Ah, tee ball. 

Just those words alone have a nice ring to them. 

Earlier this month, June 5 to be exact, I went out to a pair of Oceanside Little League tee ball contests that pitted Maritime Energy vs. Rockland Café and George Hall vs. Samoset Resort. The reason I went to the games was simply to give a few youngsters playing ball the opportunity to make it onto our website. 

Click here to see those photos.

No, we do not get every kid at every level playing ball in every league in every town in our coverage area. It simply is impossible to do so. Believe me. I tried to organize it and it simply just did not work out. 

The tee ball contests, which were played simultaneously and lasted about an hour each, served as a reminder that sports, whether it is football, tee ball or golf, is supposed to be something of fun when it is being played at the youth level. (High School ball does not fit into this category, at least for the purpose of this article.)

I think something that defines this is that one girl was more concerned about the location of her juice box than her turn to hit the ball off the tee. 

Sure, there is more on the line in high school sports, but there is no need for the extra pressure on the kids at the Little League level, or even for coaches to be tossed at the Little League level. 

I’m not going to go too in-depth into this, but keep in mind folks — sports are supposed to be fun for the kids, especially when they don’t have the pressures of the desire to make the high school playoffs and win a coveted state championship.

So while they are young, let them have their fun and eat it too, or something like that. 

George Harvey has been professionally navigating the sports journalism field since 2010 in both Florida and Maine. He has kept himself busy over the years, spending his time in Florida during the fall through spring, and in Maine in the summers. Surprisingly, despite his love for food, he has yet to write about it — yet. Aside from food, he loves to keep up-to-date on the latest sporting news for almost every sport. 

Reach George Harvey and the sports department at: sports@penbaypilot.com.