the end, when you’re an adult, you’re going to look back and you’re not going to remember much about the wins and losses, but you will remember whether you had fun or a miserable time.”

John Weyler is an Orange County-based writer.

Dad Factor

How to make it his game, not yours
By Kimberly A. Porrazzo

When it comes to fathers and sons, there is no bonding agent quite like the game of baseball. From the first toss a father gently lobs to an eager little boy, to discussions of offseason trades between an old man and his adult son, baseball transcends age, links generations and acts as a conduit for life’s lessons passed on. When it serves to strengthen relationships, when it’s done right, it can be as sweet as an inning-ending double play.

For some, though, baseball memories are haunting, the result of their fathers’ misplaced intensity about a game that was designed for little boys. Perhaps dad simply knows too much. He likely played the game when he was young and though his well-intentioned “coaching” is meant to help his child avoid mistakes he himself may have made, it can plague over-coached sons. “Swing the bat! Throw the ball!” These are just a few of the commands you’ll hear barked by frustrated dads at almost any Little League game you happen to attend. You can pick him out within the first inning, the father who throws his hat on the ground in disgust, shakes his head and shouts admonitions between pitches, while his son wilts in the field, feeling humiliated and inadequate.

Perhaps not coincidentally, so-called extreme sports like skateboarding and cycling are enjoying an explosion in participation. Could it be the “dad factor” that is driving Little Leaguers off the bases faster than a game-ending grand slam?

While dad may have ridden a skateboard when he was a child, odds are he never saw a half-pipe until his child started boarding. Dad’s bike wasn’t equipped to jump ramps and literally fly, like the kids do today. Since dad never mastered an Ollie or even tried grinding, he can’t holler to his son to “make sure your backtruck clears the rail!” He probably just sits quietly, almost in awe of his son’s performance. Unlike traditional organized sports, boarding and biking don’t invite the same passionate outbursts from parents. When was the last time you read headlines like “Brawl Between Parents at Local Skate Park?” Not likely.

Dad doesn’t know enough to do much more than watch an ex-Little Leaguer’s dream: for dad to just watch.

Dr. Vincent Fortanasce, who wrote “Life’s Lessons From Little League” and has contributed $250,000 in profits from book sales to Little League baseball, says the problem is that many parents forget there is a big difference between a child and an adult. “They don’t think the way we do. They’re not motivated the way we are,” Fortanasce says. “Adults are result-oriented: getting the A, making the money. Success for a child is completely different. Success for a child is the effort.”

Fortanasce, who has coached Little League for 13 years, emphasizes that a child is successful if he has simply tried. “It is that ethic - the ability to, when you’re knock down, to get up and go again that’s what makes them a success as an adult.”

David Kloser, author of “Stepping Up to the Plate,” is a former baseball player at UC Berkeley who currently coaches high school baseball. He recalls, “My father allowed the coaches to coach and he parented at home. He left it to the Little League coach.”

Kloser talked with 140 major league ballplayers before writing his book and says, “One of the first things out of their mouths is that kids need to have fun.” He adds, “Whatever happens, win or lose they’re hanging out with their pals (during a Little League game).” Parents should support the process, not the results, he advises.

Jim Thompson, founder of the Stanford University-based Positive Coaching Alliance, offers suggestions to both moms and dads to make their child’s athletic experience a memorable one. “Encourage kids to focus on what Positive Coaching Alliance calls the ELM Tree of Mastery (E for Effort, L for Learning, M for bouncing back from Mistakes),” he says. Tell your child:

• Give it all you’ve got, your best effort, and I’ll be proud of you whether you win or lose.

• Whatever happens, try to learn from it, you’ll improve and that’s the goal.

• Baseball is a mistake-making game. The best hitters in the major leagues fail seven times out of 10. If you are going to get better, you’ve got to be brave enough to be willing to make a mistake, so have fun and don’t worry if you make a mistake.

Resources:
• www.steppinguptotheplate.com
• www.positivecoach.org

Kimberly A. Porrazzo is a senior writer for OC Family Magazine.

Coach’s Quiz

Make certain your child’s mentor is,in fact, one

Every year, thousands of parents in communities all over America step up to the plate and volunteer to be a baseball coach for their child’s team. Many are offered some basic league-sponsored training on how to teach the mechanics of baseball, but very few receive advice on developing a coaching style that promotes excellence, pride, fun, excitement, and teamwork.

“A good youth coach develops his or her own coaching style by mixing together a set of skills and ideas that will create the best overall experience for the players. Extraordinary coaches each tend to form a magic mix that’s slightly different, but they also follow a common set of rules when working with kids,” report David Ham and Janice Sibley, co-authors of “Collective Coaching Wisdom for Youth Baseball,” a new book offering practical tips, time- and kid-tested drills, and inspiring real-life stories from dozens of extraordinary community coaches across America.
Those who have mastered the challenging art of coaching children offer these tried and proven rules. Does your child’s coach meet these requirements?

1. Meet with players’ parents before the season starts. Listen to their concerns, share your philosophy and expectations, and ask for their assistance.

2. Learn the rules of the game. Read the rulebook and the guidelines from your specific league or organization to make sure you are teaching the game correctly. Many leagues modify standard rules regarding stealing, leading off, pitching limitations, and substitutions.

3. Try to use ideas and information from as many sources as possible in order to be a better coach. Read other coaching books, attend coaching clinics, and be open to new ideas that could help you coach more effectively.

4. Show up with a plan! Try to involve all kids in all facets of a planned practice. Standing in right field for an hour while everyone else hits is no fun for any player. Whenever possible, run several drills or skill stations concurrently to keep all players involved and interested.

5. Applaud effort and attitude more than performance. Physical errors will happen. If a player has a great attitude and tries hard to make a play, praise him, whether he makes the play or not. For every 10 times you speak to your players, nine of them should be praise and applause based on effort and attitude.

6. Encourage any and all kinds of positive teamsmanship between players, from high fives to rally caps and any other form of positive team camaraderie.

7. You have an obligation to develop the weaker players on your team at least as much (if not more) than the stronger ones. It will pay big dividends by the end of the season for those players and for the team.

8. Do not allow players to criticize teammates, umpires, or opposing players ever!

9. After every practice and every game, try to find something positive to say about the efforts of several players, making sure to include each and every player as many times as possible throughout the season. If you put game summaries in the local newspaper, remember to include weaker players and emphasize all aspects of the game, not just home runs.

10. Do anything you can think of to make baseball fun. Remember, these are youngsters. At this level, learning the game and having fun are always more important and age appropriate than winning games.

For more word-of-mouth tips and advice from the extraordinary youth baseball coaches featured in “Collective Coaching Wisdom for Youth Baseball” visit www.crmpublishers.com.

Be Careful - 7 safety tips for children

If your child participates in softball, baseball, basketball, football or soccer, he or she is at risk for injury.

This year alone, 12 million student athletes between ages 5 and 22 will sustain a sport or recreation injury and will miss 20 million days of school. Over one million of those injuries will be attributed to one of the five sports listed above.

Softball, baseball, basketball, football, and soccer are the five most popular sports in a typical community. Parents, grandparents and community leaders must find out how to prevent injury.

“The vast majority of injuries can be prevented,” says Dr. David H. Janda, author of “The Awakening of a Surgeon: A Family Guide to Preventing Sports Injuries and Death” (The Institute for Preventative Sports Medicine, $9.95, www.NoInjury.com). “By collectively utilizing preventative methods, we could vastly reduce, if not completely eliminate, the issue of injury in our society.”

A practicing orthopedic surgeon and injury prevention expert, Janda directs the Institute for Preventative Sports Medicine. His work has been featured in many journals and on numerous national news and talk shows. He offers the free report, “Seven Questions to Ask the Coach or Trainer to Keep Your Student Athlete Safe” at www.NoInjury.com.

Here are seven strategies:

1. Take your child in for a pre-participation physical exam.

2. Ask that automatic external defibrillators (devices used to restart the heart) be available for every field and gymnasium.

3. Ensure that all coaches are well versed in CPR and knowledgeable in conditions and training techniques for your child’s age group.

4. Check that your child’s safety equipment is well fitted and updated.

5. Urge officials to install breakaway bases on all softball and baseball fields.

6. Lobby for padded goalposts on all soccer fields and lightweight soccer balls for heading drills.

7. Verify that a hydration policy is in place to prevent dehydration and heart stroke. Ask, “When are the water breaks?”

“For our kid’s sake, we need to be proactive instead of reactive,” says Janda.

Courtesy of FeatureSource