Rant #2,957: Simply the Best

Like many of you, I tuned into the Little League World Series to see how the team from Massapequa was doing.
 
I watched a good part of the game where they played Hawaii and got their tuckisses handed to them, but the elimination game that they were supposed to play on Sunday was rained out, so the game will be played today at 11 a.m.
 
If I have some time, I will definitely tune in to see the hometown team hopefully live to play another day.
 
The Massapequa team is from the Massapequa Coast League, one of two Little Leagues that play baseball in Massapequa and Massapequa Park, the other being Massapequa International, the league that I am most familiar with because I coached, and my son played baseball, in that league a number of years ago.
 
Massapequa is split up into two leagues, with the Coast League for kids who play south of Sunrise Highway, the main dividing roadway on the South Shore, and the kids that play in Massapequa International are kids who live north of Sunrise Highway …
 
But that is not a strict rule, and even though we live south of Sunrise Highway, my son played in Massapequa International because being a special ed kid, he didn’t go to the same schools as the kids in his neighborhood who were not in that program—he went to schools north of Sunrise Highway—so I thought it would be better for him to play with kids he knew, so he was in Massa[equal International.
 
It is good to see Massapequa get into the spotlight with the Coast team, as all the TV stations are here covering the team as it plays in the World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
 
It almost reminds me of past years, when all the TV stations camped out here for the wrong reasons … coverage of the “Long Island Lolita” shenanigans and coverage of the Jessica Hahn church escapades.
 
I remember that the news trucks were here on a daily basis and it was totally annoying, both them being here and what they were covering, so all these years later, thank goodness that news trucks are here to cover something nice for a change.
 
I coached in the rival Massapequa International League for four years, and my son played a total of seven years in that league.
 
Those four years were happy times, and I really loved being a baseball coach, as it fulfilled a dream I had from years before.
 
I played youth baseball—it was not a fully sanctioned Little League but that is what our community offered us—and I had the time of my life playing in the Rochdale Village Athletic League for the eight ears it existed.
 
My father was my coach for at least part of that time, and even as a kid, I swore that if I ever had a son, I would coach him like my father coached me, and I managed to do just that, for at least four years.
 
It was so much fun, and I will never forget those years, and I hope my son has fond memories o that period in his life, too.
 
There were plenty of politics during those years and that I did not like at all. Politics prevented me from coaching beyond those four years.
 
There always seems to be politics in youth sports, and unfortunately, it kind of derailed me in my desire to coach beyond those four years, but so be it.
 
It was fun while it lasted.
 
My son enjoyed himself during my time as coach, but again, a lot of politics kind of got in the way during his last three years playing, and it simply wasn’t fun anymore by the time he turned 12 years old—the same age as the kids from Massapequa playing the World Series now.
 
We kind of knew that it was time to hang up the glove, and we really haven’t looked back.
 
My son wasn’t the best player—nor was I when I was his age—but it was just so much fun playing those games and watching him compete.
 
As he got older, he gravitated to basketball and bowling more than baseball, so those two sports are the ones he competes in now, into his 20s.
 
Even though my allegiance remains with Massapequa International, I hope that Massapequa Coast can win that elimination game and stay in the tournament and proceed to the championship, but it is going to be very difficult to do.
 
They realigned the regions this year, and even for them to get where they are, they had to beat some really good teams, so it remains to be seen whether they can get back on the winning track and move on in the World Series.
 
As you know, I have been a New York Yankees fan virtually my entire life, through thick and thin.
 
But youth sports are where you see the real sports, not where money is the carrot to keep on performing and winning and completing and having fun.
 
So when you watch the Massapequa Coast team, you are watching sports for what they really are, not for what they have become when the kids grow up and big business muddies everything with dollar signs.
 
For some of these kids that are competing in the Series, this is going to be the highest level of baseball they will ever attain.
 
For others, they will play high school and maybe college baseball, and that will be that.
 
A scant few will play professionally, and even fewer will make it to the major leagues.
 
But I bet if you ask any of them—whatever level they attained—they will tell you that they had the most fun they ever had playing baseball when they were in Little League.
 
I have plenty of fond memories of my son playing ball in Massapequa International –he even recorded an official save in the very last game I coached—and I knew that back then, he had a lot of fun, until some parents got in the way and made what should be a fun time into something that was just the opposite.
 
Baseball is a kids' game, and there is nothing better than playing baseball as a kid, whether it is a pickup game or a Little League World Series game.
 
I wish the players on the Massapequa Coast team the best of luck, and I hope, against all odds, that they bring home the gold to Massapequa.
 
The next step is today ... so go Massapequa go!