Series Ends, and San Pedro Players Can Be Kids Again

It was three hours after the San Pedro Eastview All-Star baseball team had lost its semifinal game in the Little League World Series last Thursday afternoon, and shortstop Tim Harper stood in center field on a makeshift diamond under a maple tree.

Harper, a lanky, 13-year-old, blond right-hander, wore a baseball glove on his throwing hand. Steve Williams, the pitcher who couldn’t find the plate in a five-run, first-inning outbreak by Trumbull, Conn., that led to the 6-3 San Pedro loss, stood nearby on the asphalt road that served as an outfield. Williams kept his hands in the pockets of his jams.

Pinch-hitter James Santos stepped to the pitching rubber, a stick, and delivered the first pitch as the sun set behind shiplap bungalows in the International Grove, where the team has been housed since it arrived here almost a week ago. A clump of dirt served as home plate.

Team Manager Joe Dileva and Coach Nick Lusic were nowhere to be found. A Little League official asked each player to autograph a seat cushion between pitches. Parents watched, and for the first time since most of them arrived here 72 hours before, they seemed to be having fun.

Santos’ first pitch in the pick-up game with a homemade sock ball went awry, just as the team’s plans to win the World Series had done with five errors against Connecticut. But Santos had a smile on his face, as did a half-dozen of his teammates.

At last, the boys, who had dealt with tremendous pressure for the past three weeks to get here, were experiencing the spirit of this event, which is celebrating its 50th year in the rolling valleys of central Pennsylvania.

Most of the players are too young to realize it yet, said Harper’s mom, Cheryl, but “this is an experience they’ll never forget.”

“I didn’t know what to expect, either,” she said later.

On Friday, just hours before they lost the third-place game to Venezuela, 10-1, team members gathered in their quarters and talked about their experience. The chatter was about the most important things in their world: baseball, food and sleep, not necessarily in that order.

“If I were going to tell someone who is coming to play in this, the first thing I would say is to get enough sleep,” said second baseman Iggie Galaz, who complained about the three-hour time difference. “We’d be awakened to have breakfast at 7:30, and to us it was still 4:30 in the morning. We’d all sleep through it.”

Galaz said he was surprised at the conditions in the communal barracks where the players stay.

“I thought we’d have better beds and a bathroom in each building,” he said.

Still, Galaz said he and Santos, who both speak Spanish, enjoyed meeting the Venezuelan players off the field. The English-only boys, however, nicknamed one of the Venezuelan players “Pizza Hut.” The Venezuelan didn’t understand what a Pizza Hut was, but he seemed to like the attention.

Outfielder Joe Sulentor, who homered in the loss to Connecticut, said he liked playing in the ballgames the best.

Catcher Joey Danelo said he’d warn future players to bring a few other kinds of games with them for the boring moments.

“I watched this event on TV every year, and now I’m here,” he said.

Utility player Chris Hevener discovered souvenir pin trading here. He proudly pointed to 55 of them, which he displayed on a towel.

As they spoke, the players were autographing baseballs. Hevener held his up for all to see.

Occasionally, a player offered up a clue to his feelings.

Said utility player Mike Lennox: “I don’t think we will ever do anything like this again.”

Reserve Anthony Pesusich said he still couldn’t believe he was here. Power hitter Gary Sloan, resting on the top of a bunk bed, said he was glad he came.

“I wasn’t nervous,” Sloan said. Apparently not. He hit three home runs in three games.

As much as Little League officials try to make this an event for the kids, they can’t halt the enormous media attention. And the fans who travel from all over the world to see these games often forget that these are 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds playing a child’s game.

Several of the San Pedro players said they could have done without all the attention.

“I didn’t like it. It was annoying,” said Victoria Brucker, the center of all the attention. In Friday’s third-place game she became the first girl to pitch in a World Series game, although her performance was lackluster, as was that of most of her teammates.

“They were tired,” said Dileva. “Their arms are tired. We played 20 games in a month. That’s a lot.”

Brucker’s single in the series opener against Tampa, Fla., was the first hit by a female in this event. Brucker, described by one of her teammates as “just one of the guys,” said all the media attention affected her play. But, she said, there were some things that she liked about her week in Williamsport.

“They have diving boards here (in the swimming pool),” she said. Brucker, who swims competitively, said she was disappointed with the pool at the Western Regional Tournament in San Bernardino because there were no boards.

Sloan said he could see the effect of the attention on some players: “It started to bother us.”

Said reserve James Ditch, who was born in Williamsport: “The attention was all right after games and after practice, but it was annoying when they would come get us, take a player out of practice, or when a reporter wanted to talk to us during a game.”

But, said Brucker, “we got here. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

Harper, nicknamed “Jaws” because of his tenacious attitude as a player, agreed: “I’d like to come back again.”

Everyone agreed they’ll play senior ball in the Eastview Little League in 1990. As 13-year-olds, they will have an opportunity to advance to the Junior League Baseball World Series, one of seven Little League age-group divisional championships. It won’t be Williamsport, but many of the players have their sights set on another shot at a world title.

“Wait until next year,” said Williams.

In the pick-up game under the trees Thursday night, Gary Sloan, father of the player of the same name, stepped up to the pile of dirt that was home plate and grabbed a bat. This was one of the few times that parents had been able to socialize with their children in more than two weeks. The team was also sequestered at the Western Regional in San Bernardino. Since lodging is scarce in Williamsport, most of the 100 or so San Pedro fans were scattered in townships all over the Susquehanna River Valley, some as much as 100 miles from the Little League complex.

At that moment, however, the players and parents were one big family again.

Santos quickly struck out the elder Sloan, who was determined to get a hit.

“Hey, old man, how many strikes do you get?” asked a man who was watching. Sloan smiled. The kids smiled. Some of the parents chuckled. It was a happy, pressure-free sight.

In the end, these will be the memories that these junior high school kids will remember for the rest of their lives.