Team Cheered as ‘a Class Act’

In a day bursting with banners, patriotic music and civic exultation, this city’s star-crossed Little League all-star team was honored with a motorcade through downtown Saturday and praised as a model of sportsmanship for the nation.

“Winning baseball games is good,” said Janet Peckem, a dressmaker, “but these Oceanside kids did something much tougher: They showed everybody how to be dignified and classy even when you’ve been victimized by something very unfair.”

Fans lining Mission Avenue and then packing a beachfront amphitheater for a pep rally said their regard for the Oceanside all-stars soared when the players refused to complain about the double whammy that dashed their hopes in the World Series tourney in Williamsport, Pa.

First came a disputed call by an umpire that led to the Bronx team scoring the only run it needed to beat Oceanside in the semifinals, 1-0.

And then came the revelation that the virtually unhittable Bronx pitcher who struck out 16 of 18 Oceansiders is 14, two years older than the rules permit, and that his father had allegedly connived to present a phony birth certificate.

“I think about it a little bit but not really much,” said Thomas Eukovich, 12, the Oceanside team’s shaggy-haired pitcher. “The important thing is the ride, getting there and playing. Man, what a ride!”

“It’s not a big deal; I don’t think about,” said shortstop Wyley Szabo, 12. “We made it to Williamsport--that’s what is important.”

To earn a spot representing the West, the Oceansiders won 18 straight games in local and regional competition.

Each victory ratcheted up the dreams of civic leaders that the team could carry a message to the nation that rapidly changing Oceanside--population 162,000, 40 miles north of San Diego--is no longer just a place for off-duty Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton to drink and fight.

To make sure the ESPN audiences remembered Oceanside, the team even took along its own yell leader, who led repeated chants spelling out the city’s name.

The consensus Saturday: mission accomplished.

“This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to Oceanside,” said Deputy Mayor Betty Harding. “Look at that sign: ‘Oceanside Rules.’ That says it all.”

“Oceanside is on the move, Jack,” said Mayor Terry Johnson.

Oceanside American Little League President Glen Mills said simply, “Everybody knows who we are now.”

Although the official stance at the hourlong rally was to avoid any reference to Friday’s ruling that Bronx star Danny Almonte was 14, not 12, the scandal was not far away.

A sign in the cheering crowd said of the Oceanside team, “A Class Act.”

Johnson was still smarting that New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani refused to return his call when he tried to arrange a wager before the Oceanside-Bronx game: a surfboard vs. two Broadway theater tickets.

If Giuliani had made the bet, he would have had to return the surfboard; Little League officials Friday stripped the Bronx team of its victories and third-place finish.

“Maybe Giuliani knew something,” cracked Johnson.

For the Oceanside players, the star treatment was in strong evidence Saturday: fans seeking autographs, reporters begging interviews, girls slipping them love notes.

“When we were in Williamsport, I knew we had fans, but I never knew it would be like this,” Szabo said.

Led by the 1st Marine Division band from Camp Pendleton, players and team officials arrived in a line of shiny convertibles, some classic, some new, as thousands of fans cheered along palm tree-lined Mission Avenue.

“Two weeks ago, I was David Shore,” said attorney David Shore, father of pitcher Bobby Shore. “Now I’m known as Bobby Shore’s dad.”

The air was thick with political proclamations. Gov. Gray Davis sent one declaring Saturday as “Oceanside American Little League Day” in California.

Assemblywoman Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Niguel) told the players that they had “brought great dignity and honor to your city.”

The zeal to associate with a winner was strong.

The Oceanside-based North County Times gave $10,000 to help parents pay the costs of last-minute plane tickets and motel reservations. The San Diego Union-Tribune did the same.

The Padres sent the team mascot, the Friar. A downtown movie theater announced free showings of “The Natural,” the baseball movie starring Robert Redford.

Despite ample opportunity, none of the Oceanside players would criticize the Bronx pitcher for any role he might have had in playing along with his father’s alleged cheating scheme.

But sportsmanship does not preclude competitiveness. When asked what their lasting memory of the World Series will be, two Oceansiders had a similar response.

“I’ll never forget the hit I got off a 14-year-old,” said shortstop Johnny Jimenez, 12.

“I’ll never forget striking out 14-year-old Danny Almonte with the bases loaded,” Eukovich said.

Betty Harding, deputy mayor of Oceanside