Coach (striding to mound): It's all right. Hey. Relax. Jordan. Just relax.
Jordan (gesticulating angrily toward the home plate umpire): Bullshit. He didn't give me shit. (meaning he wasn't getting strike calls that he thought he should be getting)
Coach (gently puts a hand on Jordan's shoulder in an attempt to calm him): Jordan. Jordan. Jordan.
Jordan: Don't touch me.

Too bad Kornheiser's gonna probably too busy with his MNF duties to comment on this on tomorrow's PTI. It seems right up his alley. I know what Wilbon will say though: "The kid needs a BEATDOWN!"

2) The fences being moved back are at least 5 years overdue. Completely necessary. Especially when you look at Saudi Arabia's roster. And I don't just mean the kid who's 6'8", 256!!

3) Speaking of which, for someone that big, he's terrible. He seems to be afraid of the ball, stepping in the bucket (front foot toward third base) when he swings. What's he afraid of? The ball would probably be in more pain than him

That Illinois coach really looked like an asshole tonight after his team beat Georgia. The overzealous fist-pump he did at home plate could almost be excused, but his telling his team that the Georgia players don't respect the game of baseball because some of them tilt their hat to the side was kind of bush-league. Also, telling his players that they're the best little league team in the world seems kind of premature, considering that they'll probably end up playing this Georgia team again on Saturday for the national title. I think the term "let sleeping dogs lie" might apply here. I expect this team from Georgia to win the rematch.

As usual, grownups spoil all the fun

I coached Little League baseball and softball for 15 years and in that span was privileged to take two boys teams and one girls team to state championship games in New Jersey. A summer ago, we had a 10-year reunion of one of those teams and the kids (now men) recalled those days as some of the best of their young lives.
In other words, I'm not a Little League hater.

Then I got a look at the coach of the Lemont, Ill., team that made it to Williamsport. From the time I caught his act on TV in the regional final, I knew this was the kind of guy we used to love to beat. "Fiery," is what they called him on TV. In the opposing dugout, they probably had a few other words for him, 12-year-old boys being 12-year-old boys.

The problem for Mike Hall, reportedly a former Cub farmhand and without a doubt a good baseball man, is that he doesn't understand he's coaching against 12-year-old boys.

Immediately after Lemont beat the team from Columbus, Ga., in a game that got them into the final eight at Williamsport, Hall held up the handshake line, not to congratulate them on a well-played game but to lecture them about Georgia's first baseman, Kyle Carter, who wore his hat flat-brimmed and off to the side.

Spewing intensity and maybe a bit of spittle, Hall told his doubtlessly bewildered boys, "Don't ever disrespect the game like that," as if they had just played the game to uphold Hall's version of baseball's honor.

Unfortunately for Hall, he was miked up for ESPN and his admonitions went out over the nation's airwaves.

According to the Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus, Kyle's dad Richard, an assistant coach, tracked Hall down somewhere in the fabled grove and let him have it in a one-sided conversation.

"I told him that it was a great game," Carter told the paper. "I told him before he goes and blasts a 12-year-old on national television that he needs to get all the facts."

The facts are that Kyle has always worn his hat cocked to the side since he had a shunt put in his head when he was only four months old because of an arterial blockage. Kyle has to keep his caps loose so he can fit them over the shunt.

Not sufficiently humbled, Hall reportedly questioned the young Carter's hustle during the game, comparing him to Barry Bonds.

"He's so worried about disrespecting the game, and he's a grown man going after a 12-year-old," Carter said. "He doesn't have a clue."

It took another one of Lemont's coaches, Bob Soria, to apologize to the Columbus team, which, as kids do, had probably forgotten about it by that point.

"This problem arises frequently with our team," Soria admitted to Ledger-Enquirer. "Mike Hall is a great coach and is really intense, but sometimes he gets out of line. He needs to focus more on keeping the players out of it. He needs to keep focused on what we are doing."

A few minutes on Google confirmed Hall as a longtime blowhard. Hall had coached most of these kids as an AAU travel squad for three or four years (it's another story how they came to be a Little League team). On one blog, a poster recalled Hall had once told his 10-year-old team to go in "spikes high" or "run their asses over."

Naturally, this is the guy whom ESPN chose to highlight during its broadcasts all week. They must have been disappointed when Lemont was eliminated by Beaverton, Ore., Wednesday night and Hall was conspicuous by his silence.

Hopefully, he had messed up only his own Williamsport experience, not his team's.

I'm not a fan of this pitch count at all. It's way too low if kids can't even finish six innings.

Another year, another jerk-off manager shows his ass at the LLWS. This year it was the Texas manager, who apparently said the better team lost today and that he expects Japan to beat Georgia tomorrow.

I'm not a fan of this pitch count at all. It's way too low if kids can't even finish six innings.

Hey coach, here's a thought, maybe if you hadn't started a kid on the mound today that hadn't pitched at all in the LLWS so far and only pitched a little over two innings in the regionals, your team might be playing for the world title tomorrow instead of the consolation game.

If anything, this loss is on you for over-coaching instead of just making the easy call and handing the ball to your rested number two starter. Dumbass.

They're 12.

Maybe a bit late, but there was an online sports columnist who wrote a column saying that every player who plays in the LLWS should be paid $1,000 for every game, and the coaches should be paid as well.

His rational? ESPN/ABC is making oceans full of money because of the LLWS, so they should be forced to share the wealth.

Aside from the fact that such an outlandish scheme would further twist the worldview of these kids, wouldn't paying them automatically eliminate them from playing college or high school athletics, as they would no longer be amateurs but professionals, ie getting paid?

I think it would defintely eliminate them from college and high school ball. I'd throw in Olympics as well, but since baseball is no longer an Olympic sport (GRRRRRRR!), I guess that won't matter. What ESPN/ABC should do is fund the Little League program(s) in the state/region of the winning team. Or maybe all of them.

I think I saw something happen at the LLWS and never saw any mention of it, nor did the announcers say anything, so I am hoping some here also saw it and I can quit wondering if maybe I imagined the whole thing.
During an international game involving Taipei (don't remember who they were playing) a batter, not sure if he was from Taipei, hit a foul ball that went into the seating area/ walkway beyond left field. The ball hit something and bounced high in the air. The camera then shows a young African-American man, who appeared to be working as a vendor, sway on his feet and his head kind of dropped forward, like when you are falling asleep sitting up. A man grabbed him by his upper arms and seemed to be supporting or holding him up. Another person seemed to be lunging toward the vendor as though to catch him. Then the camera went back to the game as though nothing had happened. Did anyone else see this, or do I have a very vivid imagination?