Intense competition. High drama. 12 year-olds.

The Little League World Series is a surprisingly engrossing way to spend two weeks lying on the couch watching television. For the uninitiated, the LLWS is a double-elimination tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania that consists of 16 teams with players ranging from ages 11 to 13. There are eight teams from regions in the United States on one side of the bracket and eight from International regions in the other.

The winner of the US pool meets the winner of the International pool in the championship game to determine the overall Little League World Series winner. Tournament play begins today on ESPN and will continue until the Little League World Series Champion is crowned on Sunday, August 25. Aside from wildly entertaining mini-baseball, the Little League World Series boasts a variety of other unexpected charms that I’ve come to look forward to every year.

The Little League World Series can be super fun to watch if you have the right attitude. By Ruhrfisch, via Wikimedia Commons

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Especially in highly competitive regions, teams rarely prevail in regional tournaments to make the Little League World Series two years in a row, and even when they do, important players from the year before have aged out of eligibility and into the obscurity of their high school junior varsity squads. But you’d never know that the entire tournament field changes year-to-year based on the continuity in style of play from the different regions. You can expect any team representing Japan to be fundamentally sound and play stellar defense. The teams from the Mexico and Caribbean regions are the most likely to take unusual risks with their batting and base running strategies, and any game which they are involved has the potential for an unpredictable and exciting ending. The kids from the West are well-known for their high-scoring heavy hitters, while teams hailing from the Southwest tend to make their under-the-radar journey along the bracket with deep pitching. This remarkable consistency is part of what makes the Little League World Series such a comforting summer classic, along with funnel cakes and awkward Disney Channel actors as sideline reporters.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Life as a twelve year old boy is already pretty hard. Their voice cracks at the most inopportune times, all the girls in their class are taller than they are, and most of them are about two or three years away from a real growth spurt. Add the pressure of playing baseball at the highest stakes they have ever known in front of millions of people watching all over the world, and it’s a wonder how any of them deal with it at all. Some handle the pressure with surprising grace and aplomb. Albert Pop from Aruba (Caribbean), who played in the 2011 Little League World Series, immediately comes to mind. Despite getting blown out by Japan in a game that would eventually be called after the 4^th inning due to the 10-run “mercy rule,” Pop continued to dispense quality fist bumps to each of his dejected teammates like a pro. Others handle losing more poorly, like a young pitcher in 2010 from Texas (Southwest) who asked to be taken out of a game early after his answer to the team manager’s question of “Are you having fun?” was a memorably emphatic “NO!” And others still seem impervious to the pressure completely, like a home run hitter and star player from Chinese Taipei in 2009, who millions of people watched struggle to remove his hand from a bag of Peanut M&Ms after getting a little too greedy during the Championship game. We get to watch these kids grow up during an brief but important juncture of their lives, and that’s pretty cool. And hilarious, obviously.

Odds and Ends

At least one player will choose a family member as the answer to “Who is your favorite player?” and it will be absolutely adorable. My personal favorite was Matthew Reyes from Canada naming his sister Katie as his choice back in 2010, after she was one of only two girls who participated in the Little League World Series the year before.

A perennial underdog team will finally have its day, and it will make your day, like when Team Canada defeated Chinese Taipei for the first time in 17 tries during tournament play in 2011.

An inspirational speech given by a team manager or coach will become an instant classic in the pantheon of sports pep talks. The best I’ve ever heard could be transcribed as follows: “Do your best, have fun, Eye of the Tiger, all that other stuff.”

Orel Hershiser will completely butcher every player name that comes his way during commentary, even after Brent Musburger pronounces them correctly. Brent is a real professional, except of course, when the topic of discussion is Katherine Webb.

The Little League World Series will ruin at least one song you used to really like after ESPN uses it as the theme and plays it ad nauseam for two straight weeks. “You and Your Heart” by Jack Johnson, I’m sorry, but I just can’t handle you anymore.

What are your favorite reasons to watch the Little League World Series? Sound off below.

Full tournament schedule can be found here.

As I stare off tonight, starry eyed–ala Joey “Blue Sky” Harrington–into the planetary space of the abnormal, my wife is faithfully paying the bills and deciding whom to socially network with this week.  She is the planning operator, the assassin, the Nancy Kerrigan of the union. I, on the other hand, am a self-confessed Tonya Harding.

My only form of social networking is spinning over a few cold ones in a rundown pub–talking with middle-aged, divorced, unemployed conspiracists. They usually view professional baseball as a relative to marriage–systematically dead and broken, absorbed in its winner, less in its faceless building blocks. “Every winner needs a loser,” these men mutter, with overgrown hair hitting their eyelashes.

“Pre or post 18 Britney?” I ask to change the subject, counting the freckles on my left arm. My father called them war wounds in the womb. “Damn right,” I think (thirteen to be exact) turning one eye toward the TV, where an ESPN announcer blankly spits on my beloved Angels for overpaying  a thirty-two-year-old loser from Toronto. I always liked Vernon Wells… just not for eighty six million over the next four.

The pause is timely, allowing our intoxicated minds to find meaning in the topic at hand. “Pre” he says, slamming the frothing stout on the greasy bar top, with a Reagan-like head nod.  A belly the size of a ten pound bag of potatoes with black fuzz and poor complexion smiles from the creased top of his pants.

“Pre…nah,” I say shaking my dog mane hair, stepping a bit back,  examining him closer…world spinning.

“Another on me,” he slurs, pointing to the empty glasses glimmering in the dim-lit bar.

I like the whacked out Spears, like a rock conniseurewould like the Beatles drug induced psychedelic jams. Things need to be frayed, in disharmony, boundless, outside the box. Not collected, perfect, take home to your mother kind of stuff.

When I decided on the California Angels in 1987, I was five, and they were losing a game to the Minnesota Twins 21-1. Chuck Finley, who had pitched the day before, had to spell the Angels’ final relief pitcher in the 6th inning. My father was a fan of Wally Joyner, but growled with disapproval at my penitence of faith in arguably the worst franchise in league history. He had raised me on the greats of his generation: Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Sandy Koufax. His interlink between coach and fatherhood ransacked my father’s ability to see clearly when it came to giving his growing son real advice (he once told me marriage is like hanging yourself by your nads). But in this instance, learning the hard way was learning the best way of all. My father saw this, and went with it. “Oh yea…” he said, chopping some hash on his lap,”better get used to the pain of losing, then.” And I did.

My marriage to the California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim is now in its twenty-fourth year of union. For seventeen of those I got used to losing and being the laughing stock of any sports or barbecue gathering. Most of my friends growing up were die hard Giants or Dodger fans. They idolized popular names like Barry Bonds, Orel Hershiser, Francisco Valenzuela, Matt Williams, Will Clark, and Mike Piazza. In 1988, the Dodgers won a World Series, and in 1989, the Giants played in the famous earthquake series against the A’s. Loving the Angels was like dating their ugly adopted sister. Which is why to this day I can still hear the faint laughter of my friends chewing on a dripping piece of tri-tip.

I knew growing up that the Angels would finish dead last in the division nine times out of ten. So losing took on a meaningful life of its own. Each “L” accrued night in, night out, gave me a sense of pride that I, unlike so many of my friends, could be true to an organization no matter how bad they were (yes I am speaking to you Clipper fans). I idolized Wally Joyner–“Wally World”–the 1986 American League Rookie of the Year. Had it not been for various injuries, the lifetime .289 hitter with 204 home runs and 2,060 hits, would have landed himself in the baseball Hall of Fame. But like  “Wally World” was a rust riddled park in Chase’s famed “Family Vacation,”  so was Joyner’s body. It did as an Angel should do: fall apart.

Which reminds me of our famous collapse in 1995. For the first time in ten years, my Angels, who consistently lost 90-100 games a year, were flirting with the postseason.  On August 6th, the Angels had a 10 1/2 game lead on the Texas Rangers and an 11 1/2 game lead over the Mariners. But a nine game losing streak from August 22nd to September 3rd, and one from September 13th to September 23rd, found the Angels one time gargantuan lead whittled to a tie breaker game with the Mariners to decide who made the postseason. The Mariners ace Randy Johnson hurled a one run, three hit effort, obliterating us 9-1.

From 1987-2002, the Angels missed the postseason. So in order to find pride in things, I had to fall in love with the faces of their losing tradition. Each one of them, like me, was a stalwart ballplayer who played more for the love of the game than he did to experience a winner’s glory.

Remember Chili Davis,  the Angels starting left fielder from 88-90, 93-96? Davis enjoyed an eighteen year career that saw him quietly finish with 350 home runs, a .279 batting average, and 2,355 career hits. More known for the hilarity of his first name, Davis was a rock for the Angels clubhouse in the mid-90’s.

How about Luis Polonia, the 5-8  145 pound gremlin lead-off hitter from 90-93′? Most of Polonia’s thirteen year career was littered with injury. But from 90-93′, Polonia played in 90% of his games and celebrated a .297 batting average. He had the keen ability to slap the ball the other way, and steal bases to set up runs for the Angels big hitters.

Big hitters like the famous Kelly Gruber. Gruber’s forgettable ten year career was predominately played in Toronto, till he finished even more forgettably in 93′ with the Angels. He played eighteen games with three home runs and nine RBIs. Let’s just say Gruber is a favorite of mine when playing “name that random athlete.”

Or how about a big overweight piece of you know what in first baseman Mo Vaughn? Vaughn, the poor man’s Big Papi, signed a record size contract at the time–80 mill over six with Anaheim in 1999. The supposed savior for a franchise with no big names, struck out one hundred eighty times in 2000, and missed all of 2001 with a torn ankle ligament, after slipping in the dugout.

Gary DiSarcina played all eleven (’89-’00) of his big league years with the Angels.  A myriad of injuries created a sort of cult following for the hardworking DiSarcina, which was odd, considering he was only a lifetime .258 hitter. For much of my young life I believed DiSarcina was a near .300 hitter who had played in numerous all-star games.  It was not until last year, that the rose-colored glasses of Angel fandom were ripped from my eyes, showing me just how bad DiSarcina was for most of his career.

As we all know, you can’t win games without great pitching. Which was exactly what the Angels did not have. Besides Chuck Finley and Mark Langston, the Angels starting rotation mimicked that of a little league team. John Farrel, a true workhorse, always made me feel secure when he was on the mound. In 1993, the stud finished 3-12 with a 7.35 era.  It must of been the lack of run support for guys like Farrel or Kirk McCaskill (yeeeaaa riggghhhhhttt). McCaskill’s stunning performance in 1991 left quite a legacy for Angel pitching, finishing the season 10-19 with an amazing 1 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio.

On the eve of the 2002 season I made a bet with my father. I told him the Angels would make the playoffs for the first time in sixteen years. He took the bet and gave me three to one odds. As the season progressed and the Angels got better and better, my father found himself rooting for them as I did. He took a sense of pride in knowing that his son was the kind of man who had stuck it out with no-name failures. When the Angels wrapped up the wild card and a season of 99-63, my father and I reminisced on all the past Angel greats (or “not so greats”). We chuckled remembering Mark Langston’s high leg kick, and Devon White’s inability to hit a change up.

When the Angels shocked the world and won the World Series, I lamented a bit in the celebration. I now had an expectation that they would win year in year out.  No longer could I use their losing as an excuse for my languished faith or diligent grit. “Welcome to the big leagues,” my father said jokingly, during the World Series celebration. Slapping a hundred in my hand (original bet was thirty bucks, which means with my win he owed me ninety), he continued, “take the extra ten dollars as a tip for being so damn faithful all these years.”

As the 2011 season fast approaches, I am unamused or concerned with our 80-82 campaign in 2010. For many of the new era fans, the people who hopped on after our 2002 World Series, winning is everything. From 2002 to present the Angels have developed into a perennial power with five division titles and six playoff births. But winning is just a speck in the eye of my love for Angel baseball, and does not deter me from celebrating a lifetime of appreciation for players who paved the way for our recent string of success. My love for the unexpected is far stronger than a insecure need to be crowned champ every year.

In fact, with all this winning I am beginning to get a bit uncomfortable. Which is why the Kansas City Royals are sounding pretty damn good right now.