Score This Season a Hit for the Community : Yorba Hills Players Brought Out the Best in Themselves and the Game of Baseball

For the young boys, and a few girls, on 7,000 Little League teams across the world, Williamsport, Pa., is a kind of holy city. For it is in Williamsport that the Little League World Series is played each year.

For most teams, the dream of an August trip to Pennsylvania dies with the first practice, a workout studded with misplayed grounders, dropped fly balls and a pitcher impossible to hit.

But for the Yorba Hills All-Stars, the dream lasted until nearly the final moment. They beat Petaluma Valley to win the Western championship; in round-robin play in Williamsport they did better than Toms River, N.J. and Arden Hills, Minn. Unfortunately for the Yorba Hills youngsters, they could not quite get past Spring, Tex.

Yorba Hills wound up the second-best U.S. Little League team, an accomplishment the players should savor. For those who saw them on television, the boys were fun to watch.

There were good plays, timely hits, a splendid home run off the center field monument by Nash Robertson to tie the game that the Texans ultimately won. No blame attaches to their fans either, even those who extended lunch hour a little bit to gather in a Yorba Linda pizza parlor and watch the televised final game.

Done right, Little League is fun for those who play, who are 12 and under. There are lessons in teamwork, in being good sports, and in moving the runner from second base to third. Yorba Linda parents, coaches and the manager appear to have done it right.

Coach Bill Rooney, whose son played, put the emphasis in the right place after the team lost, noting that the most difficult thing was dealing with “the emotions of 12-year-old kids.” Adults enjoyed watching children play for the thrill of the sport, with no concern for huge salaries or product endorsements. A fan at the pizza parlor said the players “brought us together.” The sense of community is a nice feeling and a welcome change from daily problems.