Stay tuned for updates.

My guess is that we will see a low scoring fight until a huge inning opens it up by California but you will most certainly see some defensive gems
by the Chinese Taipei team.

Watching with a youth player(s) makes it a lot more fun… and insightful too… you get an idea of how those little minds work and can find some great keys to helping them develop their game too.

BTW:
I apologize for not posting of late… sometimes work gets in the way of my baseball-life.

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The 2009 Little League Baseball World Series will welcome 11-12-year-olds from around the world. Sixteen teams will compete for the World Series championship.

The World Series championship game can be seen live on ABC at 3:30 p.m., on Sunday, Aug. 30. ABC also will televise the International Championship Game on Saturday, Aug. 29 at noon, followed by the United States championship at 3 p.m.

The 2009 World Series will be the third operated under the eight-year television contract agreement with ESPN/ABC. Five games will be televised on ABC. This will be the fourth year that all of the World Series games will be televised in high definition. For the eighth year since the tournament expanded from eight to 16 teams in 2001, every team will have games on national television.

All 32 games of the World Series will be televised again this year.

Thirteen World Series games will be televised on ESPN and 14 will be televised on ESPN2. In addition, the ESPN family of networks will carry all eight of the U.S. Regional Championship finals in the Little League Baseball division. The U.S. regional finals have been televised by ESPN and ESPN2 every year since 1997.

Baseball Tips supports Little League Baseball and offers several Little League-approved training products for you to enjoy and to help improve your game!

http://baseballtips.com/littleleague/index.html
Little League-approved Training Products – link

The Number 1 Reason Kids Quit Baseball Is…                                                                   THEY SAY IT’S NO LONGER ANY FUN!

Please Watch This 30 second video clip…You’ll either cringe or LYAO but you can’t help  feeling the kids point… Great little actor; I wonder if he can hit?

Little Leaguer Goes Off On His Dad

Please read the comments below the video clip… not so funny.
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I got this info from the only major study done where 130,000 players were interviewed (not that the results are astounding…parents generally understand this just because they are parents…kids just do not like doing what they don’t want to do or what they feel they are not good at).

BUT, there’s a point in that, as parents, maybe we can influence our kids (and out teams) to have a bit more fun and perhaps stay in the game long enough for them to love it more!

And believe me if you will… the kid who is having the most fun on a ballfield is the kid that’s playing well!

If We Improve – They Improve! We ask our kids and players to continue improving by practicing new and existing skills so shouldn’t we adults be asking the same of ourselves?

Lets All Get Better At This… Hey, its our free time too and if we have more to offer our kids & our ballplayers, we will all be better for it!

Here’s Some Free Ideas! Have you found our 200 Baseball Tips Free Training Articles on how to improve your batting, pitching, catching, fielding & coaching?

It’s a great resource for all age players  their coaches & parents too!

Here’s The Link: http://baseballtips.com/instruction.html

Free Is Good! Keep Learning & Spread the Word. Knowledge indeed is power! More of our players can & should play baseball at a higher level.

I know a scouting director who even passed on Derek Jeter, in part due to his being a Michigan kid! And he loved the kid, his family, his skills and his make up… Go figure!  But, it happens.

Some Examples Here’s an example of potential competition that a frozen state kid faces (remember, all teams in each area have the same weather, right?) If a 12 year old travel ball player in Florida has his 1st game of the spring season January 15, that same player would start around mid- late February in Georgia… just one state away. How about that same player in New Jersey? maybe April 1…if there’s no snow on the ground from a late storm?

Now that’s tough.

Try this one…when my son’s college ballclub headed to Florida from Tennessee, they had already played 12 games and teams from their conference in Texas had played 18. Yet some teams they matched up with were playing their 1st game of the season…right there in Florida!

One  coach from Illinois (who’s team hit the snot off the ball in their opening game) shook his head in amazement at how well they did hit. He told me that no practices had included live hitting on the field until that very game!

So, can you win if you are at this disadvantage? Absolutely…but we are talking about averages and odds…and it is just tougher with this disadvantage.

But you know who tends NOT to have a disadvantage? Pitchers!                      They can get their work in in the gym…it doesn’t seem to be a big difference-maker!

The Inaugural Under Armour All America Baseball Game was held at Wrigley Field last August. 36 rising High School seniors were chosen out of the 450,.000 HS players across the country.

1 player came from each of the following cold weather states/provinces:

Canada, New Jersey, Washington, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Utah, Maryland, N. California.

The other 27 were from below the Mason-Dixon Line… the South and the deep South!

The College World Series On the college level, there are great programs in all size schools in all parts of the country but when you get to the big schools in Division 1 (aka D1)…look at the 8 teams who competed in the College World Series (CWS) that just ended:

	LSU
	Arkansas
	Virginia
	Cal St.

	Texas
	ASU
	UNC
	Southern Miss

Since most are state schools, most draw players from their region yet there are still blue chip players on those rosters from up North. So, it can be done but…  many yankee players travel south to play at these premium baseball programs, further diluting the northern talent pool.

Is There A Lesson Here? I’d say it is more than an observation but if there is any to be learned is that all players should strive to do their best and find ways to become the best they can be. Its easy to say that you love to play the game but it is the truly honest player who searches inside himself/herself and decides how much they are willing to do… for themselves.

The Great Thing About This Game… is that you get judged everyday so there’s always the chance that it could be your career or your ticket into the college of your dreams, maybe saving your family a ton of money as well.

Its your game, its your fun… so its ultimately your decision.

Remember, everyone plays their last game… some of the best pro players I ever saw never got out of A Ball (one of the lower levels).

You have to earn the right to continue playing each season so please do it to the best of your abilities and keep learning…because this game is played from the neck-up!

And, its a blast to do anything well!

See you next time                                                                                                                     –Coach JP

BTW: We review and offer great baseball training aids for the next gen of great baseball players at www.baseballtips.com.