Pirates and Cardinals celebrate Little League Classic with end-of-game handshake line

Now that it’s over, we can officially say that the Little League Classic was awesome. More than 2,500 Little Leaguers got to see the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals play a game just for them, and the big leaguers got to channel their inner Little Leaguer for a day and hang out with these young baseball players.

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After a day of snow cones and cleat-signings and Little Leaguers meeting big leaguers, the pros showed just how much their younger counterparts had rubbed off on them. Despite being locked in a tough battle in the National League Central, the Pirates and Cardinals ended the game (a 6-3 Pirates win) in true Little League style.

The staple of every little league game is the handshake at the end. No matter who won, no matter what happened, everyone shakes hands with everyone else because sportsmanship is what matters. And even though the Bucs and the Cards are going to fight it out for the rest of the season, they put that aside to show the kids that even at the major-league level, sportsmanship still matters.

The whole day was a resounding success. MLB has been looking for ways to market the game to the younger generation, and they definitely hit the jackpot with the Little League Classic. Making this a yearly event seems like a no-brainer for MLB. And when you check out the response from the players themselves, it’s hard to disagree.

As they say in Little League: good game, everyone!

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher