Fans Wave Little Leaguers Home

Exhausted but triumphant, the new Little League world champions came home Sunday to a crush of boisterous fans who jammed the airport and filled this city’s central plaza in an emotional show of support.

More than 300 friends and relatives waited two hours at the airport to greet the 12-year-olds, but the boys of Guadalupe Linda Vista were immediately hustled through the screaming mob like rock stars and, under heavy security, loaded onto a state bus that sped off for downtown.

Relatives gave chase in a parade of honking cars and trucks, many of which were decorated with slogans declaring the Vaqueros of Linda Vista campiones mundial. Among them were the parents of star pitcher Pablo Torres, who had hoped to introduce him to his 5-day-old sister, named Paola in his honor.

“We’ll have time for that later,” Reynaldo Torres, his father, said. “This is his moment.”

The father of seven, who has two other pitchers in his brood, was particularly glad to hear that all of the Vaqueros players were granted scholarships to the nearby University of Nuevo Leon that morning.

The players, all dressed in red Little League shirts and green caps, next appeared on a stage facing the central plaza, shared by Governor Benjamin Clariond and members of the legendary Monterrey team that won the Little League World Championship 40 years ago.

Introduced individually to resounding cheers, the players then stood in the hot sun through a round of speeches and blaring music, patiently signing baseball caps for hordes of young admirers.

Reporters surrounded Gabriel Alvarez, who diplomatically described for the umpteenth time how he begged the coach to let him go to bat in the final inning, after having been removed as pitcher two innings earlier.

“I told him it wasn’t over yet, and I knew I could make a difference,” he recalled. “I felt the whole game was on my shoulders.”

Indeed, it was Gabriel’s home run with two players on base that evened up the game and made victory possible.

Like the disciplined young men they proved themselves to be in the game, the players did what was asked. They boarded an open float that paraded them around the city’s “Macroplaza,” a long esplanade flanked by thousands of flag-waving, horn-blowing fans. They waved and nodded and signed T-shirts that were thrown to them.

But in their weary faces, it was clear that after two weeks on the road and nearly 12 hours on airplanes, these boys wanted nothing more than to go home and relax with their families.

“He looks so tired,” observed a young cousin of Juan DeDios Garza, the diminutive player who on Saturday crossed himself furiously before every turn at bat.

For a few hours Sunday, however, these heroes belonged to the people of Monterrey, who more than anything were inspired by their stunning final-inning victory after a game of errors and missed opportunities.

“They reminded us that you should never give up, no matter how bad things look,” said Sandra Martinez, who stood in the plaza with her 11-year-old son, Manuel Alejandro, a Little League player himself.

“I hope I can be like them next year,” he said, waving a Mexican flag.

Many who came to cheer had missed the second half of Saturday’s game, convinced that the Vaqueros had lost. But they had ample opportunity to view those final five runs later, as the game was rebroadcast almost continuously Saturday night and Sunday morning.

“It’s true that in baseball it’s not over until the last inning,” said Reynol Banda, who brought his two young daughters to the plaza. “This is part of our history,” he said, “and I wanted them to be here to see it.”