For the Love of the Game

As the month of August draws to a close students and teachers around the globe have their minds wrapped around the idea of school approaching only days away. With the summer days slowly falling behind us, we find ourselves losing our fight and exuberance for the excitement and freedom of summer. Our "get up and go" attitude slowly diminishes, for we know school is just around the corner. However, there are still two hundred some odd kids still thriving in the summer sunlight and in the night's warm breezes. In the town of Williamsport, PA, there is a haven for any child that loves the game of baseball, and for these two hundred kids, it is a dream come true.
From all over the world kids from the age of eleven to thirteen, contend yearly in regional tournaments in hopes to make it to Williamsport and to the Little League World Series. There are fifty thousand Little League programs around the world, and only sixteen make it to the coveted fields of Williamsport.

To some there is nothing greater than professional sports. However, in professional sports today there is cheating, scandals, and greed. There is only one thing that drives these little leaguers to play the game of baseball, love. It is undoubtable that in every little leaguer's heart contains a love for the game of baseball. Instead of being driven by money, fame, and records, these kids are seen playing the game with a passion that we see rarely in professional athletes, the drive that every athlete once had. Williamsport has players striving toward victory that is driven by a love for a game that they hope will never come to an end.
As the LLWS drew to a close today with Japan defeating Hawaii in the championship game, the kids from the sixteen teams will return to ordinary life and begin to ready themselves for the upcoming school year and Williamsport will only be a memory they will someday share with their children.

For most, the summer of 2010 was an ordinary summer, but to two hundred-forty kids it will be a memory that will last a lifetime.