High-Flying Little League Team Gets Little Hometown Fanfare

It isn’t that Huy Diep doesn’t care about the Ocean View Little League Allstars, the Huntington Beach team heading to the regional finals tonight. He runs their favorite pizza joint, which carries the same name as the team. He knows their names, their faces, and often starts making pizza before they arrive. He loves those kids, he said the other day, and swung an imaginary baseball bat to make his point.

But like many in Huntington Beach, a city recently tarnished by mostly bad news, Diep said even he didn’t know the team is on the cusp of winning the biggest trophy for baseball kids, a parade-inspiring prize for most other towns: If they win tonight, the Allstars could soon play for the Little League World Series title.

The pizza man sighed, chagrined: “I’m really glad for them . . . but, I make pizza.”

To be sure, the manager of All Star Pizza is not alone. Most other Huntington Beach residents are unaware of their hometown successes.

And it is a sad thing, residents acknowledge once they find out about the team. The Little Leaguers could be a symbol of community pride, a rallying point to refurbish a city’s scuffed image, folks say. As it stands, Mayor Dave Garofalo is under fire for possible conflicts of interest involving his publishing business. Also, over the last two years, bacterial contamination of the water has forced temporary closures of the city’s beaches.

Indeed, the team is a bright spot, residents say, and it would be a shame to see it go uncelebrated by the city, as it has been so far. Garofalo, slightly embarrassed, said Wednesday that the city should be paying more attention: “I don’t have an excuse. We should have banners up for them. I’m gonna get on that.”

On Tuesday, the Little Leaguers beat Canyon Del Oro of Tucson at the Little League Western Regional Championship in San Bernardino 3-0, putting them into a championship final against Hazel Dell of Vancouver, Wash., tonight. If the Huntington Beach team wins, they go to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., which begins Sunday. And a win there means national fame.

But look at Huntington Beach, a city of about 200,000 people, and you’d hardly know the Ocean View Little League All-stars existed.

No banners at City Hall on Main Street, or even in neighborhoods near the team’s playing field. One nearby resident, rushing to work Wednesday morning after she took out the trash, said she had thought the fields were abandoned and unused. In gas stations, and banks, and bookshops, and even in sports bars, people who questioned about the team offered the same thought: the Ocean View Little who? One surfer didn’t even want to hear about them. “Why should I care?” the 20-something huffed and walked away, board under his arm.

Gary Schreiber, a 41-year-old Huntington Beach lawyer, said he was gladdened by the team’s success, but admitted he didn’t know anything about them. “I care, and I’ll probably pay attention now. But I didn’t know anything about it. . . . I run my own business, I have two kids--my son plays hockey--and it’s hard to know what’s going on.”

Of nearly two dozen people interviewed this week, only one, an older gent with tousled gray hair who was watching people pass on Main Street, said he knew of the team. Bob Henry, of Huntington Beach, said: “How could I not know? This is a big deal. I read the paper. It’s a shame . . . but we all have our lives, and distractions, it is hard for people to pay attention. People aren’t ambivalent. They just don’t know.”

He’s right. Take Ben Ingersoll, 17, of Huntington Beach. Though he played baseball for 13 years, the recent high school graduate says he’s got better things to do. Wet and tanned, he leaned on his body board, and said: “I’m psyched for them. I wish it were me. I didn’t even know this was going on. I guess I’ve moved on.”

Of course, there are pockets of celebration in town. In neighborhoods where the team’s 11- and 12-year-olds live, where folks have raised signs of hope and congratulations, it seems like there is no world outside baseball. But those spots are few.

Some say Huntington Beach is a sprawl of a place, so disconnected by geography it is impossible to summon broad community spirit over a snappy baseball team based on the edge of Fountain Valley. Or perhaps they’re just too busy with their own lives.

Ralph Bauer, a Huntington Beach city councilman, said he thinks his city is just still in an awkward place in its history--one part town, two parts big city--and simply is unable to focus on the successes of group of 12 kids who generally make the back pages of newspaper sports sections.

“We struggle with the small town feel,” he said. “It’s not that it’s not a caring place, but we need a lot of time for our own lives. How do you make people care about the Little League, I don’t know. There’s no answer.”

Bauer said the City Council on Monday plans on discussing how to honor the team. Maybe with big banners. Or perhaps some sort of public ceremony.

But Bauer said the lack of recognition still saddens him. A longtime booster of youth sports, and with grandchildren who play baseball, he said, “If you want to look at the future, you look to the successes of our youth. We focus on the present. That seems to be what matters to people.”

And yet, he points out, what could be more current than a big game tonight?