Korean Tournament Costs McGuire Opportunity to Play in Legion Series

For Ryan McGuire, the affable, crew-cut, Huck Finn-type who plays first base for the Woodland Hills West American Legion baseball team, winning a berth in the Legion World Series brought plenty of tears and hugging.

Unfortunately for McGuire, they were not emotions associated with the exuberance of winning; they were emotions associated with the sadness of goodby.

Because when West takes the field against Puerto Rico in a first-round game this morning at 8 PDT in Millington, Tenn., McGuire will be on a plane headed in the opposite direction, to South Korea.

“It was heartbreaking,” McGuire said.

McGuire, the MVP of the state Legion tournament, could not accompany his teammates on the last step of their journey because of a commitment he made in April to travel with an all-star youth baseball team to the Orient. The U. S. team will play in a Friendship Series against the national teams of South Korea and Japan from Aug. 25-Sept. 5.

Call it a lesson in growing up.

“I made a commitment early on, before Legion began,” McGuire said. “It wouldn’t be right for me to renege on my responsibility to the team in Korea.”

But that didn’t make the parting any easier.

“He was devastated about the whole thing,” West assistant coach Don Hornback said. “He was in tears at the airport, just in tears, hugging everybody.

“Sure we’re going to miss him as a player, but we’ll really miss him as a kid. He’s just such a great kid. But it was a commitment he had made a while ago, and I told him he just had to suck it up and do it.”

Hornback said that it was decided even before West won the Northwest regional in Lewiston, Ida., on Sunday that McGuire would make the trip.

“It was just so tough,” McGuire said. “I wanted to go to Tennessee. We were having so much fun. We were winning.

“Everyone was very understanding. Everyone was great about the whole thing. There were no problems at all.”

With McGuire’s departure, West is losing a stellar performer. McGuire went 10 for 17 with six runs scored, four home runs (including a grand slam) and 12 runs batted in in the state tournament in Yountville.

In the Northwest regional, he reached base 16 times in 26 plate appearances, scored seven runs, was walked six times and drove in two runs. Gregg Sheren has been slated to take over at first.

“No one person is more important than the team,” McGuire said. “So I think their chances are real great.”

But, according to Hornback, losing McGuire means more than just losing a player.

“All that hustle you see Ryan give on the field, running to and from the plate and the like, that’s real, that’s Ryan,” Hornback said. “We’re losing that intangible.

“I try not to go overboard when I’m evaluating my players, and I’ve seen a lot of players, but I’ve never seen a 17-year-old first baseman like him.”

THE FIELD

American Legion World Series At Millington, Tenn.

First-round games:

Woodland Hills West vs. Guaynabo Puerto Rico (8:05 a.m.)

Richmond, Va., vs. Fargo, N.D. (11 a.m.)

Janesville, Wis., vs. Braintree, Mass. (3 p.m.)

Fullerton, Calif., vs. Gonzales, La. (6 p.m.)

All times PDT.