Sports

Is Private Equity Really 'Buying Up the Rituals of American Childhood'?

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy says that capitalism is killing youth hockey and fueling a "crisis of resentment." But who exactly is pissed?

Nick Gillespie | 5.29.2026 4:26 PM

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Fifty years ago this summer, The Bad News Bears was released. Despite its PG rating, goofily disarming poster, and use of Georgees Bizet's Carmen as a soundtrack, the film followed the travails of Little League misfits who are coached by an openly alcoholic pool cleaner, whose uniforms are supplied by Chico's Bail Bonds, and whose sweet-faced, pre-teen players are prone to reeling off foul-mouthed wisecracks like "All we got on this team are a buncha Jews, spics, niggers, pansies, and a booger-eatin' moron!" and "you can take your apology and your trophy and shove 'em straight up your ass!"

Matt Welch has called it a "'70s latchkey classic," noting that both in its vulgar language and its depiction of the Me Decade's divorce-driven disregard for kids, it was a near-perfect representation of its time.

For Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), though, that era in American kidhood represents something like the last good time, when youth sports were local and less demanding of children and parents alike. In an excerpt of his new book Crisis of the Common Good........

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