By: Ray Hanania

Little League season finally came to an end. It was bitter cold through most of it, but my son made it as far as the All Star game for the Orland Youth Association. It was a high note. But not being a real sports fanatic, I am still amazed at how intense everyone gets at these baseball games.

You think politics is brutal? Sit through a little league game. It was never like that when I was kid, although maybe I was just too young to see it. Nothing compares to an angry mom who thinks the coach hasn’t given her son enough play time or when the mom yelling at “Blue” (the umpire) after making a “bad” call starts to out volume the coach who is trained to go toe-to-toe with the “bad calls.”

I thought little league was just for fun, but it turns out for some parents it is no different than the wars waged to get your kid in the best kindergartens or pre-schools. Now I know why they call Baseball, mom and apple pie. Don’t get in the way of a determined mother to make her son the next “Natural.” Don’t ask me the scores of the game. I couldn’t even keep tabs on the innings.

But I did watch how the coaches handled the moms and how the moms were intense about how their kids played ball. “Get up to the plate.”… “Keep your eye on the ball” … “Pull the bat all the way back.” The kids get professional help from coaches who play the game and then the mothers step in a mess it all up. Of course, who is going to say that to a mom?

Now, that isn’t to say the mom’s don’t care. In fact, the moms do care, but they don’t care what other people think when it comes to their children. I didn’t see any of the father’s riding the kids, just the moms. I think I learned a lot about the rules from listening to the moms scream at “Blue” when he made a bad call. “He can’t steal third base. The pitcher already has the ball.”

It’s complicated.

This year seemed a little more intense, but I blame that on the weather. It was cold this season. Very cold. Rainy almost every other day, overcast and chilled. Yes, Mom, baseball and apple pie. I understand the link now between mom and baseball. But the apple pie? I’m just not quite sure. Although who knows, maybe in the old days — and I sure moms were just as involved in the games back then as they are today — the moms would throw an apple pie in a ump’s face.

Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist and media consultant. He can be reached at www.hanania.com.