Need Cheering Up?

News around the state is unbelievably, overwhelmingly depressing: a year-old boy drowning in a pool in Taunton; a 14-year-old suffering life-threatening injuries after being run over on his bicycle in Lowell; a 15-year-old shot to death in Brockton; three dead from apparent heroin overdoses in New Bedford; an eight-year-old Fitchburg girl battling a lethal staph infection at Franciscan Children's; a 16-year-old drowning in the Westfield River.

To lift your spirits, I highly recommend concentrating all your attention on baseball -- not the Manny Ramirez stuff, but the outstanding triumph of the Parkway Nationals' winning the state's Little League championships yesterday.

And, for good measure, read this story about the shot-in-the-line-of-duty cop who will be umpiring at the Little League World Series.