As in most successful endeavors, the Westbrook 12-year-old all-stars who took the field at the Little League World Series had to work hard to make it there.
Luck will alway play a role in athletics – in factors such as avoiding injuries or in funny hops that a ball may take – but far more important are commitment, teamwork and practice.
Two years ago the city’s 10-year-old all-stars won the state championship with a team also managed by Rick Knight. That squad included all but two of the 12 players on this year’s New England regional champs.
Westbrook’s 11-year-old all-stars only made it to districts last year – likely because some of the guys were good enough to play on the 12-year-old team – but a number of the players continued playing games and working on their baseball skills well into early 2005.
Orlando Pena and Dan McCarthy ran what Pena called “extended summer,” and eight of the guys participated. They played a 16-week schedule, plus playoffs, outdoors in a league with teams from five other communities in southern Maine. Then when the weather got colder, the squad played indoors at the Bat Cave through the winter and into March.
“I remember playing games in blizzards,” McCarthy said. “A lot of the guys were on basketball teams and they’d come right after their basketball games.”
Along the way the youngsters improved noticeably.
“You see the potential and you have to squeeze it out … come on, come on,” said Pena. “They’ve just catapulted to a whole other level.”
By the time this year’s 12-year-old all-star team was put together, much of the team had been playing baseball for most of the previous year. Many of the guys had also played together, which is especially important for combinations like pitcher and catcher, as well as middle infielders.
“What I thought was going to happen, actually did happen,” Pena said of the team’s success. “I’m so proud of these kids.”
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Though his job requires him not to root openly, ESPN play-by-play man Gary Thorne, a native of Old Town, was pulling for his fellow Mainers.
“That’s my home,” Thorne said, “and I’d love to see these kids be able to come away with as many wins as they can get out here.”
Thorne, a former assistant district attorney in Bangor, has been involved in broadcasting since 1977. He’s been in the announcer’s seat for pro and college sports, as well as the Olympics.
At the Little League World Series, Thorne was teamed with former major leaguer Harold Reynolds, while announcer Dave Ryan was paired with Tony Gwynn, another retired pro turned broadcaster.
“It’s been a great delight to have a chance to do the games and see the kids, to read all the comments from the folks back in Maine so proud of the kids getting here,” said Thorne. “It’s wonderful for the state and great for the kids.”
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Though Little League began in the small Pennsylvania city of Williamsport in 1939, and though the organization still lists that community in its mailing address, Little League’s headquarters is actually across the Susquehanna River, in tiny South Williamsport.
The complex – featuring a pair of stadiums and three other fields, concession stands, dormitories and a hall of fame – literally springs up at the edge of a small-town street. The Little League World Series was moved there from Williamsport in 1959.
Beyond the outfield wall in Lamade Stadium, the older of the two fields on which series games are played, there is a double-humped incline. Fans generally perch with blankets and folding chairs on the lower slope, but the upper belongs to youngsters, who enjoy sliding down the rise on folded up cardboard boxes.
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