It could have been worse for Paseo Verde kids

By Ron Kantowski

Monday, Aug. 11, 2008 | 3:15 p.m.

NOW:

Losing 4-3 in the Western Region championship game with a trip to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., riding on the outcome had to be the disappointment of a young lifetime for the Paseo Verde Little League team from Henderson.

But at least the local kids didn't lose an eye in San Bernardino.

One of the things that San Bernardino is famous for is that's where Sammy Davis Jr. was treated when lost his left eye in an automobile accident in 1954 on a return trip from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

The Rolling Stones also played their first U.S. concert in San Bernardino, at the Swing Auditorium on June 5, 1964.

Not that any of that matters to the Henderson kids. They probably just wish the team from Waipio, Hawaii, would get off their cloud.

----- In case you're wondering, Waipio is a town of 11,672 residents situated in Honolulu County. Waipio means "curved water'' in Hawaiian. The entire town consists of 1.2 square miles.

----- As a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, one of the highlights of my San Bernardino trip was seeing several people in the grandstands sporting Ken Hubbs League T-shirts. Hubbs, from nearby Colton, Calif., played in the 1954 Little League World Series with his hometown team and was the 1962 National League Rookie of the Year for the Cubs. He played just one more season before being killed in a light plane crash near Provo, Utah, before the 1964 season. Pall bearers at his funeral included Cubs greats Ernie Banks and Ron Santo.

----- Al Houghton Stadium, which was purpose built to host the Little League regional tournament in 1971, has held up well. It even has real dugouts that stretch from home plate to midway down the outfield foul lines, complete with bullpens for pitchers to warm up. The stadium was used in the filming of "The Perfect Game" about a team from Monterrey, Mexico, that traveled without shoes to Williamsport in 1957 and became the first non-U.S. team to win the Little League World Series.

----- But the 49 decorative concrete baseballs outside the stadium were put there for a purpose said Jim Gerstenslager, the Little League region director. "I put those in because I was having trouble at night with kids coming and jumping the curbs with their cars and doing donuts and messing up my parking lot," he told the Riverside Press-Enterprise, proving that some things never change.

----- With ESPN calling the shots, deciding who could get on the field and who had to wait, the game smacked of a Major League Baseball production -- except that it wasn't blacked out. But after the game, as they began packing up the cameras and lowering the cranes for the TV lights, a little girl was doing cartwheels on the hill just beyond the center field fence -- further proof that some things never change. And thank heaven for it.

----- Two more good things about the Little League West Regional: They didn't charge to get in (you should have seen how many older baseball fans, with no rooting interests in the teams, turned out). And nobody chattered "Hey batter, hey batter, suh-wing batter," like in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

----- The game didn't start on time, and nobody seemed to know why. But then some somebody said they saw Eduardo Perez, who was doing the game for ESPN2, standing near the concession stand with a funnel cake the size of the on-deck circle, and that probably explained it.

THEN:

Like most kids who were born during the Baby Boom era, or slightly after, I played Little League baseball. But what I remember most about those games was choosing up sides after they were over and playing without grown-up supervision until it got dark.

Then we went home with giant grass stains on our uniform pants.