National champs

Friday, Aug. 29, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

The Southern Nevada Titans lived up to their name Wednesday in Shelby, N.C., where American Legion baseball teams that had won regional championships gathered for their World Series.

As powerful as their name implies, the Titans went undefeated to take the national title.

So who are these Titans? They are known during the school year as the Bishop Gorman Gaels, who won a third straight Nevada high school championship this spring for their school in Las Vegas.

American Legion baseball, as anyone who ever played it will tell you, is about two things: sportsmanship and competition. And the competition is intense, pitting teams with the best high school players in the country against each other during summers.

Members and coaches of 6,000 teams across the country all began their summer hoping for the opportunity to compete in Shelby. Eight teams, representing eight regions, got that opportunity. And the Las Vegas American Legion Post 76 team, the Titans, won the championship game 5-1 over a team from Pasco, Wash.

The American Legion World Series has been played since 1926, and this is the first time it has ever been won by a team from Southern Nevada.

We look upon this as a fantastic accomplishment. Las Vegas Sun sports columnist Ron Kantowski wrote Thursday that the team should be saluted with a parade on the Las Vegas Strip.

And why not? The players and coaches invested a lot of talent, time, dedication and hard work into their championship season. They deserve the recognition.

We hope congratulations for this team pour in from businesses and individuals throughout Southern Nevada.