SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, PA – You won’t see Todd Frazier walking out to the mound at Lamade Stadium this weekend. He’ll be up in the booth that hangs behind home plate, broadcasting to the world.
He’s ABC’s analyst for the Little League international and United States championship games Aug. 23 starting at 12:30 ET, and then for the Aug. 24 Little League World Series championship.
Frazier, though, who coaches his 11-year-old son, Blake, in travel baseball, often finds himself checking on his pitcher.
“If your son’s not up to it, I’m not gonna throw him,” Frazier told USA TODAY Sports in an interview this spring. “It’s not about getting these rings and these medals and whatever it is for a two-day tournament. You know, it’s about progression. It’s about focusing on the good things in these kids.”
“Kids are throwing way too much. I tell my parents all the time, ‘Listen I’m going by Little League rules about pitching. You’re not throwing over a certain amount.’ ”
Frazier knows what it’s like to be in the middle of it all here. Before he became an All-Star third baseman and a baseball commentator, he was MVP of the 1998 Little League World Series. He led off with a home run for Toms River (New Jersey) and recorded the last out against Japan as a pitcher in the championship game.
“I was getting letters from people from all over the country at 12. I’m like, ‘Oh, this is cool,’ he says. “From Japan, from Hawaii, South Africa, saying how much of an inspiration we were. And I’m like, I’m only 12 years old. Man, I don’t even know what I did.”
Frazier, 39, understands the emotions, as well as the risks, that swirl around young players.
A 12-year-old from Chinese Taipei has fired a fastball 82 mph. There are kids taking a moment to realize what they are about to undertake. There are adults doing the same.
“I still can’t believe we’re going to the U.S. championship,” (Fairfield) Connecticut manager Brian Palazzolo said this week, pausing while trying to summarize what had just happened on the field.
It’s LLWS championship weekend, the climax of the excitement – and the stress, perhaps – that builds to crowning a Little League world champion.
“We can always get better,” Little League CEO Patrick Wilson says of his organization, “but the people that are skeptical about, should it be on television, they usually have a different perspective when they leave.”
What can young athletes gain from championship weekend? How can we watch these games as parents? Whether we’re here or at home, here’s what we can take to heart about it all.
‘You’re not getting scouted at 12’: Youth sports tips from Todd Frazier
Watch the kids
Just about every Little Leaguer in America dreams of being one of the 20 teams that play here every year but I imagine most of them don’t consider it a reality.
Connecticut players sat at the media table, giggling with each other, after they had reached the U.S. championship. They will face (Las Vegas) Nevada.
Since they were 9 and 10, Connecticut pitcher and first baseman Tommy D’Amura said, “we never thought this would happen.”
Palazzolo, their manager, his voice still a little hoarse, called it “a next to impossible dream because there’s so many good teams out there.”
Nevada pitcher and infielder Cache Malan got a feeling, he said to the media, they would get here after their second game in districts, the preliminary set of games every Little League all-star team plays before they can play in states and regionals. Friends who watched them, he said, told him, “Cache, you guys are going all the way.”
It’s those moments with our friends – and how we interact with them – that we remember most from childhood sports, whether we win or lose. The expressions on the players who do both will perhaps be a teaching moment, and a jump-starting point, for all of us.
“They’ve got high school baseball coming, they’ve got travel baseball coming and there’s a lot of great things coming for these kids and they should cherish every moment of this and don’t dwell on it and use it to grow and continue to work hard and figure out how they can achieve,” says (Irmo) South Carolina manager David Bogan, whose team finished a step from the U.S. championship by losing to Connecticut. “So I hope they do that.”
Watch the parents (and coaches)
Wilson, Little League’s CEO, grew up in Williamsport. He has worked for Little League for more than 30 years and came up what he calls the operations ranks of the organization. He used to help facilitate Little League World Series accommodations for players and would see them right after the game.
“Sure, you lose or you’re eliminated, there’s a lot of raw emotion,” he says, “but shortly thereafter, they’re being 12 year olds again. They’re stealing people’s hats, trading pins. They move on very quickly.
“Now the adults, the coaches and their parents, they hold on to it a little longer.”
We know the feeling. Author Michael Lewis recounted in his book, “Playing to Win,” how sportswriter Bill Simmons says rooting for your kid’s team is like the sensations you get from all your favorite sports teams rolled into one.
You’ll hear the highs and lows in the voices of mic’d up coaches, who are also dads watching their sons compete. The experience of putting the men in the spotlight like this gives them an opportunity to realize they are on display and check themselves.
They shake each other’s hands, they encourage their players to keep going through a tough at-bat or realize they are some of the few fortunate enough to make it here.
The next time you feel those pangs of losing, think of yourself as wearing a mic, and take perspective.
“The most important thing is that the coach gives the kids a great experience,” Wilson says, “because that’s gonna help kids stay around. There will be an age where they’re going to go, ‘I’m a basketball player, I’m a swimmer, I’m a pianist,’ and I’m gonna focus more on that, but we don’t want it to be eight, 9, 10, 11, 12. Get into your teens before you start making those choices.
“And we know that coaching is gonna help keep them around, because ultimately, how the coach treats you impacts your experience, whether you’re the best player or you’re not the best player.”
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Watch out for the entire lineup
Little League instituted a rule in 2003 where each team must bat all of its players in a continuous lineup throughout the game.
Previously, a tournament team of 12 or fewer players was required to play everyone a minimum of six consecutive defensive outs and bat at least once.
“Kids want to bat more than anything,” Wilson says. “Playing in the field is great, but at the end of the day, having the opportunity to bat is the big thing. That’s what’s gonna keep kids coming back and every kid having the opportunity to contribute. It’s a tightrope that we’re walking for sure.
“I think what it does is it provides a great opportunity to manage expectations for parents, their kids are on the team, they know their kid’s gonna bat. They don’t have to worry about it. ‘When’s he gonna go in? When’s she gonna go in?’”
While I encourage coaches to play every kid as much as possible – especially at all-star events like the Little League World Series – this rule at least gives every kid on the team multiple chances to shine.
“We compete 1 through 12. We’re not reliant on the tops,” Nevada manager TJ Fechser says. “We’re not like dreading the bottoms. We’re not trying to get through the middles. Everybody competes on this team 1 through 12. And I’m never worried like, ‘Oh, they’re up.’ No, every guy up there has had a big moment for us and I expect it out of them.”
Watch the pitch counts and arms
Chinese Taipei pitcher Lin Chin-Tse, who is available to pitch in the international championship against Aruba, has been clocked at 82 mph during the Little League World Series. According to ESPN, that means a Little League hitter standing 46 feet from the mound is facing a fastball at 107 mph.
While that figure is astonishing, it’s also emblematic of the velocity pitchers seek from young ages that ratchets up all the way to the majors and can lead to arm injuries.
“The fastball creates the most stress,” Nick Kenney, director of medical administration for the Kansas City Royals, said at a recent National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) briefing. “And we’ve got guys that are throwing in the upper 90s. It used to be that your starting pitchers were in that range of 88 to 92. And we did not have the injury rates that we have now. Now our starting pitchers, they want them to be in that range of 94 to 97 and they want your bullpen guys to be 97 to 100.
“It’s not just about how many pitches you’re throwing, it’s about the stress of the pitches that you’re throwing.”
Rules used in the Little League World Series limit pitchers to 85 pitches per day and have required calendar days of rest after numbers of pitches thrown: Four days for 66 or more pitches, three for 51-65, two for 36-50 and one for 21-35.
However, we need to watch pitchers closer for signs of fatigue. As NATA president TJ Duffy points out, when they get tired, their routine and delivery can change and you can set yourself up for an injury. When in doubt, take a young pitcher out.
‘Enjoy the experience’: It only lasts so long
When Frazier returned home to Toms River after winning it all as a kid, he saw thousands of folks welcome him and his teammates on the streets for a parade.
‘Little League was a summer of dreams for a 12-year-old boy,” his mother, Joan, told MLB.com in 2014. “That was his first exposure to any kind of media. I think the attention that was given to Todd was pure enjoyment and fun for him. I think he handled the exposure pretty well. The boys on that team had no clue of the intensity and attention that came their way.”
Frazier’s son, Blake, will get his shot to reach Williamsport next summer.
“There’s a chance,” Frazier says, “but it’s a very hard chance.”
Instead, whether the teams for which you root wins or loses, take it all in, like Frazier and those who are here each year try to do.
“This was hard for me, and I’ll joke around and say it was even harder for my wife,” Little League’s Wilson says. “I think you have to enjoy the experience as it comes to you. When they’re 5, when they’re 6-7, and then just getting started, everyone’s trying to figure so many things out and manage the process so far down the road. Just enjoy the moment where you are because it goes fast.
“My daughter played sport from a very young age to 18, and now it’s gone and you see pictures pop up in your social media feed and you’re like, ‘I do kind of miss that.’ Happy where she’s at, but, you know, there were great memories along the way.”
Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.