Larry Brown Sports

Members of Petaluma Little League’s All-Star team that played in the Little League World Series got to meet the Oakland A’s on Friday prior to the team’s game against the Red Sox.

Petaluma came within a game of reaching the Little League World Series championship game, and they had the support of the A’s along the way. The A’s players would frequently watch Petaluma’s games from their clubhouse TV.

Outfielder/DH Johnny Gomes once played for Petaluma Little League in Northern California and even helped pay for the team’s trip to Williamsport, Pa. He wore the team’s T-shirt before the game, and he planned to give them some A’s gear.

The Little League players got to shag some balls during batting practice and even play catch on the big-league field. What’s crazy is that the A’s players seemed just as excited to meet the little leaguers as the youngsters were to meet the pros.

The A’s ended up winning the game 20-2 and pounding 19 hits. Maybe the Petaluma players were their lucky charm.

Playing for a berth in the Little League World Series is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Parents know how rare that opportunity is for their children, so many of them go to great lengths to make sure they don’t miss a moment of the action. However, few have to make the same sacrifice that Billie Ann Tomei has made.

According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat (via CBS San Francisco), Billie Ann is the mother of Cole and wife of Petaluma National all-stars coach Trevor Tomei. She is an office manager for a CPA, and when she asked her boss if she could take time off to travel to the West Regional tournament in San Bernardino, he was not very understanding.

“(My boss) wouldn’t let me take time off,” Tomei explained. “He told me, ‘If you go, write yourself your last check.’ So I wrote myself my last check.”

Parents have to juggle a number of issues when traveling with their son’s teams — including travel arrangements and leaving other children at home who are in school — but the fact that a mother had to make that type of decision just to watch her son compete is pretty disappointing.

Petaluma went on to lose to Tennessee in the U.S. Championship game, but I would imagine Tomei does not regret her decision. Special moments at the Little League World Series like this one are not something you want to miss out on as a parent. Losing her job to witness a once in a lifetime opportunity for her son is likely a decision Tomei is at peace with.

Photo via petalumanational.org

Whether the Little League World Series interest you or not, you have to admit the fact that kids who are 12 and 13 years old can make plays like the one you see above is amazing. During Friday’s first-round game between Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, center fielder Thomas Neal made an incredible diving catch that would be a top play on Sportscenter even if a Major Leaguer had made it. Neal went completely horizontal to preserve a 10-8 lead in the third inning of a game where runs were not exactly a rare commodity.

Amazing catches like this one that Josh Reddick made or this one that Gregor Blanco came down with are rare in the MLB, let alone at the Little League Level. The difference is the big leaguers get paid to make incredible plays. Little Leaguers lay out for the love of the game and nothing more.

H/T Big League Stew

Phillip Johnson, the manager of the 2011 Warner Robins American Little League team, led his youngsters on a memorable run in Williamsport at the Little League World Series in 2011. Unfortunately, he will not be able to do the same in 2012 because of a lapse in judgment. According to the Telegraph in Georgia, Johnson has been banned from the 2012 tournament for having alcohol at the Williamsport complex during the 2011 tournament.

Assuming he is being truthful, the toughest part about the situation is that Johnson never consumed nor opened any of the alcohol. In fact, he says a parent gave it to him as a gift and he threw it away.

“Little League found out, and obviously I made a bad decision,” Johnson said Tuesday. “I admitted it, and I regret it.”

Rules are rules, and alcohol is not allowed on the Williamsport grounds during the LLWS for obvious reasons. If the story is true, I can imagine the parent who gave Johnson the alcohol feels worse than anyone. He or she was trying to make a nice gesture and the results were unfortunate.

If it were me and I received a year-long suspension despite never having even taken a sip of the alcohol I was given, I’d be rummaging through the trash to get it back. Assuming it was something Johnson likes, he could at least save it and enjoy it from his couch at home during the 2012 LLWS.

Thanks to Prep Rally for passing the story along
Photo credit: Chris Gardner-US PRESSWIRE

The roar of the crowd. The anticipation of a game-changing play. The elation of victory. These were all things I knew nothing about after a truncated and disconsolate career in the game of baseball, a career which drove me to a Big League Chew addiction and left my batting average at just a notch below my weight, or IQ, depending on whether I was in a slump or not.

Baseball memories are always ingrained in young athletes. I meant that figuratively, by the way, not like the time I fielded a line drive off my jaw. The reward for that was no solid food for several weeks and, to this day, persistent questions of why I have a faded Rawlings tattoo in close proximity to my right ear.

Like any other uncoordinated urchin, I, too, remember the first time I tried to make an eye-popping catch only to land in an uncoordinated flop, missing the ball by no less than 5 feet and soon realizing that batting practice foul balls don’t count as outs once the game starts. And, yes, everyone remembers their initial time getting to first base, as well as the first time it happens in a game (a hit, that is). Of course, for me, I accomplished both after getting beaned in the head with a piece of cowhide.

Little League Baseball is an important part in a child’s life. (I copied and pasted that from some website, FYI.) The motto of the organization is courage, character, and loyalty. I presumably have stumbled upon the reason why I never flourished at this level. Where else would one expect such a spectacle to be staged but in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, a 30,000-person town once known as “The Lumber Capital of the World,” presumably because of its liveliness. Adding to the town’s pizzazz is its wet/dry vacuum and wire rope manufacturing industries, and it being one of the largest destinations for Bavarian tourists in Pennsylvania.

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Seems like we come to this point every single year. Why on Earth is the Little League World Series shown on TV? Someone please explain to me why any of us (outside of friends, classmates, and family) should actually care about a bunch of 11 and 12-year-olds playing baseball? Why are regional rounds now televised? Why are their scores and highlights filling up my shows (other than because they’re ESPN properties)? I don’t want to watch these kids play just because it’s the “Little League World Series” any more than I would want to go down to West LA Little League on my free time to go watch some 11 and 12-year-olds throw the ball around. The Little League World Series has been good for three things and three things only: Danny Almonte, fat Sean Burroughs, and Derek Bell still having bags under his eyes at age 12. Oh yeah, it’s also been good for the following lesson in excellent sportsmanship, brought to you by our friends from Deadspin. This kid must have learned from Brad Penny how to pout:

Remind me again why I’m supposed to be interested in this? Does ESPN realize they’re making this kid suicidal? Do they enjoy televising tears on the faces of 11-year-old Japanese kids? I guess so.