Guest blog
News that Jackie Robinson West has been stripped of its Little League World Series title is just plain sad. The children deserve better, the city deserves better, our country deserves better.
Jackie Robinson West had become a symbol of how, with the right kind of coaches and gritty youngsters, organized sports could build character and create opportunity in a city riddled with racial tension and violence. Jackie Robinson West has now become a symbol of what’s wrong with organized youth sports today. Adults have taken over children’s play, and children are losers.
Ironically, the Little League celebrated its 75th anniversary last year. Carl Stultz started the Little League after tripping over a lilac bush while he was having a catch with his nephews. He disowned it 20 years later because the commercialization of the World Series had transformed the Little League into a corporate entity.
Stultz wanted to give children an opportunity to have fun playing America’s pastime with uniforms and fields modeled on the big leagues. Along the way, the Little League, like too many other youth sport organizations, stopped being about the children.
That’s a crying shame. We owe it to our children to give their games back to them.
Flickr image cc by Edwin Martinez
