Little Leaguers Already Won City’s Heart : Baseball: Today’s world title game will be aired live at 12:30 p.m.

In Richard Roman’s eyes, the Northridge Little League team--national champs and a contender today for the world title--has already hit one out of the ballpark for the San Fernando Valley.

“God, I’m excited for them,” said Roman, 63, general manager of the El Matador Mexican restaurant and a Northridge resident, newly arrived from Long Beach. “I don’t know ‘em . . . but still wish them all the luck in the world. What the hell, I live here now.”

His enthusiasm is expressed in a three-foot marquee mounted on the roof of his car proclaiming: “Go! Northridge Little Leaguers, We’re Very Proud of You!”

That cheer will resonate loudly throughout the Valley today as the squad of young athletes takes to a baseball diamond in Williamsport, Pa., ready to go to bat for both their team and their earthquake-scarred hometown, which views them as symbols of resilience and renaissance.

Excitement over the Little League World Series final is at a high pitch in Los Angeles--so much that the local ABC television affiliate will broadcast the game live beginning at 12:30 p.m. today, rather than by tape-delay three hours later as will other West Coast stations.

“It just makes better sense, and it’s a better service to the community,” KABC Program Director Connie Borge said Friday. “These are our babies, and we want them to win.”

Playing against a team from Maracaibo, Venezuela, the Northridge crew--nicknamed “The Earthquake Kids”--hopes to keep the coveted trophy in Southern California, following in the footsteps of the Long Beach team that took the series the last two years.

The players’ parents, meanwhile, incensed over the way tickets have been distributed for the championship game, were weighing options that included refusing to let the boys play.

Little League officials provided Northridge with 190 tickets, but only 60 are above the team’s first-base dugout, where all of the team’s supporters sat at games this week. The rest of the tickets are for the right-field area.

About 100 members of Northridge players’ families will attend the game.

“Grandparents, brothers and sisters who flew 2,500 miles for this can’t even sit with the rest of us,” said Jack Fisher, father of shortstop Matt Fisher. “This stinks, and if I have to pull my kid off the field to get it straightened out, that’s what I will do.”

Tickets were not required for any other series game. Admission, even with tickets, is free. Attendance for the final is expected to be about 40,000.

“I was told by Little League earlier in the week that tickets would be no problem,” said Tim Cunningham, father of catcher Matt Cunningham. “It’s inconceivable that they won’t let 100 Northridge supporters sit together.”

In Williamsport on Friday, the boys’ fame drew a horde of journalists to their practice in the humid afternoon. Two baseball equipment companies showered the team with new shoes, bats and batting gloves, but team manager Larry Baca was content for his wards to use the same old equipment that helped them win 20 games in five tournaments so far this year.

Pitcher Peter Tuber outlined the philosophy that he and his teammates hope will earn them their 21st--and most important--victory.

“The idea is to approach the game like every other game we’ve played,” Peter said. “That way we won’t be too nervous.”

Win or lose, the team has already shot to stardom. They’re hot commodities in the eyes of local media outlets and companies eager for a piece of the action after the team returns to Los Angeles on Sunday.

According to Paula Mort, secretary of the Northridge Baseball Assn. and a team booster in Williamsport, Disneyland has offered to pick the boys up from the airport and feature them in its Main Street parade, with VIP seating for parents.

KRTH radio will send stretch limousines to the boys’ homes at 5:30 a.m. Monday to collect them for an on-the-air talk with Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and Mayor Richard Riordan, Mort said.

The city has weighed in with its own celebration: a parade and rally scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Monday, sponsored by Councilman Hal Bernson’s office and the Northridge Chamber of Commerce. Catching Little League fever, City Hall cleared the way for the fete on Friday by waiving all fees, costs and requirements. The parade will begin at Northridge Park and end a mile away at the team’s home base: the Little League baseball fields on Devonshire Street.

Ordinarily, applications for a parade permit must be submitted 60 days in advance, but “we just broke all our own rules today. We haven’t done this very often,” said Greig Smith, Bernson’s deputy.

And that’s not all. At 10 a.m. Tuesday, a proclamation will be issued honoring the Earthquake Kids.

Some parents were concerned that their children would be too drained from the weekend’s events to attend celebrations so soon, but pride won out. “In three weeks this all will end, the kids will be back in school and forgotten,” said Eric Gordon, father of right fielder Spencer Gordon. “If the boys want to do these things, I think they ought to do them.” The boys earned their berth in today’s championship game by shutting out a Springfield, Va., team 3-0 Thursday before a crowd of 20,000.

Times staff writers Steve Henson in Williamsport and Michael Arkush in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

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