Re: Official Watch 12 Year Olds Cry- LLWS 2012
Well, we can continue this one or make a new thread for 2013, doesn't really matter to me.
Regionals are in action now, all the internationals except for Canada are complete. There's also been some changes apparently, as well as a whole new division. As far as Little League goes, the Africa and Middle East region has eliminated, with Africa joining the Europe region and the Middle East joining Asia-Pacific. Taking its place is the brand new Australia region, which is strange since no Australia team had ever made it before.
The new division is being called the Intermediate level, which has a 50 ft mound, 70 ft basepaths and same rules as junior league (which is basically high school rules), and is ages 11-13, same as the Major division that we know as Little League. So it's real baseball with leadoffs and pick offs and what not. I'd like to see that take over as the more popular version, but since LL is getting about 4 million a year from ESPN to broadcast from Williamsport I wouldn't count on it.
The international teams that made it so far are: Czech Republic, Panama, Tiajuana (MX), Tokyo (JP), Taiwan, and Perth (AUS). I'm probably going to have to root for the Czechs, even though the European teams are demolished every year.