As a longtime fan of youth baseball, I set out to read Dave McKenna’s piece last week (Cheap Seats, “They Are the Champions,” 8/26) with great interest. Rather than coming away with a positive feeling about the state of the sport in the District, however, I was surprised at his emphasis on winning and losing, and dismayed at the tone of negativity that permeated the article.

While I expected to read praise for the team(s) doing well in the tournament (admittedly hard to know after only one game), I was not prepared for the near-mockery of the losing ones. In a city that has had trouble fielding enough teams to qualify to send one to the national championship series, I believe that a more constructive approach would be to encourage youth-baseball supporters to come out and watch the exceptional pitching performance of a talented Capitol City player, rather than highlight the inadequacies of the “poor, slaughtered lambs” of Northwest Washington Little League.

I am disappointed in your paper’s publication of an article that reinforces a win-at-all-costs mentality in a realm where I believe we should be teaching kids about determination, hard work, and cooperation—all of which can happen even when you lose!

Capitol Hill