We Celebrate Boys and Baseball in Billings

The above picture was taken after Ben Askelson's (15) walk-off home run in the bottom of the 7th of the memorable first game between Huntington Beach CA and Billings MT at this year's Little League World Series.

Joe Kusek wrote a nice little article about the Boys of Billings in the Gazette on Wednesday morning reminding us all how important baseball is to us, young and old, and to America, and perhaps to the world. His writing reminds me a little of A. Bartlett Giamatti, erstwhile Professor of English Literature, then President of Yale University, who finally found his true calling when he became President of baseball's National League in in the spring of 1986 and, sadly, died way too soon in the fall, 3 years and 5 months later, in the fall of 1989 as commissioner of Major League Baseball.

"Our character and our culture are reflected in this grand game . . . . it would not be wrong to claim for baseball a capacity to cherish individuality and inspire cohesion in a way that is a hallmark of our loftiest institutions. Nor would it be misguided to think that, however vestigial the remnants of our best hopes, we can still find, if we wish to, a moment called a game when those hopes have life, when each of us, those who are in and those who are out, has a chance to gather, in a green place around home."—Bart Giamatti, A Great and Glorious Game, from an address to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1985.

There was another article on the celebration for this coming weekend, but they forgot to tell us which day.

The online Gazette came to the rescue and told us it was on Saturday this coming Labor Day Weekend, with a parade starting at the Chamber of Commerce Building, probably around 5pm and working its way north to Dehler Park, via a circle of South Park and then north on S 29th St, cutting over to 28th or Broadway at Montana Ave and then winding up at 27th with a jaunt around the block at Dehler Park. See the map to the left.

Gates open at Dehler at 4:30pm and the motorcade arrive at approximately 5:30pm. It looks like fun. I think someone said there was going to be some fireworks.

Perhaps it would be a good time to Take Time For Paradise, as another of Giamatti's all too slim books recommends.

Montana Wins 2nd Game at LLWS, 3-1

Very exciting game. The boys from Big Sky All-Stars beat the All-Stars from LaFayette, Louisiana.

Zimmer and Askelson and Jones and McKenzie and Kieckbusch and Smith and Campbell and Kurth and Leatherberry and Maehl and MacDonald and Sulser were the stars.

Next game will be Wednesday, 24 August.

Watching Little League Baseball

While watching the big game between Billings' Big Sky All-Stars and the All-Stars from Rapid City, SD
I thought for a few moments in between innings: I wonder what was behind this 85 pitch count limit and have there been any changes in bats what with a successful lawsuit here in Montana, the result of a catastrophic head injury to a pitcher from Miles City up in Helena by a ball batted with a metal bat, at the American Legion level, i.e. advanced high school level, some 8 or 9 years ago.

I did a little Googling and found that metal bats are still being used by the Little League, and that there have been no scientific studies showing that metal bats are more dangerous than wooden bats. This was reported in the Wall Street Journal back in April of this year. I had forgotten that I had read it but Mr Google kindly reminded me of a previous blog of mine. Here is some info on bats from earlier this year. Following some of the leads will get you more info.

And then back to sore arms, pitch counts, curve balls. I found a very nice summary of material coming from the University of North Carolina showing that curve balls didn't seem anymore dangerous than a lot of other practices for Little Leaguers. It was primarily the innings thrown and the number of pitches thrown that led to an increase in later injuries. The study looked fairly sturdily constructed to me. After the game I started thinking about the arm troubles of Dave McNally and wondered how many pitches he had thrown in Legion games back in the late 50s?

Big Sky All-Stars vs. Rapid City All-Stars

I was a few minutes late getting to ESPN's televised game between Billings' Big Sky All Stars and a similar team from Rapid City, South Dakota because my dental hygienist and dentist, still she and he respectively, despite all the ministrations of the feminists, not having seen me for a few years were understandably worried what with my declivitous decline in dental health, and thus they offered all sorts of options for making things better. I readily agreed and then hurried home to think about the options and watch the opening game for the USA teams at the Little League World Series in Williamsport PA.

The nephew of my general surgeon, Mckenzie, pitched 5 innings for Billings, and looked pretty good, allowing 4 runs, two of them home runs by a big 13 yr old, Petrey from Rapid City. The final inning was pitched by one of our own big guys from Billings, 3rd baseman Jones, who got three outs without difficulty including a fly-out to centerfield for the final out by Mr Petrey. Final score was 6-4.

Our boys looked very taut but still relaxed on defense and fortunately knew where the strike zone was in the critical inning where they scored 5 runs with the aid of only two hits, a difficult pop-fly into no-man's land in short center by Kieckebusch and a solid double to the wall by pitcher McKenzie.

I was in such a hurry to leave the dentist's office that I forgot my sunglasses and my prized Yomiuri Giants baseball cap. My dentist was kind enough to drop them off at my home. That sealed the deal as far as I was concerned. I am down for a root canal next week, after the LLWS is over.

A Clear Case of Mistaken Identity

Another example, as if it was needed, of the Protection Racket in action. Check this out.

Once, a long time ago, I noticed that my son, pitching for the Little League at the time, and usually with pretty good control, often, apparently accidentally, would hit with a pitch one of the bigger guys batting near the top of the lineup. When I asked him about this he said, matter of factly, "When you hit one of the big guys, the little guys pay attention."

Little League Bats

This is, as you can probably see, an article from the Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago. Apparently the powers that be in the Little League hierarchy have decided that they are going to take no chances on new composite bats hurting someone. I had a feeling this might well be the un-intended consequence of the rare serious injury or death that happens with any kind of bat. The relative light weight of the bat means that young and weaker players can swing it more easily. If they hit it just right it sounds great, goes further and apparently attains a velocity a few miles faster than the older metal bats and wooden bats. There is no convincing evidence that these bats are more harmful than the more traditional bats. They do make it more difficult to pitch inside in high school and college games because instead of breaking the bat and/or producing a weak pop fly to the infield, these bats are strong enough not to break and often the ball will fall between the infield and outfield, or at least that is the way it looks to me. So our Mustang hitters, for example, must learn how to bat using wooden bats and the pitchers need to learn how to pitch against those who use wooden bats.

This is going to result in headaches for umpires, coaches, players and their parents. And will not result in any significant increase in safety for the pitchers. Steve Thomas, a sports columnist and writer for the Bismarck Tribune summed up the arguments very nicely last summer. But he said nothing about safety because the data are not available. I didn't realize that the folks in North Dakota have gone over entirely to wooden bats. I hope they keep good records. Then in a few years we may have enough information to make a reasonable argument for and against metal and wooden bats.