The sluggers of the Green Machine, the mighty 11- to 13-year-olds of Chula Vista's Park View Little League, head to South Williamsport, Pa., this week with a chance to merely bring home the first national championship for a San Diego team since 1973.
There's some pressure to place on young shoulders, huh? Not really. While we all hope for the best for the squad that will now be labeled simply "West" in their upcoming games, they will come home as conquering heroes no matter what happens on the exalted ballfield back east. Both Oceanside and Rancho Buena Vista fell just short of winning it all in their 2000 and 2005 appearances and came home to raucous welcomes. Park View will, also.
I bring up the connection not to longingly look to pre-teens for championship salvation, but to point out the utter futility of being a sports fan around here. Not since San Diego State's volleyball team shocked the world by winning the NCAA volleyball crown 36 years ago has a local team gone all the way. The 1980s Sockers? Please. Indoor soccer was a novelty. The Gulls played minor league hockey, albeit mostly successfully. USD had a women's tennis national champion, but she was an individual and an Eastern European import for Chrissakes.
The Padres, the Chargers, the Aztecs, the Toreros. None of them have won a team title for that period covering nearly four decades. Some teams have at least come close. SDSU soccer made a national final and I think USD made a soccer final, too, or at least a Final Four. I think UCSD won Division III girls a couple times but I doubt if anyone noticed. It's been frustrating.
These kids from Chula Vista, who have rocket launchers for bats, have a chance to go the distance. With Little League, they could even make it an international championship, so much the better.
If they don't, no big. If they do, then the kid sitting next to you in sixth grade English class might be more accomplished than Tony Gwynn, Junior Seau or Marshall Faulk. How about that?
---
As of this writing, Stephen Strasburg of San Diego State has yet to sign a contract with the Washington Nationals. You can never really tell what's going on behind closed doors. I hope the kid went into his relationship with agent Scott Boros with his eyes open. One gets the impression that with Boros, you work for the agent, instead of the other way around. Some of the talk -- which could be just that -- is that Boros is pushing for some kind of fundamental change in how draftees are evaluated and valued by the baseball clubs. If I'm Strasburg, that's fine, but in the meantime, get me signed. I hope it happens.
---
The layoffs at The San Diego Union-Tribune are now cutting deeply into the sports department. Just last week, SDSU sports beat writer Mick McGrane was sent packing, joining former Padres writer Tom Krasovic and several high school writers.
Padres coverage has suffered terribly without Krasovic, who had a nose for what was not just newsworthy but also interesting to read. Now you can pick up the sports page and read the same news about the Friars players you saw the day before, and the day before that. Not good.
I feel better about the Aztecs coverage. It appears Brent Schrotenboer is taking the spot, and he has a great record of investigative reporting. He, I hope, will give some needed direction to the coverage of the Aztecs. I also hope that with Brady Hoke throwing a virtual cloak of invisibility about his team, that he has the insight and energy to do the legwork to actually find the news instead of simply taking what's been handed to him.
No comments:
Post a Comment