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World Champs! West O'ahu takes thriller series West O'ahu won the Little League world championship for ages 11-12 in South Williamsport, Pa. Read about their journey through the Little League World Series, view video and photo galleries, and share your congratulations to the team. |
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
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The O'ahu All-Stars had already clinched the Cal Ripken 12-and-under World Series championship and their coaches were watching a West O'ahu Little League game at Williamsport, Pa., on a big-screen television from their Aberdeen, Md., hotel, when company arrived.
"Cal Ripken officials were surprised after our championship game that there was another team on O'ahu playing in the Little League World Series," O'ahu All-Stars assistant coach Keith Oda said. "They were so blown away by that."
The All-Stars are made up of players from two ('Aiea and Kaimuki) of O'ahu's eight Cal Ripken League teams, Oda said.
The Ripken champs and the Hawaii Warriors, who won the Continental Amateur Baseball Association's 9-and-under World Series in Charles City, Iowa, will join Little League world champion West O'ahu in Monday's city parade on Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki, from Fort DeRussy to Queen's Beach, 5 to 6:30 p.m.
The West O'ahu team, grand marshals of the parade, coaches and players' parents will be brought to Fort DeRussy on a trolley motorcade by way of surface streets, said Mayor Mufi Hannemann. The motorcade leaves 'Ewa at 3 p.m.
Oda, for one, has no beef with the attention given to the West O'ahu team.
"We understand recognition goes hand in hand with media coverage," Oda said, referring to live television coverage of West O'ahu's World Series tournament games. "We don't feel it lessens our accomplishments at all. In fact, if they didn't win it, we'd be forgotten by now.
"Of course, we would have liked the state of Hawai'i to have gotten a chance to see our kids on TV, too," Oda added.
Unlike the World Series at Williamsport for boys 11-12, Little League's other world series tournaments for older boys as well as tournaments for other youth baseball organizations such as Protect Our Nation's Youth (PONY), Cal Ripken, Babe Ruth, Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), American Legion and Continental Amateur Baseball Association (CABA) do not have live TV coverage.
Each summer, Hawai'i is represented in most of those age-group tournaments as well as one in Cooperstown, N.Y., and various goodwill tournaments on the mainland and in foreign countries. At one point this summer, O'ahu qualified six teams for World Series play in youth baseball tournaments — including the Mililani team in the PONY Pony-13 Division (age 13) — with Pearl City competing for Little League Juniors (13-14) and Seniors (15-16) world championships in Taylor, Mich., and Bangor, Maine, and Punahou vying for the Babe Ruth 13-15 crown in Abbeville, La.
The world champions are being honored in Waikiki because "we wanted to give visitors as well as local people an opportunity to congratulate them," Hannemann said.
The city is extending Saturday and Sunday's Sunset on the Beach in Waikiki through Monday. The "Parade of Baseball Champions" will be capped with West O'ahu's thrilling victory over Curacao being shown on the 30-foot Sunset on the Beach screen at 7:05 p.m.
Limited edition commemorative "World Champs!" T-shirts will be made available by The Advertiser at Monday's parade for $12 each, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the 'Ewa Beach Little League World Series champions.
Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Correction: At one point this summer, O'ahu qualified six teams for World Series play in youth baseball tournaments. A previous version of this story contained other information.
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