AS I SEE IT COLUMN: The pure joy of watching the Little League World Series

For sports fans who find it hard to stomach the obscene salaries in professional sports, there is something magical about watching the Little League World Series (LLWS) that concluded last Sunday with Taiwan trouncing USA 7-0.

There is a purity to the LLWS, where players have to be between 10 and 12 years old. We get to see sport at its finest where talent, sportsmanship, civility and the love of the game take centre stage instead of watching pro baseball players, who make more money in two weeks than most working folk make in several years.

At the pro level, when a batter gets hit by a pitch, there is always a chance of a bench-clearing brawl. At the LLWS, the pitcher almost always runs up to the batter he just hit, fist bumps him to say “sorry,” and the game continues with zero tension.

Talent-wise, these kids are amazing. Pitchers routinely throw the equivalent of a 96-mph fastball at the major league level. The throws from deep short stop to first base look like the kids are seasoned pros, they turn silky-smooth double plays, and they do something a thousand times better than the pros: they bunt.

In the majors, it’s all about the home run. Bunting a player into scoring position is something you rarely see in MLB anymore. It’s so rare the players are often laughably bad at bunting because they so seldom do it.

Not so at the LLWS. Those kids are awesome bunters. And it’s a real treat to see old-school baseball played the way the game was meant to be played. Move the runner over to second base and give your teammates a chance to knock him in.

The LLWS acts like a sort of sports time machine, taking us back to an era where sport is about more than just money. Of course they all want to win – congrats to Team Canada (out of Vancouver) who comported themselves well at the tournament – but the kids gave fans a rare chance to watch sports for the pure, unvarnished joy of watching sports.

The motto for the LLWS is “Character, Courage, and Loyalty.” If you were lucky enough to watch any of the LLWS, you saw those virtues shine.

Israel’s own data about civilian deaths in Gaza proves it should be banned from the Olympics

Ever since the skyrocketing death toll in the war Gaza became provably clear, I have been advocating for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to apply the same moral logic it applied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Because the IOC banned Russia for its illegal war, it must also ban Israel for its illegal war. The IOC can no longer turn a blind eye to the atrocities and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.

If recently declassified intelligence from Israel – which horrifyingly shows that 83% of the 53,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza (compared to only 1,200 Israelis) are innocent civilians – doesn’t convince the IOC it must ban Israel from the Olympics for the same moral reasons it has banned Russia, it’s hard to imagine what will.

I have two questions for former senator Don Plett and anyone else who thinks Israel is morally justified in its genocide of Palestinians, which includes withholding medicine and food from millions of starving people in Gaza: 1) Given the grotesque reality from Israel’s own intelligence that 83% percent of the people slaughtered in Gaza have been innocent children, women and seniors, do you still defend Israel’s war crimes? 2) Do you believe that a Palestinian life is just as valuable and precious as an Israeli life?

Because of the magnitude of the suffering in Gaza and the precedent the IOC set with Russia, the International Olympic Committee must stand on the right side of history, be legally and morally consistent and bar Israel from the Olympics.