I was watching the Little League World Series the other night. I don’t know why I got sucked into it. Maybe it’s because I played Little League as a kid. Maybe it’s because my son played Little League as a kid. Maybe it’s because I long for a simpler time and the LLWS takes me there.
Nah.
It’s because I wanted to see Ronaldo Vizcaino pitch against Team Canada.
If you asked me “@hy would you ever go out of your way to see a 12 year-old pitch?" my answer would be simple: "Because he’s 6 feet 1 inch, weighs 248 pounds and Spain is trying to pass him off as a 12-year-old."
I am going to go out on a limb right now and say there is no way in hell this kid is 12. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s a junior at Clemson. For all I know might even have a wife and two kids already. If he played football, Nick Saban would have offered him a scholarship. Not a chance on god’s green earth this kid is 12. Not buying it.
See if you can spot him in the pictures:
His presence reminded me of something.... Yep. Life does imitate art.
If I were a betting man, I’d put my house on Spain in this game. Canadians going up against the Mighty Ronaldo and the Spanish Inquisition. I’m lucky I don’t bet. Canada beats Spain, 2-1, with a walk-off in the 10th.
How did they do it?
Was it because Canada’s pitchers were on and held Spain to a single home run as their only run?
Nope.
Was it because Vizcaino was pulled because of the 85-pitch rule?
Nope.
It was because the Canadian coach gave his kids the greatest motivational, inspirational, speech to ever come out of a coaches mouth. This guy took Vince Lombardi, Knute Rockne, Herb Brooks and George freaking Patton and rolled them over, spanked their bottoms and put them to bed without dinner using only 15 words.
"Let’s go put the women and children to bed and let’s go hunt for deer."
As soon as the coach dropped this on the junior Canucks, I looked at my wife and said, “Canada is gonna win this game.” Even the combined power of all the Kings and Queens of Westeros and the Whitewalkers weren’t stopping those kids.
Now, if Spain’s coach got to his kids early and said “Let’s go put the women and children to bed and let’s go run with the bulls”, they might have had a chance. But when a Canadian coach can slip the dream of deer hunting into a motivational moment, even the Red Sox would have spit this game up.
Let’s go put the women and children to bed and let’s go hunt for deer.
It don’t get more perfect than that.
If you want to watch the whole game, have at it.
You can hear KB as part of "The Drew Olson Show," which airs weekdays from 12-3 p.m. on The Big 1070 and 1-3 p.m. on The Big 920.