As we have editorialized over the years, we believe our communities should appreciate what a blessing the Little League World Series is for our region and appreciate the men and women whose hard work makes this event possible — especially the volunteers.

We’ve also frequently noted how the young players in the Little League World Series exemplify the best of sportsmanship. We believe the families throughout our region are honored to share the thrill of victories and the commiseration of defeats with them.

And so we were disappointed last Thursday when one of our duly elected Lycoming County commissioners decided that a team’s loss — again, a loss by children that already happened on an international stage — should be fodder for a tacky joke.

The joke in question was at the expense of his fellow commissioner, Scott Metzger, who serves as the team’s “uncle,” a volunteer who helps ease the stays of the visiting athletes. The premise was that the teams with which Metzger works have often lost games early in the Series and thus Metzger must be a “black cat” in the joke’s supposed punchline, or some other sort of harbinger of bad luck.

The Little League World Series would not be the success that it is without volunteers and we are thankful that Mr. Metzger is willing to share his time and efforts to help make the Little League World Series a success. We have spoken to Mr. Metzger often enough over the years that we suspect he would humbly downplay his part, but it is true, and he and all of the uncles deserve our region’s gratitude.

He deserves better than Lycoming County Commissioner Mark Mussina’s cheap shot.

Of course, all of the hard work of volunteers and staff alike are for the kids. Young athletes already thrust into the limelight, asked to perform in front of an international audience, their mistakes and flaws seen by thousands around the world.

We believe it is worth acknowledging that itself is a lot to ask of 10-year-olds, 11-year-olds and 12-year-olds.

We hope Mr. Mussina will sincerely apologize to both Mr. Metzger and will reconsider his peculiar belief that he needs to attempt to inject humor into his remarks at commissioners’ meetings. We more strongly hope Mr. Mussina will sincerely apologize to the team. They certainly deserve better than to be a punchline for a politician’s corny stand-up routine.

— Williamsport Sun-Gazette