Where Are The Non-White Kids In the Little League World Series?

{snip}

But in all seriousness, every year the [Little League World Series] is a refreshingly seminal moment in the dog days of summer. It’s a reminder of baseball’s beauty and is the perfect warm-up for the September pennant races and October playoff glory. The LLWS is always great.

But we couldn’t help but notice something this year that we never really noticed before: all the American kids are white. Watching the games casually off and on for the past week or so, we haven’t noticed any black, Hispanic or Asian kids on any of the American teams. Surely this could not be, could it? All the American teams are white?

Inspired and a little bored, it was time to do some research. And by do research, we mean check the intarnets. Here’s what we found:

* US Great Lakes: Hamilton, OH: All white

* US Southwest: Lubbock, TX: All white

* US Mid-Atlantic: Salisbury, MD: All white

* US Midwest: Coon Rapids, MN: All white. Maybe.

* US New England: Walpole, MA: All white.

* US Northwest: Lake Oswego, OR: All white.

* US Southwest: Warner Robins, GA: All white.

* US West: Chandler, AZ: One Edgar Galiz!

Now, we’re not saying that there’s some sinister plot behind the paucity of non-white kids or anything; to be sure, the dearth could be total coincidence. There are dozens of possibilities that could chalk it up to something innocuous, like the precipitous fall of baseball from pop culture.

But, out of eight teams and almost 100 kids, there’s one (maybe 1.5) non-white kid? In America? In the year that we’ve celebrated both the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut and Hank Aaron’s bravery?

{snip}