"The Purity of It All"
The Little League World Series
August, 2018

Finally ... a multi-day dose of bright spots. ESPN. Little League World Series, morning, noon, and night. My favorite sporting event of every year. As I contemplated what to call this piece—TV playing in the background—a commentator remarked, “The purity of it all!” Hence the title. 

As I write, I just finished watching Georgia defeat Michigan in a bottom-of-the-6th rally that (having no skin in the game, so to speak), I wished both teams could have won. Both played like pros and showed the sportsmanship we hope to see in budding athletes. (By the way, in case you're new here, 6 innings is the standard length of a Little League game.)

Eventually, of course, the games were over for the night and the high created by watching home runs and close calls and pitchers who ran up the count, only to strike out the opponents’ most reliable slugger, dissipated when I changed channels and was confronted by a rerun of Sarah Huckabee Sanders. As usual, she was spinning tales about her boss and his pals as she treated the press with the usual disdain she showers on truth tellers. How does the woman live with herself?

But I digress. Until recently, my go-to escape from the horrors of politics was the classical music channel, and I was about to suggest to the powers that be at my favorite channels that they offer 5 or 10 minutes of music to soothe our troubled souls at the end of each "newscast," the first syllable of that word being a bit of a misnomer by evening when what we get are chiefly rehashes of earlier events or, worse yet, complete coverage of Trump's latest mob-pleasing rant.

Back in the day, I coached and managed Little League teams, and once everybody got over the fact that I was unmistakably female and that I wasn't going away and that my team was (not to brag or anything) the best in the league, our family's spring schedule for several years came to revolve around game dates and practices and team parties. Watching the Little League crowds reminded me that there is still normal life as I used to live it. Little League is far from perfect and has had its share of critics over the years, but I couldn't help thinking about the contrast between the behavior and attitudes of all involved with the behavior and attitudes of so many in the political arena. 

A CLASS ACT: Jarren Purify of Michigan tips his hat to right-fielder Bo Walker of Georgia after the latter deprived him of a base hit with a spectacular catch of Jarren's sizzling line drive. Donald Trump could learn a lot from these guys--and not just about baseball.

It reminded me that there’s still a lot to cheer about here—and not all of the cheering is for the kids on the field. It’s for the families in the stands and exuberant dads who leap up to lead the cheering when the kids turn a spectacular play. It’s for all the volunteers who coach, umpire, keep score, man the refreshment booths, maintain the fields, and—in the quirkiness that makes Williamsport locals so special—cut the bottom off the back legs of cheap plastic chairs so spectators can sit on the outfield hill and watch the action in comfort. 

In the midst of political chaos and corruption, this is one of our bright spots. Communities like these have to be our inspiration. We all—especially our kids who did nothing to create the mess we’re in—deserve better. In the meantime, we all have each other. The purity of it all! 

August, 2018

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