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.