[Mick]

I was 8 years old. Shortly before the start of my first season of Little League Baseball, my team, the Pups, played an informal preseason game (or "practice game," as we called such games) against the Cubs, another of the teams in our 6-team league. We beat them 41-0 (might have hit the half-century mark but, being the home team, we didn't get to bat in the bottom of the 6th).

Guess we played them a couple of times during the regular season but I've no recollection of how the games played out; however, I do recall meeting them again in the semifinals of the playoffs. We were down 5-4 and down to our last out in the 6th. I was standing on 3rd base as the potential tying run when our strikeout king stepped up to the plate and went down like Mighty Casey (minus the reputed might) for the game's final out. We then won the "consolation" game to finish 3rd, while the other team went on to win the championship. Cubs win! Cubs win! Cubs win!

Apparently that team's coach knew how to develop players.

Great story.  I don't think that's uncommon at that level.  I managed a team of nine and ten year olds in the Little League minors and had a strict policy of allowing boys to play different positions and bat in different orders.  In our last game, we lost to a team that hadn't won all year because one of my players -- with some fairly severe ADHD, no less -- really wanted to pitch.  I let him pitch for three innings, we got shelled.  The other coach was a friend of mine, he was very thankful for it and he reminded me of it as much as fifteen years later.

One of the teams in our league was the Giants.  Their coach was a red hot, had all the positions mapped out before the season started and played and practiced them all season.  They were built to win, and they beat us all four times we played during the regular season, not by a lot, but by a little each time.

When the playoffs started, I positioned our team (the Yankees) in conventional positions in the field and batted them in a conventional order.  We ended up winning the game 20-8.

[Mick]

I was 8 years old. Shortly before the start of my first season of Little League Baseball, my team, the Pups, played an informal preseason game (or "practice game," as we called such games) against the Cubs, another of the teams in our 6-team league. We beat them 41-0 (might have hit the half-century mark but, being the home team, we didn't get to bat in the bottom of the 6th).

Guess we played them a couple of times during the regular season but I've no recollection of how the games played out; however, I do recall meeting them again in the semifinals of the playoffs. We were down 5-4 and down to our last out in the 6th. I was standing on 3rd base as the potential tying run when our strikeout king stepped up to the plate and went down like Mighty Casey (minus the reputed might) for the game's final out. We then won the "consolation" game to finish 3rd, while the other team went on to win the championship. Cubs win! Cubs win! Cubs win!

Apparently that team's coach knew how to develop players.

Great story.  I don't think that's uncommon at that level.  I managed a team of nine and ten year olds in the Little League minors and had a strict policy of allowing boys to play different positions and bat in different orders.  In our last game, we lost to a team that hadn't won all year because one of my players -- with some fairly severe ADHD, no less -- really wanted to pitch.  I let him pitch for three innings, we got shelled.  The other coach was a friend of mine, he was very thankful for it and he reminded me of it as much as fifteen years later.

One of the teams in our league was the Giants.  Their coach was a red hot, had all the positions mapped out before the season started and played and practiced them all season.  They were built to win, and they beat us all four times we played during the regular season, not by a lot, but by a little each time.

When the playoffs started, I positioned our team (the Yankees) in conventional positions in the field and batted them in a conventional order.  We ended up winning the game 20-8.