Do you want your AAA team to be successful?

There're a lot of things I don't know about baseball. Things I wouldn't understand. Things I couldn't understand. Things I SHOULDN'T understand.

I was thinking about AAA franchise teams and wondering: Do their major league affiliates want them to be successful in their own rights? If the Pawtucket Red Sox had made the playoffs, would Boston have been unhappy because it would delay the harvesting of their best players?

Does HQ even care how successful the AAA teams are? Probably not. I think at that level they're more interested in the talent show aspect of it. Is Dave Berg hitting? Who's got a fat OBP? If so-and-so goes on the DL, is there a decent lefty we can get from Pawtucket?

It's a like a giant green waiting room that smells like fried dough with a mix of upstarts and washups playing ball to pass the time.

Not that I don't think Kelly Shoppach wants to win EVERY DAY. I really don't know what the players are thinking. Is it: "I'm stealing second base to win this fucking game" or is it "I hope everyone notices how good I am at stealing bases"?

Just so you know, I'm starting to go to little league games.