ESPN Rising

ESPNRise, the new and (needless to say) well-financed kids sports Web venture, debuted August 25. I've already learned that Trinity High School in Euless, Texas is No. 1 in prep football and have been invited to join the social networking group for Harpeth High School in Kingston Springs, Tenn. The target audience is high school kids, 14 to 18, which I suppose disinvites me.

Speaking of social networking, Weplay is also plugging away in cyberspace, trolling for kid athletes and depending on pro stars to reel them in - investors include Derek Jeter, LeBron James and Peyton Manning.

Kid sports players making virtual connections - in a safe environment - feels like a positive thing. So does a Web site that parents and coaches can use to "organize their schedules, share pictures and communicate information such as practice dates," as Weplay explains itself.

On the other hand, who benefits from national rankings of high school teams? Serious question.

A last look at the Little League World Series

Ok, one more post on the Little League World Series.

It's become a huge business. Estimated dollars spent by fans visiting Williamsport for last week's series? Would you believe $20 million?.

The limping economy apparently didn't keep the adults away. Little League announced it had "smashed" an attendance record this year when more than 30,000 fans turned out for a slate of preliminary games early during series week.

It's worth noting that Little League Baseball does not charge for world series tickets. Grandstand seats are distributed free to league officials, family members and those with the presence of mind to request them months in advance. Viewing spots on the massive grassy hill beyond the outfield fence also are free, first-come, first-served.

Hotel accommodations are not free. Rooms at the Wiliamsport Hampton Inn for next year's series start at $179 per night, if you already have your reservation. The Hampton Inn Web site is showing the hotel already sold out.

Coming to the aid of Jericho Scott

Top nine ingenious solutions to the Jericho Scott crisis:

9. Encourage mother to enter bidding for Chicago Cubs.

8. Move pitching rubber from 46 feet to 460 feet.

7. Sheathe all batters in bubblewrap.

6. Adopt new Little League rule - all pitchers named for biblical cities must toss underhand.

5. Youth bocce season just around the corner.

4. Even things up by allowing opposing team to sign Danny Almonte.

3. Let Bud Selig worry about it.

2. Ask Chinese gymnasts to vouch that Jericho is really 9.

1. Can't the adults handle this?


Haven't heard about Jericho Scott? Have a look.

Victory lap for Waipahu Little Leaguers?

The Little League World Series ended yesterday, with Waipahu, Hawaii drubbing Mexico for the title. Now for the less appreciated part of the experience for these kids: their new-found celebrity.

For the next year, they'll be taking a victory lap, if they choose to. That was the case with the 2007 champs from Warner Robins, Georgia. About six months ago, I checked in with the parents from Warner Robins for an article in the Sports Business Journal. (Of course, I had to go through their sports marketing agents first.)

Nice people though. In the first week after the World Series, all 12 players were guests on “Good Morning America.” Dalton Carriker, the seventh-grader who hit a walk-off home run to win the championship game, appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman” where he bantered about his clutch hit. (“With the count 2-1, I wasn’t thinking he would throw me a curveball …”)

Things heated up after that, with the Warner Robins kids attending a shuttle launch at the Kennedy Space Center, flying in an Air Force plane, taking batting practice with the Atlanta Braves, and being introduced before Atlanta Falcons and University of Georgia football games. Oh, in November they dropped in at the White House for a visit with George Bush.

Two invitations got thumbs-down: An offer for the boys to be introduced at a pro wrestling event and an overture from a Hawaiian surf shop for the players to fly with their families to Hawaii for an unofficial rematch with the Tokyo team they beat in the final.

The league president told me, “That was pretty strange.”

Leaving team sports at 12

The Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association just released its 2008 "Sports Participation in America" survey. Here's a nugget that jumped out at me - and happened to be featured in a SGMA press release. (I'm not taking too much credit, here).

Eleven is the peak age for participation in team sports, with 72 percent of 11-year-olds playing at least one team sport. For older children, the numbers fall.

11? Hmm. Sobering to consider that by the seventh grade, kids already are baling on organized sports. That's when the fun should just be starting.

There are multiple explanations for this stat, of course. Here's mine. By 11, kids are getting the message that organized sports are really for the better athletes. If you're not one, it might be time to hang it up.

Other notable youth sports facts from the report:

Sixty-three per cent of all 6-17 year olds play at least one team sport and two-thirds play team sports on a ‘frequent’ basis.

More than 80 percent of skateboarders are male and younger than 18.

And my fave:

Only 10 percent of freshwater fishers go fly fishing and just 15 per cent of freshwater fishers go saltwater fishing

Q and A

I was interviewed last week by Dustin Watson of Gatehouse News Service. Dustin asked a series of thoughtful questions about youth sports and the proper role for parents. I did my best to reply thoughtfully. The article appeared in a dozen or so Gatehouse newspapers.

In the article, I'm referred to as an "expert in the field." Ok, I'll take it. I'm a journalist who has spent the last few years exploring these issues with parents, coaches, doctors, professional athletes and more. And a dad who has made mistakes finding my place in the sports lives of my own two sons.

You'll find Dustin's piece here.

Registration fees and Little League Baseball

Interesting opinion piece in Saturday's New York Times by Joe Mathews. I always enjoyed Joe's reporting at the Wall Street Journal and the LA Times. Before that, Joe spent a short time at the Baltimore Sun when I was a reporter there.

Joe combed through Little League Baseball's rulebook and found a section that says no child should be excluded from a local league for lack of money. His research indicates that few Little Leagues grant free registration, and fewer seem to be aware of the obligation.

I wonder if this is a barrier for many kids. A shame if it is.

Joe mentions that some leagues, including one he coaches in out in SoCal, hold fundraisers to balance their budgets.

Reading this, I flashed back to "Tag Day." In the 60s, we'd fan out all over town in our uniforms collecting coins and - jackpot time - dollar bills. Each donor received a tag. Inexplicably, I still have one. Displaying the tag protected the wearer from getting hit up another 10,000 times before the fund-raising weekend - mercifully - came to an end.

More with Debbie Phelps

I'm posting a snippet of my interview with Debbie Phelps. She's an impressive lady. Her son, as we're discovering, is the greatest swimmer of all time. Our chat took place some months ago in her office at Windsor Mill Middle School.

In this part of the interview, Debbie describes her own childhood in Western Maryland("I was a tomboy"), explains why her children joined their first swim team (It was the pediatrician's idea) and why she never hesitated to shuttle them to practices and meets.

At the beginning, I refer to "Paul." That's former Baltimore Sun sportswriter Paul McMullen, author of "Amazing Pace," a book about Michael and his remarkable swimming life.

Debbie refers to her two daughters - Michael's older sisters - Hilary and Whitney.

Young and in Beijing

To be an Olympian, you need to be able to nail the landing on your uneven bars routine or shoot 300 consecutive arrows at a bulleye. You don't have to be a grownup.

Of the 596 members of the U.S. team in Beijing, 41 are teenagers. The youngest are synchronized diving partners, Haley Ishimatsu and Mary Beth Dunnichay, both 15, and swimmer Elizabeth Beisel who turns 16 next Monday. Five of the seven women's gymnasts are teens as are seven members of the women's swim team. The youngest male U.S. athletes - best I can tell - are 18, including a cyclist, a boxer and a wrestler.

There's a nice summary of the teen demography at USA Today's Olympics blog.

Age is just a number

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Chinese gymnast He Kexin may not be old enough for the Olympics. To be eligible for competition, gymnasts must be 16. She is either 16 (as her passport states) or 14 (as reported in five Chinese-langugage news stories last year).

I would have guessed 12, having watched gymnastics coverage last night. Or even 11. A wonderful, amazing athlete. But so petite.

Let's assume that He is underage, by two years, maybe more. Further, assume that children do not doctor passports on their own, while the Chinese government is on coffee break.

How many adults would be in on the conspiracy?

Debbie Phelps to swim parents: Chill

(A longer version of this post appears at the Beacon Press blogsite.)

Not long ago, I spent some time in the principal’s office – about 45 minutes in a hardback chair, if I recall correctly.

I’ve been thinking about that visit and about the principal of Windsor Mill Middle School outside Baltimore, Debbie Phelps. Debbie will be in Beijing for the next two weeks for the Summer Olympics, which begin Friday. Her 23-year-old son, Michael, will be there too. Michael is the iconic American swimmer of whom much is expected by U.S. sports fans. He will be the favorite in every race he enters during the Summer Games. A record eight gold medals is a possibility. Fewer than six for Phelps would be a stinging disappointment. It’s a good thing Michael Phelps has the broadest shoulders on the planet. He’ll need them to carry those outsized expectations.

When I went to see Debbie, it was evident that I wasn’t speaking to just another sports mom. We spoke about a trip she was planning to see Michael swim. Rome or Vienna or someplace similarly distant. She mentioned her own literary project, a book she would be writing about her experiences poolside, a guide to raising a humble, well-adjusted world record holder.

In other ways, I was struck that her story was so utterly unexceptional.

She had three kids, Michael being the youngest. She and her then husband lived in rural Maryland in a home surrounded by five acres. “I got the kids involved in as much as I could: baseball softball, gymnastics, tap, ballet, scouts. Michael was never a scout. But the girls were scouts,” she told me.

The family belonged to a swim club. Debbie says the main attraction was for her children to learn water safety. She wanted them to conquer any fears early in life. In short order, the two girls were on the club swim team. Then champions. Then dreaming of the Olympics.

The Phelps sisters were such hotshots, a swim club in Baltimore more or less recruited them to join the swim team. Debbie shuttled them to practices with a new baby. Boy Michael spent hours, days, at the pool. “Michael grew up with the smell of chlorine. It was such a natural environment for him,” Debbie explained.


There’s more, obviously. I devote several pages to the Phelps family in my book.

As I sat with Debbie Phelps, I asked how she saw the role and responsibilities of a parent whose child is a superstar athlete. She told me that parents frequently approach her, asking the same thing. With a laugh, she also explained that they tell her she is a role model for them. Hard to say exactly what about Debbie they were modeling. Or maybe not so hard. My guess: raising the best swimmer in the world.

“People often wait around to speak with me, to ask questions. Like, “My son was 9 he was doing this, and when he was 11 his time was that. They’re looking for answers. I just say, parent your child. Love them for who they are, whether they swim the fastest(butter)fly or finish eighth in their heat.

“To me, there’s a very fine line between the athlete, coach and parent. Everyone has their roles. If you sat here right now and told me you’d give me $200 million to recite Michael’s world fly record, I could not tell you that. Yet there are parents whose child is trying to beat my son who can spit out those things. I don’t get involved in that. I talk to Michael as a parent.”

I asked Debbie what concerns her about the parents she runs into at swim meets.

The answer was somewhat impolitic. Yet it sounded like one that would come easily to a middle school principal. “They nag too much,” she said.

“They go to an athletic event and their kid isn’t doing their best time. They get upset with the child. They think that it always has to be better, better, better, better, not realizing that even for the most talented swimmers it’s a progression.”

“Parents just need to chill. Realize that it doesn’t help to set expectations, especially unrealistic ones. Put yourself in their shoes. Do you map things out so carefully in your own life? Such as, I am going to be CEO of a company? Does it fall out in nice little pockets? Same with kids. Their progression is not going to fall into nice little pockets. There may not be another Michael Phelps for decades, even though, I have parents tell me their son is on the same track.” As I left her office, I asked Debbie to let me know when her book was coming out, and told her I would very much like to read it. I suggested a publication date well after mine.

The litigation game

When I was 11 years old, and playing youth baseball, a particularly intense playoff game ended with coaches of the teams trading blows behind the snack stand. Both coaches were good people, caught up in the moment. But what a scene in our small town.

That was 1968.

Two thoughts:

Even 40 years ago, you could get a black eye at a kids game.

Today, such scuffles are settled in court. See this.