Westport’s World Series Little Leaguers were back on ESPN today, not playing baseball but soaking up accolades for their Wiliamsport performance, especially the heart-stopping, come from behind victory over Washington.
The Westport Little League team took a day off from school to appear on ESPN’s SportsCenter. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) ESPN photo
At the invitation of ESPN, the 11 team members took a day off from school to drive to ESPN headquarters in Bristol with manager Tim Rogers. A caravan of five cars driven by parents left from Rogers’ driveway this morning for the scheduled 11:40 a.m. appearance on SportsCenter.
“They could make a movie about the way the Connecticut team came back,” said ESPN anchor Jay Crawford referring to the Aug. 18 9-7 win over Washington as he introduced the team.
Asked about that game, Rogers said: “It was amazing. These kids never wavered, stuck to it and didn’t try to get it back all at once. One base runner at a time. One pitch. One at bat. All the classic clichés, but that’s what they did.
“And then they started hitting, started getting a couple. It was getting more and more exciting, and they thought they could do it, and they just stuck with it and did it. It was an amazing game.”
Asked for the one memorable moment of the series, Rogers cited two—the comeback game against Washington and then Sunday’s consolation game against Mexico where another comeback effort failed and Westport lost 15-14.
“I looked around at my co-coaches and myself and we’re feeling nothing but stress,” the manager said. “You look up at the parents and you see faces and hands and everybody’s stressed like it’s life or death, and then you look at the boys and they’re just like ‘It’s a baseball game. Let’s keep having fun.’
“Never got down. Never tears. Always just having fun playing baseball, and I think they all taught us something in that process.”
Player Harry Azadian, who has expressed desire to become a SportsCenter anchor said the Williamsport experience “was all just like a dream.”
Asked if they were treated like rock stars on their return to school, Harry said: “Yeah. I think the first couple of days …. We got a lot of questions, stuff like that, like how was it in Williamsport, stuff like that, but I guess by the third day it died down a little bit. It’s still really cool.”
Click here to watch the ESPN interview.
Meanwhile, the New York Yankees announced they will honor Westport’s Little League team on Sunday, Sept. 8 before a game against the Red Sox and offered Westporters discount tickets.
To take advantage of the offer, visit http://www.yankees.com/westport and enter the promo code “Westport.”
