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.

Dianne efforts toward a pass. With her “arm-sized chopsticks.” By Dan Kavanaugh

I got my start in coed two-hand touch football about a year and a half ago, and never played a day in my life before then. Now I’ve been the captain of teams in two different leagues, and every season I seem to run into the same problem; recruiting other girls to play. I think that’s a shame, because few other activities give you a) an easy way to stay active b) opportunities to meet tons of new people and c) a perfectly acceptable excuse (recreational sports) to drink during the day in your sweats, all at the same time. I swear, with no trace of facetiousness, that it’s the best time a girl can have on the weekend! If I have intrigued any of you ladies with the idea of joining a coed social football league (or soccer, volleyball, Quidditch, just pick your poison), a few pieces of advice:

1. Stick with it, even when you get hit in the face by the football. Most girls think they can’t join a league because they’ve never played football before. In reality, they’re in almost the exact same boat as pretty much every other girl I’ve met playing recreational sports. The difference is the willingness to put yourself out there and look a little bit like an idiot while you’re learning the game. The first pass I was thrown in my first game ricocheted off the ground and hit me in the face. It stung a little, but mostly it was wildly embarrassing. I promise that your first experience probably will not be that bad. And even if it is, just remember to lighten up and laugh at yourself! It’s a virtue. But slowly and surely, if you keep showing up and allow yourself to be coached by your teammates, you’ll get better. I still look like I’m catching passes with arm-sized chopsticks sometimes, but at least now I catch them more often than not.

Good times with good teammates! What could be better?

2. Steer clear of the super competitive agro males. You’ll notice when meeting your teammates and other people in the league that there are a lot of dudes. It makes sense, since dudes love playing football. If you’re a single lady, this is awesome. But it can also be a little overwhelming. So many options for dating! The first guy to catch your eye will probably be the good-looking alpha male who scores all your team’s touchdowns. But he has a dark side. He’s the type of guy who tells you to walk it off and keep playing when you twist your ankle, and stalks off without saying goodbye to anyone when the team loses. Don’t be fooled by his athletic build and surprisingly impressive ability to make one-handed catches. He’s a jerk who is only going to break your heart. Instead, look out for the guy who patiently explains to you for the third time how to run a route and doesn’t yell at you when the girl you’re defending on the other team makes the touchdown catch to win the game. He’s the one who is more likely to be a keeper off the field.

3. Just have fun. Sure, once you really get into this football thing, playing well and winning the game is a lot of fun. But inevitably, sometimes you’re going to drop a pass, blow a defensive assignment, and/or lose the game. It’s not the end of the world. At the end of the day, no one is graduating from this to the pros. But you’re all going to the bar afterward for a couple of drinks and a few games of flip cup, and that’s where everyone wins. Perspective.

In the world of sports fansmanship, when our teams experience less success than we’d like, there are a myriad of excuses we rely on in our grief. Some are more interesting than others — for example, rumors that Pau Gasol’s poor playoff performance in 2011 was caused by a scheming Vanessa Bryant instigating the breakup of his romantic relationship — but one of the oldest standbys in Fan Excuse Bingo has always been the dichotomy between big market and small market teams, the haves and have-nots of the NBA. This kind of rationalizing to justify unmet expectations only intensified prior to the current season as the team executives making roster decisions and the owners picking up the tab feared the financial ramifications of the much harsher luxury tax looming based on the new collective bargaining agreement.

There are certainly a number of factors, both tangible and perceived, that stack the deck against small market franchises with tight wallets, from the very limited revenue available from local television contracts to the undeniable allure of the big cities for top-level free agent talents looking for new homes. While success and failure in the NBA can often hinge as much on sheer dumb luck as anything else, owners and executives from the most successful small market teams have learned to rely on their own diligence and savvy decision-making to close the gap. The long-term brilliance of San Antonio Spurs general manager RC Buford and the rise of protégé Sam Presti for the Oklahoma City Thunder highlight the benefits of discipline and patience when building a successful small market franchise. Furthermore, if you can land a head coach with the ability to cultivate and get the most out of young, raw talent (Rick Adelman in Minnesota, Frank Vogel in Indiana) this can only accelerate a small market franchise’s growth.

The Nuggets have managed to lose their GM and coach in a single off-season. By Keith Allison, via Wikimedia Commons

This makes the recent developments in Denver all the more mystifying. Despite being plagued by injuries, most notably Danilo Gallinari’s season-ending torn ACL, and falling victim to Steph Curry’s awe-inspiring playoff debut in their first round series against the Golden State Warriors, the prognosis for the Nuggets was very good. Taking the helm as GM for the Denver Nuggets in 2010, Masai Ujiri earned considerable credibility around the league with his masterful handling of Carmelo Anthony’s departure in 2011. As tension grew between the disgruntled superstar, the Denver fan base, and the national media, Ujiri faced mounting pressure to take any deal from the New York Knicks or the then-New Jersey Nets that would inevitably return cents-on-the-dollar for a player widely considered Top 10 in the league. In the face of constant scrutiny, Ujiri insisted on holding out for the best possible deal, and reaped the benefits when he managed to land four valuable pieces (Gallinari, Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, and Timofey Mozgov) in a blockbuster trade with the Knicks. Ujiri has continued to make smart roster decisions since then; Ty Lawson remains the lone pre-Ujiri holdover on a team that overachieved their way into the third seed in the highly competitive Western Conference. For his efforts, Ujiri was voted by his peers as NBA Executive of the Year, and was promptly offered a significant raise by the Toronto Raptors, which Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke declined to match.

The overachievement of the roster Ujiri built can be heavily attributed to the work done by NBA Coach of the Year George Karl. On a team with no All-Star and no player averaging more than 16.7 points, Karl’s young squad notched a franchise-record 57 wins by consistently out-running and out-working opponents. Bolstered by the rising star of Lawson at the point, the defensive swagger of a less-burdened Andre Iguodala, and the hard-hat mentality of the Kenneth “The Manimal” Faried, the Nuggets rightfully struck fear in the hearts of most of the NBA’s top contenders, many of whom lost their season series against the Nuggets this year (including the Thunder, Grizzlies, Clippers, Warriors, and Rockets). There’s little to suggest that Karl was unsuitable to lead the Nuggets well into future seasons, and it’s not unreasonable that the reigning Coach of the Year would want an opportunity to continue developing this young, exciting team, as well as some job security with a multi-year contract extension. And yet Karl finds himself back on the market, with no shortage of interested suitors.

And this is why small market teams can’t have nice things. Big market franchises can withstand bad ownership; I’m fairly certain that we could replace Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling with Amanda Bynes on a bender and she would still manage to be less offensive and deranged than the man in charge. However, despite the odds, many of the most successful teams in recent history have shown that small market teams can keep up. They keep up by being patient, disciplined, and most of all, making smart decisions. And doing everything they could to keep the reigning Executive of the Year and Coach of the Year were the most obvious of no-brainer decisions that the Denver Nuggets still managed to mess up.

Indiana Pacers star Roy Hibbert let loose on the media Saturday night in a strange press conference appearance following the Pacers’ impressive Game 6 win over the Miami Heat that pushed the Eastern Conference Finals to a decisive Game 7. When asked to comment on his own 10th place finish in the NBA Defensive Player of the Year voting, Hibbert had this to say:

Roy Hibbert (left) and the Pacers have proven themselves better than all but one Eastern Conference team. By Zach Primozic

(Before I get into the crux of the issue, I do want to point out that while Hibbert was outranked in DPOY voting by several more well-known players on higher-profile teams, he also received less points than the Pacers’ own Paul George as well as Larry Sanders of the Milwaukee Bucks, who isn’t even the most well-known person with his own name).

And he’s right, nobody watches the Pacers. Not their local residents — they have the 25th-best attendance in the league. Not San Antonio Spurs’ MVP Tony Parker, who admitted earlier last month to not watching any of the Pacers’ less-than-riveting first round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks. The truth of the matter is that the Indiana Pacers are, in fact, a little boring. As a die-hard NBA fan and League Pass subscriber, I watch at least a couple of hours and multiple games of basketball almost every day of the regular season. I don’t think there was even one point this season where I looked at the full offering of games on a given day and said, “You know, I’m really interested to see what the Pacers are up to today.”

Can you blame me? As much as they say that defense wins championships, the Pacers’ staunch defensive style (2nd in the league in opponent points per game) does little to make them inherently watchable to anyone other than that one tool some of us know who believes his superior appreciation of defense in the NBA makes him a better fan than us mainstream cretins who prefer to watch teams who score once in a while. The Pacers have been woeful in this regard, ranking 23rd in the league in points per game. Not only do the Pacers struggle to score, they struggle to score in ways that are fun to watch, ranking in the bottom five league-wide in categories like field goal percentage and assists per game. And while fundamentally, winning games only requires that you score more points than your opponent, winning games doesn’t necessarily translate to an enjoyable fan viewing experience.

Then there are the intangibles. While Frank Vogel is a gifted head coach who has led the Pacers into the elite of the Eastern Conference, whenever I see him, I experience an odd phenomenon. I’ve seen him many times before, but for a split second I’m surprised by what he looks like. He comes off as just kind of a nondescript type of guy. His Pacers take after him in this way. Although Paul George, Roy Hibbert, and the currently-injured Danny Granger have represented the Pacers in the All-Star Game in the past three seasons, none are the type of flashy offensive talent that inspires fans to go out and buy their jerseys–although it’s becoming apparent in these playoffs that Paul George may evolve into that sooner than anyone expected.

I don’t blame Hibbert for his apparent affliction with Jan Brady syndrome. In a league where respect can be measured by things like number of nationally televised games and jersey sales, Indiana is barely on anyone’s radar. However, he and the Pacers can do something about that. With a win tonight on the road against the defending NBA champions, the Indiana Pacers have a chance to not only advance to their first NBA Finals since 2000, but perhaps also to put us all on notice that they’re a team worth watching. Their prospective Finals opponents, the now very well-rested San Antonio Spurs, could teach the Pacers a little something about that. While also somewhat unfairly saddled with the “boring” label, they’ve proven their worth and earned their respect by winning multiple championships and being one of the most consistently elite teams in the last decade. You earn cred with people who love basketball through sustained excellence. You earn it by performing on the big stage. Now you have the opportunity tomorrow to come and get it.

And if Hibbert and the Pacers pull this off, I promise that once in a while I’ll choose their games on League Pass next season.