The Little League World Series Bracket Is So Dumb

I’ll say it: I’m an absolute sucker for the Little League World Series.

Year after year, travel ball is doing its very best to kill one of the most enjoyable television events of the year. Kids from 10 to 12 years old from across the country meet in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for just under two weeks to crown the best youth baseball team from one town on the planet.

It’s a perfect concept. Kids crying, terrible mistakes, awful umpires, and coaches trying to make it all about themselves.

This year has been one of the better tournaments we’ve had in a long time. South Carolina staged a six-run, come-from-behind win in extra innings, multiple teams lost games on crazy baserunning errors, and Chinese Taipei had a kid throw 82 in his first full year ever playing baseball.

As usual, the Little League World Series has the juice. However, the tournament continues to have the most significant flaw.

Let’s backtrack for a second. The tournament is broken into two groups: the U.S. on one side and the rest of the world on the other. America has far more Little Leagues than any other country, so that works pretty well.

Each side of the bracket is a double-elimination tournament that culminates in one final game between the U.S. champion and the International champion. That game takes place on Sunday afternoon each year. It’s an American sports staple, and I can still hear Brent Musburger calling these games from my childhood.

If all these things make this tournament so great, then what’s the one problem? It’s not an actual double-elimination tournament.

I’m fine with the U.S. vs. the International game being a single-elimination game. Both teams are already “champions,” and this game is just a nice way to close out the tournament.

My problem is that if you come out of the winners bracket in the U.S. or International side, you are now in a single-elimination game to go to the championship. You can beat a team in the winners bracket, then lose to them for your only loss, and not make it out of your bracket.

This year, the fan favorite on the American side was Connecticut. It won the winners bracket but lost to Nevada — a team it had just beaten on Wednesday — for a spot in the championship.

They have the same number of losses as Nevada, beat Nevada once, and don’t get a shot in a rubber match. It’s simply a poorly designed feature for a fantastic tournament.

Still, Nevada gets its shot at Chinese Taipei, which has a LLWS-record 16 shutouts this tournament. The team will be a heavy underdog, but hopefully it can pull this one out for the States.