It seems like everybody and their brother has a travel team these days.  They travel 250 miles or more to play five or six games a weekend from April to August.  They rack up trophy after trophy and qualify for the state championship and eventually the World Series.  "Win, win, win"  is the team motto as the team crushes their competitors and collect 50 wins over the summer.  They are ranked #1 in thier classification.  Pitchers throw pitch after pitch and catchers log countless innings.  By the time they get to high school, they already have had surgery on this or that.  They have joint problems and their young bodies already resemble those of senior citizens.  They don't walk or run with a bounce in their step anymore, instead they drag from one field to another to play their sixth game in three days.  Enough already! 

What happened to playing for the fun of it?  What happened to working with each player individually on what will make them the best player possible?  Is the only instruction you hear is "throw strikes" or "hit the ball?"  Great tip, coach.  Do you think the kid is trying to walk batters or trying to swing and miss?  How about showing him how to throw strikes or how to hit the ball?  What is he doing wrong that he needs to correct?  How does he take steps to fix it?  Is that what he is working on in each practice or does it get lost in the shuffle along the way?  Is the coach a "screamer" or is he patient and take time to explain himself so the players understand the correct methods?     

To summarize:  It's not who you play.  It's not how many wins you rack up.  It's not what your batting average or ERA is (I can not stand stat-keeping in little league).  Pitch counts are the only important stat at that age.  It's not how many trophies you earned.  It's about keeping the kids healthy, teaching them the game and getting them to stay interested in the game they loved when they first picked up a baseball.  Unfortunately, I do not see this being the focus of many teams out there today...or at least that's not the way it seems.  Besides, I've never had a college coach ask a prospective player about his little league batting average, ERA or accumulation of trophies.  He will look more at the player's:  (1) athletic build/athleticism  (2) position skills/technique  (3) grade point average/ACT score  (4) character.  

Love the game + learn the game + have fun + play hard = get better.