Remarks to Members of the Little League World Series Teams

Let me welcome all of you on behalf of myself and the American people. We are very grateful to have the teams from the countries that came from abroad. We congratulate all eight teams for participating in the Little League World Series-and I mean really world series. All of you should be congratulated.

Of course, we will congratulate the team from the Republic of China, which won. I can't help but admire--where is Mr. Lin [Wen-hsiang]? Here he is. I watched on television one of those home runs. What was it, five in three ball games? A .727 batting average. I wish I had that good a batting average. [Laughter]

But I do want to congratulate every one of you individually, congratulate you as a team, and congratulate those who were the sponsors and the coaches. I wish to welcome all of you from foreign lands.

It is my impression that competitive athletics, whether it is in little league baseball or whether it is in the Olympics or whether it is in any other sport, contributes very significantly to a better world for all of us, those here in the United States, those who come from foreign lands.

The exchange of relationships, the exchange of ideas, the friendships that you make are of invaluable benefit to everybody in the world. And at your young age, you are making a tremendous contribution to better world understanding by the fact that you have participated in this world championship.

I congratulate you again, and I hope that I will have an opportunity to not only say hello in this way but perhaps we can shake hands as I leave the room.

Good luck, and God bless each and every one of you.