little league world series of baseball

[dougthonus]

I think this article elaborates on the potential problems with ESPN airing the LLWS.

http://overtime.blogs.pressdemocrat.com ... thy-on-tv/

Interesting in that I didn't know that the kids in the tournament weren't the best (or likely close).

That said, nothing else in this article remotely makes me think that marketing little league is a bad thing. All he basically said is the teams playing aren't the best teams. So what? It's still a dream come true for the kids that are there. There's nothing about it that's a problem that I can see from this explanation still.

I've never watched the LLWS, so maybe I'm missing something about it though, but corporate sponsors for LL seem like a good thing for expanding baseball not a bad thing.

[Jeffster81]

[chitownsalesmen]

I think this article elaborates on the potential problems with ESPN airing the LLWS.

http://overtime.blogs.pressdemocrat.com ... thy-on-tv/

So, I’m getting ready to shake my head at ESPN over-hyping a competition that was really intended only to mean the world to kids, parents and town folk. (I don’t watch it because, I don’t want to see attention-grabbing parents or corporate sponsors lining Little League’s pockets.)

Oh, FFS!! What an idiot this guy is. (who wrote the article). Yeah, it's a shame that corporate sponsors are helping fund Little League...... so they can build more baseball fields and make the game more accessible for kids without money.

My God people. Find something that is really a problem to complain about. FFS, the LLWS has been televised for 50 year and long before ESPN has aired it.

Its just tacky. Who actually watches the stuff besides the families of the athletes? Why is there corporate interest in the LL WS besides to just get positive PR? I'm not saying it should be banned obviously I just think its real convenient that a bunch of companies turn kids, young small kids playing baseball into business, maybe it has always been that way but It just irks me for some reason.

[chitownsalesmen]

Except they're actors/actresses and not athletes. Those kids are not playing a sport where injury is much more of a likelihood.

Also they're working on tv shows where education of sorts is promoted.

Idk, it's difficult to describe but it seems wrong to make a buck off this indeed. I however found some of what OP said as weird.

It should also be noted that Child actors/actresses are also paid for their appearance on xyz tv show, even if that money is given directly too the parents at-least they are being compensated in some way.

The argument wasn't about compensation. The argument was about whether or not it was appropriate to put 10-13 year old kids on TV.

But concerning compensation, child actors are auditioning and performing jobs in the same manner as adults, jobs that help generate significant revenue for whatever entertainment project they're part of. Little leaguers are participating in a summer activity their parents are paying to put them in. It's not like specific little league teams or leagues have television deals (national or local) or pack stadiums or sell crazy amounts of merchandise.

ESPN is covering a specific event, the Little League World Series, which ABC Wide World of Sports was covering way back in the 60's. Perhaps whatever little league entity has authority to sell ESPN the rights can compensate the teams that reach the world series (yeah right), but ultimately ESPN paid to broadcast a newsworthy, immensely popular human interest sporting event. But feel free to hawk those autographs for baseball card money, kiddies.

First of all ABC and ESPN are both own by Disney, 2nd I call bull-crap on 'newsworthy, immensely popular sporting event'. I can't picture anyone without family or close friends directly involved in the LLWS watching it, and for the ones who do I wonder what kind of vanilla ice cream they like most.

[Polynice4Pippen]

It should also be noted that Child actors/actresses are also paid for their appearance on xyz tv show, even if that money is given directly too the parents at-least they are being compensated in some way.

The argument wasn't about compensation. The argument was about whether or not it was appropriate to put 10-13 year old kids on TV.

But concerning compensation, child actors are auditioning and performing jobs in the same manner as adults, jobs that help generate significant revenue for whatever entertainment project they're part of. Little leaguers are participating in a summer activity their parents are paying to put them in. It's not like specific little league teams or leagues have television deals (national or local) or pack stadiums or sell crazy amounts of merchandise.

ESPN is covering a specific event, the Little League World Series, which ABC Wide World of Sports was covering way back in the 60's. Perhaps whatever little league entity has authority to sell ESPN the rights can compensate the teams that reach the world series (yeah right), but ultimately ESPN paid to broadcast a newsworthy, immensely popular human interest sporting event. But feel free to hawk those autographs for baseball card money, kiddies.

First of all ABC and ESPN are both own by Disney, 2nd I call bull-crap on 'newsworthy, immensely popular sporting event'. I can't picture anyone without family or close friends directly involved in the LLWS watching it, and for the ones who do I wonder what kind of vanilla ice cream they like most.

Watch this 30 for 30 documentary, it's about the 1982 Kirkland, WA little league team that won it all. It's very good.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5oKUtVmXv0[/youtube]

Here's a little sample.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RlmwkfN6Cs[/youtube]

And BTW, Disney didn't own ABC back in the 60's when they first started airing the LLWS.