Brent's Sports Blog

Okay, I admit it. I've been slacking a bit. I haven't done a blog entry in almost a month. Once the Red Wings and Pistons seasons ended, I must've ran out of gas. I know, I know the Tigers have somehow climbed back to respectability. I believe when I made my last entry they were 12 games under .500 and something like 10 games out of first place. Now they're back in it, sort of. So yes, I could've talked about them. But from June 18th to June 29th I was on vacation. Didn't go anywhere. Just stayed here in good 'ole Grand Rapids and hung out. No stress. Made a few trips to Muskegon to visit family and friends. That was about it.

I returned from vacation on June 30th, began looking at my July calendar and started to wonder what am I going to do for the next four weeks to fill my sportscasts? July is typically the slowest month of the entire year for local sports, especially here in West Michigan. The Rampage are playing well so that helps. The Griffins will probably call a news conference at some point this month to introduce their new head coach. That will fill :40 in a weekday show at some point.

But late last week I spent the 4th of July with some good friends. My buddy Mark began telling me about the District 9 baseball and softball tournaments that are happening all over West Michigan several nights each week. He went on to say that the 9 & 10 year old boys little league all-star games often draw hundreds of fans and it has a cult following.

My sports director antenna went up. I thought, hmmm, maybe I can start showing some highlights of these games to help flesh out my sportscasts.

So far I've only shown games from the 9 & 10 boys baseball, but that's not the only age bracket competing right now. There are several different ages going at it, all the way up to kids in their late teens. And it's not just baseball, girls are involved in the same age levels in softball.

I thought, this is huge!

So far, so good with our coverage. We'll get better as it goes. I'm waiting to get some feedback from the viewing public. Are these moms and dads racing home from these games, flipping on Fox 17 to hopefully catch a glimpse of their son or daughter? Hopefully that's what's happening.

No TV station in Grand Rapids has ever started covering these little league tournaments this early in the summer. We've always started covering them in mid August when the games really start to matter.

Well, I've found out that the games matter right now. Pool play matters so teams can advance to August. Teams need to be successful in these round-robin pool formats or their seasons will end.

If you've seen our coverage, please drop me a line and tell me what you think.

I've learned in my 18 years in this business that whenever you put people's kids on TV, the viewership goes up. I'm hoping that's happening with my early coverage of the little league tournaments.

Again, this week we're covering the 9 & 10 boys baseball but next week I may venture into one of the girls softball tournaments. We'll have to wait and see.

Meantime, you can follow the entire tournament on our website: www.wxmi.com

Just click on the "Fox 17 Sports" icon on the left side of the main page. You should see two little league logos within the "Blogs" section.

Please check it out and keep watchin'

Brent