John Miller, who is playing and coaching for the Brussels Kangaroos in the Belgian 2nd Division and is a reporter for a big American newspaper, is now also the Little League Commissioner for Belgium. He is also back chronicling the 2010 season in his “Old World Pastime” column on Mister-Baseball.com for a third straight year.
This week, a project I’ve been working on for almost a year will, I hope, come to fruition. Friday to Sunday, in Antwerp, we’ll hold the first country-wide Little League championships in recent memory.
I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure I played in the last one, in 1990. I remember travelling to the U.S. SHAPE military base to play against teams from SHAPE and Antwerp. At that time, the Antwerp teams were still sponsored by General Motors.
For this year, we’ve divided Belgium into four regions: Flanders East, Flanders West, Brussels and Wallonia. Each region has picked the best 11-and-12-year-old players from its area and is taking their team to Antwerp.
After seven games, we’ll play We Are The Champions and pack the winner off to Poland for the European championships, July 27 to August 4.
I’ll be checking the extended weather forecast first thing every morning this week. Sun, please.
Setting up the tournament has gone smoothly. People like the idea of giving young kids a chance to play at a higher level.
The only criticism has been about the slicing up of the country. This is an old argument: Belgium is a small country, so why can’t we be one Little League region and send the dozen best straight to the European championships in Kutno, Poland?
There are several reasons we carved up Belgium this way.
1. Picking a national team is against the rules. Little League rules mandate that teams come from regions of less than 10 teams. Belgium has several dozen youth teams.There’s no way around this.
2. It takes away the need for this weekend’s true Belgian championship, which is fun, raises the level of play and gives four teams worth of kids a chance to play in a national championship.
3. Setting up competition between different parts of a country increases the competitive tension that motivates coaches and players to raise their game and improve the level of play.
4. I don’t agree with everything that Little League does, but it is undeniable that they run the premier youth sports tournament in the world, and that being a part of that will motivate a lot more kids to play baseball.
Belgium has a rich history of participation in Little League baseball. The first girl ever to play in the 11-12-year-old World Series in Williamsport, Pa., was an expat kid from Brussels, Victoria Roche in 1984. She is now featured in the Little League Hall of Fame.
After this weekend, all young Belgian ballplayers will once again have an opportunity to play their way into that Hall of Fame.
I’m always curious about how people set up youth leagues and tournaments. Please send advice to oldworldpastime@gmail.com