Council Rock Newtown Little League in the Little League World Series
It's mid-August in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The late summer weather is perfect for little league baseball. And wouldn't you know it, a team from my old little league made it into the series.
For those of you who are not famliar with the Little League World Series, let me give you a little background information. First of all, it is an international tournament, so quite a few countries participate. Players must be between the ages of 10 and 12.
The Little League World Series consists of 20 teams: 10 from the United States, and 10 from other countries. The U.S. and international teams play in separate brackets, in a double-elimination format. In the final game, the US winner and the International winner play head to head to determine the Little League World Series champion.
In order to get to the tournament, each country conducts a localized tournament to determine their best team. In the US, individual teams compete within each state, and the winner goes on to play against other state champions in order to determine the regional champion. There are 10 regions in the US, such as the Mid-Atlantic region, the Southeast region, and the West region.
Internationally, there are also 10 regions. Most of the international regions consist of a team from only one country, such as Australia, Japan, and Mexico. Others are true regional competitions, where the winner of an inter-country tournament represents that region at the World Series. International regions include the Caribbean region, the Asia-Pacific region, among others.
So Council Rock Newtown, the team that I played for 56 years ago, made it into the LLWS this year. They played four games, winning two and losing two. The second loss booted them out of the tournament, unfortunately. Still, they played well for the most part, especially their defense.
Watching this team from Newtown, which is around 5 miles from my parents' house, brought back memories. The year was 1967. Our team, the Falcons, had the best record in the league that year with a record of 20-1. Because of that, a few of us were chosen for the all-star team.
All Stars from each team in the Council Rock Little League were chosen, and we played in the tournament to get to the Little League World Series. I was the catcher on that team. We played our first game at home - at Lownes Field in Newtown - against Pennsbury. I remember their players laughing at our little ballpark, bragging they would hit multiple home runs. Well, it did not turn out as they expected.
We beat them soundly. My memory is not solid on this but I think the Mr. Palardy's son Rich pitched, and he pitched very well. I had a nice liner off the left field fence that only went for a single because the runner at second based stopped. The home crowd was elated that we won.
The next game was an early evening game on the road at Nashaminy. This next level was a big jump. It was at a proper stadium with bleachers and a booth behind the plate to transmit the game over the radio waves. A bit intimidating.
By the 5th inning it was almost dark, and so they turned the stadium lights on. There was no score. That fateful inning Nashminy got a runner to third. A slider came to the plate, and I muffed it. It went to the backstop, and the runner scored. That was the only run of the game.
Yeah, I felt a little bad about the passed ball because it cost us the game. But watching the games this week, what I noticed was that the catchers on the final 20 teams are not that much better than I was! I noticed that there are usually a couple of passed balls per game. Do I feel vindicated? Relieved? A bit! Funny though, after the game we had ice cream, and after it was all good.
Flash Card Drill
- The team was elated after their victory. チームは勝利の後、非常に嬉しかった。
- She felt elated when she saw her friends. 彼女は友達を見たとき、非常に嬉しいと感じた。
- It's all good. Thanks for asking. 全ていいよ。質問してくれてありがとう。
- How's work? It's all good. Especially since I got a raise. 仕事はどう？いいよ。特に昇給したのでね。
- The new school was intimidating on the first day. 新しい学校は初日には威圧的だった。
- She found the task intimidating but completed it. 彼女はその作業を威圧的だと感じたが、それを終えた。
- His passed ball in the ninth inning was the turning point in the game. ９回裏のパスボールが試合のターニングポイントとなった。
- The catcher regretted the passed ball. キャッチャーはそのパスボールを後悔した。
- The player muffed the catch and could not hold onto the ball. 選手はキャッチを失敗し、ボールを持つことができなかった。
- She muffed an easy play that cost the game. 彼女は簡単なプレーを失敗し、それが試合を失わせた。
- He felt vindicated after the evidence was presented. 彼は証拠が提示された後、晴らされたと感じた。
- After the review, she felt vindicated of all accusations. 見直しの後、彼女はすべての非難から晴らされたと感じた。
