Sports are for kids, not their parents

Watching and listening to the recent uproar to the decision of the Little League national president's taking away the national title from the Jackie Robinson West Little League Baseball team caused some reflection.

The kids are the ones who were cheated because their managers cheated.

We all watched and cheered for this team and now share in the heartbreak of the recent decision to take their title away.

Now the city of Chicago is up in arms with the Little League office when they should be running the coaches out of town on a rail.

How good would this team have been without the players in question?

We will never know.

Even the mayor of Chicago called the Little League but an election is just a few weeks away.

Today's environment of kids' sports has taken so much away from the participant.

So many, not all, coaches and managers of kids' sports want to win at any cost. They recruit the city and run over the competition.

How many times have you seen a kid with his head down after losing a game or contest waiting for the criticism of his or her parents?

Sometimes I think the parents should drop off the kids and pick them up after the game because so many of them just won't leave the kids alone and spend the entire contest berating the opponent.

I know it's hard to believe but the idea of sports for kids was originally for them to have fun and recreation.

That's right: The sport was put there for the kid, not for the parents.

Relax, let your kids have fun and enjoy their sport. Show them how to relate to their children some day.

Charles Brown

Naperville