Little League Baseball in Southern Maryland

Little League Baseball in Southern Maryland

Introduction

Sports is viewed as an effective way to educate young people about life skills and social values that can be used to build a good life. Various learning institutions have embraced sports to help students develop various values and behaviors and acquire skills that they can use to join professional and county leagues. Sports leagues provide a controlled environment where various successes and failures can be assessed based on a definite set of rules. Therefore, most leagues focus on promoting sportsmanship, including activities that represent a person’s character and moral development in the context of physical activity. Many young players in sports leagues also develop sports spirit, which is an enterprising, positive, and mutual help expressed through courage, endurance, consciousness and willpower.

Over the past decade, Little League Baseball has maintained a tightly organized, close-knit setting governed by strict rules and policies. The league has also developed some tendencies towards exclusiveness that have contributed to the alienation of youth leaders and youth groups who may dispute some of the league’s practices, thus making it hard to create a Little League charter. The league’s criteria for selecting players to participate in recreational leagues has also raised concerns because it violates its goals. Little League Baseball in Calvert County, Maryland, allows youth players from select/travel teams to play in the recreational league simultaneously, thus creating an unfair advantage to some teams that are made up of these select players and an overly competitive atmosphere for 10 and under players, which shifts the league’s focus on the spirit of sportsmanship that it is supposed to be about.

Problem

Little League Baseball in Calvert County, Maryland, gives some players an advantage over others by allowing players from select teams to play in the recreational league simultaneously, thus creating tension among players due to the stiff competition for 10 and under players. Little League Baseball’s actions violate fair competition requirements in sports because players who are not selected do not have an opportunity to participate in the league’s sports. Li argues that competitiveness is the most vital attribute of sports activities, and if it is lost, the promotion of the sports spirit loses meaning and vitality (48). Therefore, Little League’s actions diminish sports spirit by creating unfair competition among the players. The league’s actions also limit sports spirit, thus limiting its ability to do what it should in the community and sports setting.

Although Little League Baseball’s actions have raised concerns about the league’s inability to focus on the spirit of sportsmanship that the league is supposed to be about, the league’s actions may be necessary to keep the players motivated and committed to the league, which is also part of sportsmanship. Sportsmanship development includes engaging in activities that create change in the individual. The main dimensions of sportsmanship include being committed to the sport, respecting referees and the team’s rules, respecting social conventions and respecting opponents (Burgueño 2). Therefore, when a player is not selected to play in the recreational league, they learn patience and determination leading to individual development. Sportsmanship also includes forming players’ moral character based on the activities they engage in during sports (Giray 259). In addition, Little League Baseball’s actions can be viewed as an intentional action of cultivating, teaching, and modeling moral development and growth among the league’s players.

Solution

The most effective strategy to address the problem in Little League Baseball is creating policies and procedures that require coaches to demonstrate fairness when selecting players to play in the recreational league and encouraging the coaches to be good role models. Being a role model demands that coaches exhibit integrity and fair play before the athletes. Therefore, coaches can demonstrate fairness and act as good role models by doing what Little League is supposed to do and giving every player an equal opportunity to participate in the league’s activities. One step in implementing the solution is drafting and issuing the new policies and procedures to the coaches. The second step is monitoring the coaches’ conduct to ensure they adhere to the new policies and procedures. The third step is giving the coaches feedback about their conduct and encouraging them to use teachable moments to encourage sportsmanship among the players.

The proposed solution will be implemented within one month. The new policies and procedures will be drafted within one week. A document compiling all the new policies and procedures will then be distributed to the coaches within the second week. The coaches will be required to start implementing the new policies and procedures immediately so that any changes and challenges in implementation can be identified before the end of the third week. The feedback about the conduct of the coaches in relation to the new policies and procedures will be issued during the fourth week, after which the league will assess its progress towards meeting its objectives.

Changing the league’s policies and procedures may create delays in restoring equality in Little League Baseball because it relies on the coaches’ adherence to the new policies. However, the solution will have a long-term positive impact on the team. Therefore, it is important to maintain constant monitoring and evaluation in the implementation of the new policies and procedures to ensure that they yield the required outcome within the shortest time. It is also important to motivate the coaches to facilitate the acceptance of the new policies and procedures.

Conclusion

Little League Baseball creates a foundation for many baseball players and prepares them for participation in professional sports. Therefore, the league must ensure every player can play and compete with others. Moving forward, the league should emphasize fair competition among the players and create policies and procedures regulating the decisions made by the coaches regarding the players who should play and the reasonable competition atmosphere within the league.

Works Cited

Burgueño, Rafael, and Jesús Medina-Casaubón. “Sport Education and Sportsmanship Orientations: An Intervention in High School Students.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 17, no. 3, 2020, p. 2, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030837.

Giray, Louie G. “The Spirit of Sport: Exploring Sportsmanship among Physical Education Students.” Acitya: Journal of Teaching and Education, vol. 3, no. 2, 2021, pp. 257-266.

Li, X. “The cultivation path of sports spirit in schools physical education.” Frontiers in Sport Research, vol. 3, no. 3, 2021, p. 48, doi:10.25236/fsr.2021.030309.

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ASSIGNMENT: Identify a local issue (i.e., something happening in Southern Maryland, CSM, your community, a group you belong to, etc.) that needs to be addressed and either supported or changed. Spend time studying the idea more carefully than you have before. Then, compose a proposal argument based on your deeper understanding of the proposal.
LOCAL ISSUE FOR TOPIC: Little League Baseball in Calvert County, Maryland allows youth players from select/travel teams to play in the recreational league simultaneously. This creates an unfair advantage to some teams that are made up of these select players. It also creates an overly competitive atmosphere for 10 and under players and does not focus on the spirit of sportmanship that Little League is supposed to be about.
WORD COUNT: This paper must be between 1,000 and 1,300 words.
SOURCES: You need to use three (3) recent (last 1-3 years) articles, including local papers (these might not be in the library). You may not use websites that are not local to Southern Maryland (PG, Charles, St. Mary’s Calvert, Anne Arundel Counties). You also may not use people’s blogs, or anything from St. Mary’s County Times or Calvert County Times, or anything else from that particular publisher. If you use online sources like Baynet, you may not use anything from the comments beneath articles, or opinion pieces.

You also need at least one academic paper about the more general topic. This means four sources. For example:
Ex/1: You believe public schools ought to employ ASL interpreters in all public schools to enhance the inclusion and participation of students in mainstream classes. You might look for a couple of articles or video news stories, and then also find scholarly articles regarding education and the deaf population as a whole (maybe in teaching journals or journals that focus on hearing impairment, etc.) to frame the larger issue.
Ex/2: You believe that while Parks and Rec provides ample venues to hear classical music in the area, not enough attention is given by the county government to local rock acts. You think the county parks and rec department needs to support local, non-classical musicians as well.