Little League World Series Restructuring

Ummm...apparently the Little League World Series (LLWS) has restructured the way their bracket will be set up this summer and I sort of hate it, so let's discuss. First of all, this is being written from the perspective of someone who grew up idolizing the teams in the late-2000s LLWS and dreaming about hitting a walk-off homerun like the kid for Warner Robbins in 2007. To me, the New England region will always be maroon, black, and white, the West will always be UCLA-blue and gold, and the Southeast will always be gold and red. 

I know that was not always the case, and I know it is not the case right now. In fact, one of my most vivid memories of the LLWS was Nick Pratto hitting a walk-off single for the yellow and green West region to win the world championship in 2011. I also know that there was a time (until 2001 to be precise) that there were only four regions per bracket rather than eight U.S. and eight international teams. For reference, the regions I am used to are:

U.S.

New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Great Lakes, Midwest, Southwest, West, Northwest

International

Japan, Asia-Pacific, Caribbean, Mexico, Middle East and Africa, Canada, Latin America, and Europe

For about 20 years, those were pretty much the regions we would all see each year. There was some shuffling around with the international teams, but for the most part, some form of those divisions is what I'm used to. However, they introduced an expansion for the first time in 20 years this year and I just found out about it now. They have introduced four new regions, two in the U.S. and two on the international side. 

At first it may seem that I am coming off as salty or stuck in the past, but I think I'm actually being pretty fair when I say that I really do not get these changes. First, let's start in the U.S. division. They have moved New York and New Jersey out of the Mid-Atlantic, and Rhode Island and Connecticut out of New England and have formed the new "Metro" Region. THAT MAKES NO SENSE.

New England

First, if you are going to have a "New England" region, you cannot just take two states out of that region. New England is New England. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont. That is New England. It makes sense to take those six states that are a region and have them play a regional. What does not make sense is to separate the region and have four out of the six of them play a regional that is still using the region's name. 

Second, METRO IS NOT A REGION. Metro is short for metropolitan, which refers to a metropolis, which is a capital city. How the heck does that make a region?? Yeah, sure, all of those four states have a capital city. Do you know what other states have a capital city? Every single one of them! This makes no sense people!

Mountain

The mountain region makes a little bit more sense, but I still have issues with it. First of all, how on Earth do you have a region called "Mountain" and don't include Colorado??? The Rocky Mountains people! Come on! (This also opens up a pandora's box of grievances because I had to find out that Colorado is in the Southwest region and that the Southwest region is an absolute MESS, but that's not for right now) 

My other problem with this region is that it leaves the West Region with only three states representing them. The West is now Arizona, North California, South California, and Hawai'i. I just think there needs to be more diversity in the West region. Maybe throw Nevada back in the West and put Colorado in the Mountain region. That would make a lot more sense to me. 

Panama & Puerto Rico

Alright, my qualms for both of these regions are the same, so I'm tying them in together. Typically, 4 countries have their own regions. Japan has its own region, Canada has its own region, Australia has its own region, and Mexico has its own region. I think Mexico could very well be absorbed into the Latin America region and we'd still see teams other than Mexico come out of that region. 

Canada and Australia deserve their own regional because it simply does not make sense for them to play in any other regional. Japan deserves their own regional because they are awesome and any team that makes it out of the Japan regional has a legitimate chance to win the world championship. I have no idea why Panama and Puerto Rico need their own regional.

Neither nation has EVER won the LLWS, with Puerto Rico appearing 11 times and Panama appearing 10 times. Apparently, part of this expansion is that Cuba will also get an automatic bid two out of every three years, and as far as I know, Cuba has never made the LLWS main tournament. There is nothing to indicate that either of these teams will do anything more than get beat in two straight games and find themselves in a consolation game. 

I get why they want to do this, I really do. Expanding the automatic bids gives countries more exposure and gives more kids the chance to live a dream for two weeks at Williamsport. I just hope the teams from Panama and Puerto Rico are competitive this year to validate their inclusion in the main field. I do not think there has been enough competitiveness from teams out of those nations to warrant them getting their own bid, and I REALLY do not understand the restructuring from the U.S. side. I know it probably was just to make sure there was 10 teams in each division, but it just does not make sense.

Am I making too big of a deal out of this? YES 100% I AM. This is a kids' tournament for 11, 12, and 13 year-olds. There is absolutely no need for me to have written over 1,000 words on this expansion. However, this is also a tournament that is broadcast on ESPN every year that I have watched since I was really young and I love it. Can't wait to watch again this year.