The Little League World Series (LLWS) is one of the staples of the American sports summer calendar. There's something about watching kids play baseball that reminds everyone what sports are really about. Plus, these kids have virtually their entire lives ahead of them. One thing that ESPN has typically asked the players – as part of enhancing the broadcast – is what they "want to be when they grow up?" Most kids give the usual answers: professional athlete, doctor, firefighter, pilot, or astronaut. Of course, there's also the modern trend of kids who want to be YouTubers or internet celebrities, but that's relatively new. Still, it is very common among the younger generations in America. What's not common is a kid who wants to be an actuary. Well, that's exactly what Fairfield, Connecticut player Brian Palazzolo said. During Sunday’s third-place game between the U.S. Metro Region and Aruba’s International team, the ESPN graphics team showed Palazzolo's "dream job" on-screen. The broadcast team of Karl Ravech, Todd Frazier, Jessica Mendoza and Eduardo Perez didn't know how to react. First, they had to figure out what an actuary was (full disclosure: I also had to look it up). Here's what I found, according to an article on Etched Actuarial: "An actuary uses large amounts of data along with their expertise in statistics and finance to determine how much money should be set aside now in order to pay for costly events that may randomly occur in the future." As you can imagine, the conversation really started to go off the rails at this point. It's not often I defend ESPN, but I'm going to do it in this spot. A 12-year-old aspiring to be an actuary is highly unusual. Ravech said he had never seen that in his years covering the Little League World Series. And lest you think Ravech is new to this event, he is not. He began working on the LLWS in 2006, so this marks nearly two decades of coverage. Also, I don't blame the other three for not knowing the definition of an actuary; I didn't either. Ravech may or may not have known. It's entirely possible that the producers in the truck had to tell him what it was, which makes it even crazier that Palazzolo listed that as his career aspiration. You're talking about at least four adults who couldn't define an actuary. Yet, there's a 12-year-old who not only knows what it is, but wants to be one when he grows up. It's certainly not a glamorous profession. That said, good for this kid. America doesn't need more YouTube influencers; we need more people like Palazzolo to do the jobs that many don't want to do. Plus, I imagine that career is fairly lucrative, given the specific skill set required and the dearth of young people aspiring to join the actuarial ranks. At the very least, his Little League teammates can rest easy knowing their future insurance premiums are in safe hands.