2 Little League Teams Big Hits Back at Home
A delightful ailment--best known as baseball fever--is sweeping eastern Ventura County, where two Little League teams have been swinging their way through postseason play.
The symptoms include boosterism, community pride and an unflagging devotion to players not yet old enough to drive.
Despite Wednesday’s mixed results--a Venezuelan team slowed Thousand Oaks’ drive for the trophy, while Moorpark advanced after it shut out a Wyoming team--hometown fans say both teams are winners no matter what is on the scoreboard.
“We’re just happy we’ve gone this far. It’s overwhelming,” said Hector Garcia, manager of the Moorpark All-Stars, which defeated Rock Springs, Wyo., 7-0, in San Bernardino.
Little League success is nothing new in Thousand Oaks. The city’s 12-year-olds won the Little League World Series two years ago. Nearly a dozen of those same youngsters, now 14 and 15, look to repeat their success this week in the Senior League World Series in Kissimmee, Fla., near Orlando.
After Wednesday night’s 3-0 loss to Maracaibo, Venezuela, the Thousand Oaks All-Stars face the Maumee, Ohio, team at 5 p.m. today in this double-elimination event.
But in Moorpark, this is a whole new ballgame. Making Ventura County history, the Moorpark 11- and 12-year-olds are competing in the Little League Western Regional in San Bernardino. And if they continue to win, the team could end up going to the World Series in Williamsport, Pa. But to get through the regional, Moorpark still needs to win three consecutive games.
Moorpark, which has four wins and one loss at the regional, will play either Reno or Issaquah, Wash., at 8 tonight. The winner must defeat Pearl City, Hawaii, twice Friday to advance to the World Series.
“For Moorpark, this is like going to the moon,” Manager Garcia said. “No one really expected us to go this far. . . . Going this far with what we’ve got, by all means it’s a big victory for us.”
Although the focus of Little League attention is typically on the 11- and 12-year-olds, there is much baseball chatter in certain Thousand Oaks circles.
Baseball boosters Nancy and Bruce Singleton are “ecstatic” about the success of Thousand Oaks’ 14- and 15-year-olds, who are considered one of the favorites to win the Senior World Series.
“I just spent the last 2 1/2 weeks in England, and our league has a hotline that you can call for updates when something significant happens,” Nancy Singleton said. “We were calling from telephone booths in little deserted parts of England when we knew they had games. . . . We must have called 10 times.”
The Moorpark baseball buzz, meantime, is equal parts disbelief, raw enthusiasm and lingering sorrow over Joel Burchfield, the 11-year-old Moorpark Little Leaguer who drowned in February while trying to cross the Arroyo Simi after a downpour. To honor his memory, each of the players wears a red wristband marked with a 15--his number--and his initials during games.
The Moorpark Little League All-Stars--long the equivalent of the last-kid-picked-in-gym-class--have never played better, their fans recounted. But after their decisive victory Wednesday, the All-Stars appear poised to tackle all comers.
The team is much beloved and much improved over the past six years, a fact that Garcia attributed to an influx of new families--and new ballplayers--to Moorpark.
“We were always the underdogs,” recalled Manuel Barrera, 19, a former Moorpark Little Leaguer who now manages a Lamppost Pizza on New Los Angeles Avenue. Now “they’re taking on the big cities and they’re beating them. . . . It’s nice to know that they’re doing good for that little kid Joel. They’ve got a lot of heart.”
The Thousand Oaks youth baseball legacy is more entrenched and better-known, particularly after the team won it all in 1994 by trouncing the Hamilton, Ohio, team 20-3. A Thousand Oaks Little League board member for a dozen years, Nancy Singleton said, “We’ve had phone calls from parents asking: ‘Where do I buy a house so my kid can play in your area?’ ”
In both cities, residents have high hopes for their Little League teams.
At a restaurant favored by the Thousand Oaks players, Toppers Pizza Place, owner Steve Sellers is already making plans for his team’s homecoming: a pizza party. The setting will naturally be the banquet room, which already contains a 5-by-4-foot mahogany and glass trophy case specifically built to enshrine the team’s massive trophy from the earlier World Series.
“There’s room for another trophy in there, certainly,” Sellers said. “‘We hope that they’ll get one.”
And at Moorpark’s Town Center Paint & Hardware, owner Corey Goldman weighed in on his community’s baseball mania. “It’s very exciting. It puts us on the map,” he said. “Moorpark seems to have more than its fair share of star athletes. Football, baseball, they do extremely well. It just shows what team commitment and spirit can do.”
* RESULTS, RELATED STORIES: C6