Jack and Brigitte Cornett's Little League World Series Blog

2007-08-15T18:33:00Z

Wednesday, August 15, 2:13 p..m.

Being a parent of a member of the Hamilton West Side Little League 12-year-old All-Stars baseball team has been physically exhausting, nerve wracking, financially draining, sleep depriving, stomach churning, and travel disorienting.

I heartily recommend the experience.

After John and his teammates got the final out Saturday night in their 6-1 victory over Indiana in the Great Lakes Regional Championship game televised nationwide live on ESPN, we returned home Sunday, in time to rest a couple hours before heading for practice at West Side. Parents and players did interviews w/ the media, the team managed to get in some batting practice, and we were briefed on Williamsport info by Coach Tim Nichting and WSLL president, Jerry Lauer.

Monday it was back to my law office and a mountain of messages, including congratulations from some former LL teammates of my own back in the '60's, some of whom I had not heard from in forty years.

Add this comment from a reporter to my list of "Things I Never Thought I'd Be Asked": "Could we film you Wednesday night packing your luggage for the trip to Williamsport?"

The whole experience has been surreal, like being trapped in a Salvatore Dali painting.

Kyle Cotcamp's mom, Tashia, said that after he was the winning pitcher in Saturday night's game on ESPN, he got 56 request on his MySpace page to be added as friends.

We all met in the parking lot at West Side at 3:00 a.m. Tuesday, where the kids and coaches boarded a motor coach that took them away--with a Hamilton Police and Fire escort--to the airport in Indianapolis to fly to Philadelphia to catch another bus to Williamsport. And then they settled in before practicing.

Brigitte and I will be leaving early Thursday morning for the 495-mile drive. I can't wait.

Jack

Wednesday, August 15, 5:17 p.m.

I had a court hearing this afternoon in Butler County Domestic Relations Court. When I returned to my office I had received the following note from my friend, Dan C.:

"Jack, Had occasion to watch Saturday game. The quality of talent and maturity level was very impressive. Your boy [John] was great and I know how proud you must be. Enjoy the ride! (Obviously athletic prowess is transmitted through the maternal genes!)"

Thursday morning, August 16, 7:00 a.m.

John called just after 10:00 p.m. last night on a borrowed cell phone from

the dorm in Williamsport. Each player got 3 new bats from 3 different manufacturers today, plus gloves, shoes, batting gloves, etc. They practiced on the diamond and in the cages. They are staying next door to the team from the Netherlands. There was a lot of chatter among his teammates in the background as they relaxed before bed.

John's bunk bed partner for the World Series is Jimmy Joe Reed, who is lamenting that of the 3,000+ songs on John's iPod "Fergielicious" isn't one of them.

I asked John if there was anything he needed us to bring w/ us for him.

"Loops," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"Loops--additional music loops."

I had installed the new GarageBand '08 on his Powerbook laptop late Monday night so that it would be ready when the team left on the motorcoach from WSLL for the Indianapolis airport Tuesday at 3:30 a.m. He and a couple of the guys have been composing music on his computer in the dorm and he needs more loops.

Did I mention that when I played Little League we used wooden bats? Nevermind.

And did I mention how great it is to hear your favorite superstar, national TV figure, and has his own baseball card say, "I love you."

Jack

Thursday night, August 16, 10:45 p.m.

Got up at 6:00 a.m. to discover John's photo on the front page of the Hamilton Journal-News. Again. This time he's in the batting cage with

Michal Flannery and Anthony Cline, sporting those new bats and helmets, monogrammed with their respective numbers, in their new Great Lakes colors, of course.

We hit the road, trusting my own sense of geography, not MapQuest's (questionable). Drove past Fairborn, where the WSLL All-Stars played their first weekend tournament only a few days after being chosen for the team. They played 6 games in 2 days against 6 other All-Star teams, going undefeated and outscoring their opponents 107-1. That, my friends, was a good sign.

Brigitte and I stopped for lunch at the same Red Robin in North Canton which Tyler Richards' family and ours had eaten during the Ohio state championship tournament three weeks ago.

Another good sign?

Stuck in traffic on I-80 East just beyond the State College exit, I got a call from my fellow former Edgewood Youth Baseball coach, Doug Pyle, father of John and Michal's fellow classmate, Ryan. He wished us good luck and said he would check out the Blog. "Don't forget to mention that I'm your hero," Doug suggested.

We mushed on to Williamsport on the Susquehanna River and went directly to the Little League complex. We parked high above Lamade Stadium and I must say the view back down to the immaculately groomed park and the mountains in the background takes your breath away. Imagine this: It has seating in the stands and on the famous hill beyond the outfield fence for 45,000 people. For Little League. In a town with a population of 50,000.

We hustled from there downtown to catch the 2007 Grand Slam Parade. 111 entries included Grand Marshall Carlton Fisk of the "waving it fair" home run to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series game for the Boston Red Sox against the Cincinnati Reds, PA Governor Ed Rendell, marching bands, various and sundry local politicians, and most imortantly, huge flatbed trucks, each of which carried to LL teams--one American and one

International. Our Great Lakes/Ohio/Hamilton West Side team was paired with the team from Taipei. Our opponent in Friday's 2:00 p.m. contest, New England/Massachusetts/Walpole passed by paired with Tokyo, Japan.

At the end of the parade route, local kids descended on all of the players, foreign and domestic, with brand new shiny white baseballs, begging for autographs, while LL officials whisked the players onto waiting buses for transport back to the dorms inside the security intensive LL complex.

Now it's time for a shower and bed and to get ready for tomorrow's 9:30 a.m. parent orientation, the Noon opening ceremony, and the first game of World Series: Great Lakes vs. New England.

Jack

Friday, August 17, early morning:

Up at 6:00, shave, shower and downstairs for breakfast, where everything is buzzing, the kids are on the front page of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. A feature was shown on ABC's Good Morning America. A guy from Minnesota looks at the articles on each team and asks me, "Did you guys really beat a team in the Distric Tournament 41-0?" In Williamsport, PA it is Little League baseball 24/7, at least during the World Series.

I emailed John w/ a quote from one of his favorite AC/DC songs: "It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll!"

Which reminds me, last Sunday on the Jelly Pudding show on 92.5 they dedicated two songs to the Hamilton West Side All-Stars: "Wild Child" by the Doors and "Bop Till You Drop" by the Ramones.

Now it's off to the stadium for the Parents Orientation.

Jack

Friday, August 17th, night:

All sports are cornucopias of cliches. Baseball in particular is a fecund treasure trove of labyrinthian logistics, serpentine strategies, arcane terminology, discombobulated data, and algorhythmic anecdotes. Such as:

It is a game of inches. It's never over till it's over. Every pitch counts.

For someone tuning in to ESPN this afternoon to watch Great Lakes play New England in hopes of enjoying a spirited Little League World Series game, you hit the jackpot. But if you were the parent of the player who hit a ball 226 feet to a centerfield fence that is 225 feet from home plate, with the count 0 and 2 and 2 outs in the bottom of the last inning with the tying run on third base and it apparently being a walk-off, game-winning home run, only to see the Massachusett's CF make a great catch reaching over the fence, well, it is an experience that defies a lifetime of playing, coaching, and marinating in baseball minutiae.

It is hard to describe the swing in emotion within oneself, let alone in a baseball stadium of thousands of spectators and millions more watching on national television, where elation and despair swing from one side to the other like the warp of woofers with the twist of a stereo dial.

But, there it is. The ensuing feeling was not one of disappointment,

sadness, devastation. Nor was it resignation. It, oddly, was almost a feeling of peace, of acceptance, of concern for my child's perception of an immediate and stunning event. Knowing that John and his teammates must, within a mere 24 hours take on a hungry team of Georgians bound and determined to further exacerbate their just-bruised psyches. W/ the sound and fury that turned a virgin record of 14-0 into 14-1, and made the solar system seem topsy turvy, came the realization that they must regroup, rededicate themselves to tomorrow's game.

Here's another cliche: As parents, we all hope, or at least we proclaim, that we want our children to play sports because it builds character. Now we can see. Tomorrow night's 8:00 p.m. game against Georgia is the perfect opportunity for John and his Hamilton West Side Little League team to come back, compete, prevail.

Here's another one: Hope springs eternal. And if that's not what Little League is all about, what is?

Jack

Sunday, August 19, 1:00 a.m.
What a difference a day makes. Settled in back at the Best Western, we have just witnessed a remarkable lesson in the resiliency of 12 year olds. Our Hamilton WSLL All-Stars have just rebounded from their heartbreaking loss to New England on Friday to defeat a highly touted team from Warner Robins, Georgia, which yesterday crushed the Northwest Region champions, Oregon. We play Oregon on Monday.

Brigitte and I were sitting at lunch at the Bullfrog Microbrewery in downtown Williamsport around 1:00 p.m. when Kyle Cotcamp's family came in. We had planned to venture back over to the ballpark to watch the team practice at 2:00, but they informed us that Kyle and Tyler Richards

had informed their parents that none of the guys wanted their parents there. They wanted to focus on baseball and preparation for their must-win game tonight. Needless to say, we abided by their collective wish. This was oracular in my mind, a sign from some dugout "philosophe".

Sitting next to Tyler's dad, Jim Richards in the front rows reserved for the "VIPs", i.e., parents, siblings, and grandparents of the players, he confided to me that he had had a vision of his own in a dream last night concerning tonight's game w/ GA. Let me just say that it involved a Georgia bulldog w/ a buckeye lodged...well, you get the idea.

Two hours later, our hometown heroes marched off the battlefield 10-2 victors over the subdued Southeastern Region champions.

Player and parent interviews followed before getting a chance to see our kids in a tent just inside the secured LL compound called "the Grove."

John has a long splinter under his right index fingernail, and a severely sore throat. This is why God invented Moms.

Jennifer Green, Brandon's mother, mentioned that when the skies opened just prior to yesterday's game and the field was being pelted by hail the size of peanut shells, that an usher inside Volunteer Stadium said, "It NEVER hails in Williamsport!" And one of the Great Lakes contigent replied, "Hamilton will win the Little League World Series when it hails in Williamsport."

Some say New York is the city that never sleeps. Others say Las Vegas. Me? I say Williamsport, PA. I haven't been able to sleep since we got here, and a know for a fact I'm not the only parent who can say that.

Tomorrow is an off-day for the team, but it's up and at 'em, with a mandatory parents' meeting at 9:00 a.m. Then a Hamilton parents and supporters cookout at 2:00. And for the team: their usual leisurely day off routine--3 practices wedged between interviews, photo ops, and obliging multitude autograph seekers. But hey, they practiced 3 times today--and then went out and beat Georgia.

Jack

Sunday, August 19th, 7:00 a.m.

Showered, shaved, dressed, breakfasted, and watched on ESPN--for the millionth time--John getting his walk-off home run taken away from him, this time on a big screen TV in the breakfast room w/ various fans from home as well as from Coon Rapids, Minnesota accompanying their Midwest Regional team. This time, though, it included a brief interview w/ John from just prior to last night's game vs. Georgia.

The reporter asked John "What would you tell the kid from MA if you talked to him?"

John answered, "I'd tell him, 'nice catch and I wish you hadn't caught it.'"

Watching w/ me, WSLL president, Jerry Lauer, said, "Well, that just about says it all."

Earlier, Tim Reed, Jimmy Joe's dad, said, "I've seen that replay of John getting robbed repeatedly and the outcome never changes."

The mandatory meeting at the ballpark this morning is about the Japanese player who is quarantined w/ measles. Apparently every player must provide proof of vaccination by sometime tomorrow or undergo a blood test. I'm told that two of the Asian teams' kids were vaccinated yesterday.

The front page story in today's Williamsport Sun-Gazette says the visitors to the LL World Series will pump 16.6 million dollars into the local economy during the 10 days of the tournament.

Jack

Monday morning, August 20, 8:00 a.m.

Well, well, well. W/ Lake Oswego, Oregon's 1-0 win over Walpole, MASS last night, Pool A has four teams tied at 1-1. Get your Rand McNally, fire up Google Earth, call a circuit board engineer. A Oujia board might help. Boiled down to "the story so far" it is thus: MA beat OH; OH beat GA; GA beat OR; OR beat MA.

Got milk?

The past may be prologue, but the view from here is clear: Win and you're in, lose and you cruise. It's a mathematical certainty now that two teams will end pool play 2-1 and advance, and two teams will end up 1-2 and hear the school bell ringing back home.

The only question for the winners is who will get the top seed, and that equation is indeed complicated.

In the meantime, The Hamilton West Siders practiced their usual 3 times yesterday--on their "day off." The families of 7 players--John, Kyle Cotcamp, Tyler Richards, Cody Lehman, Jimmy Joe Reed, Brandon Green, and Derrick Best--did manage them away for a seafood feast at their requested restaurant. Can you say, "Red Lobster, party of 40?"

Today, Subway is sponsoring a lunch get together at the ballpark for the players and their families of all 8 international and all 8 U.S. teams under a huge tent. MVP Ryan Howard will be there to meet and greet the kids, as well as Jerald--the guy who turned a diet of submarine sandwiches into a career.

The weather forcast is for rain. We're scheduled to play Oregon at 3:00 p.m. on ESPN in a make-or-break game. It comes down to this.

But not entirely. Lots of parents, Brigitte and I included, dream of their baseball-playing offspring playing in the Little League World Series. But how many ever get the chance to see a newspaper article (Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/19/07) about their child which is headlined, "Cornett Not One Inch Short On Character."

Jack

Monday August 20, 9:45 a.m.

Brigitte just received a fax from Pediatric Associates of Hamilton containing John immunization records. All of the players must provide them today due to the Japanese player contracting measles. If they can't produce their shots records they must either (a) be re-immunized, or (b) have a blood test to determine if they have measles. The teams from Japan and Taiwan were immunized on Saturday.

At the parents meeting Sunday morning when we were informed of all this, the manager of the Netherlands' team was vociferous in opposing this procedure. First, he argued, w/ the time difference to Europe possible problems w/ communication w/ their Dutch physicians, he was not at all sure that he could obtain the medical records of all of his players, who, unlike the American teams which are made up of All-Stars from local Little League chapters, theirs come from all around the country. Second, he was concerned w/ how a re-immunization in Williamsport might react to the immuniztion drug which was administered in Holland. Third, the Little League medical director here was insisting that the shot must be given in "the child's non-dominant arm," whereas in Holland it is given in the buttocks. The offshoot being that any detrimental side effects would be more pronounced in a player's arm, even the non-dominant one, than in the rear end.

These are things you don't normally anticipate when you think about your son playing in the Little League World Series. I suggested to the Dutch coach that he insist on the LL physician speaking directly w/ one of the doctors back in the Netherlands while at the same time trying to get their proof of immunizations transmitted.

The sky is gray and spitting. Everyone in the crowded breakfast room this morning was more interested in tuning the big TV to the Weather Channel than to ESPN.

Jack

Saturday, August 25, morning

Welcome back my friends to the show that never...well, it hasn't ended yet, anyway.

After being eliminated from the World Series on Tuesday by Lake Oswego, Oregon in a game played in the rain w/ a game-time temperature of 50 degrees (one commentator said the Williamsport weather was more customary in OR than in SW Ohio) the team, though disappointed, showed an immediate and palpable sense of relief.

The parents got comfort our heroes in the tent on the hill by the dorm. There were tears and disbelief, but also the knowledge that they had been one of eight teams from over 7,000 in the U.S. who had made it to the summit of LL baseball. The entourage of about 50 drove to Charlie Brown's steakhouse for a West Side sponsored meal. The rain became a downpour and when the GA-MA game was suspended, ESPN--wouldn't you know it--replayed the Hamilton, OH vs. New England game. A group of us stood in the bar area and watched for what seemed like the zillionth time as John crushed the would-be game winner over the centerfield wall only to see the Walpole kid leap and come down w/ it yet again. We found out after that game that they had shown it on the big screen at Fenway Park in Boston between games of a Red Sox doubleheader.

Before we left the restaurant, I asked Diane Reed, Jimmy Joe's mother, if there was anything she wanted me to put in this blog and she said, "Just let everyone know that it was a wonderful ride, and we're all thankful."

The team elected to take a chartered bus home from the World Series on Thursday. That will give them another day in Williamsport, where they can sign autographs for cute girls--these guys draw them like moths to a candle flame, believe me--and just be 12 year olds.

Brigitte and I decided to break the 500 mile drive into two days, so we stayed Wednesday night in Cleveland. We had dinner at Fire on Shaker Square. I was wearing a Great Lakes/Hamilton, Ohio shirt and people in the restaurant were still commenting on "the homer/the catch". Thursday morning we visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to see the special "Break on Through: The Doors 40th Anniversary" exhibit, where Brigitte bought John three commemorative pins to add to the ones he obtained trading at the World Series.

We were home in plenty of time to unload the car and get to WSLL park, where at 6:00, police sirens wailing, the team arrived to a reception of a couple hundred people, plus TV crews, newspaper reporters, and community representatives. The Third Street Tap and Grill hosted the players and their families afterward for dinner. And that just begins the still-developing itinerary. It already includes in the next several days being feted at Hooters, a Grand Opening at Sonic, a parade in Hamilton on Sunday at noon, two high schools football games recognitions, Grand Marshalls at a homecoming, an on field batting practice session at Great American Ball Park and Reds game, a radio interview program at McDonald's, and more. There is talk of the kids appearing in a TV commercial.

Sunday the Hamilton Journal-News will publish a special tabloid on the team and their entire journey, including baseball trading cards of each player.

School starts next week. But is summer really over?

Not yet.

Jack

Parents of Hamilton Little Leaguers

Jack and Brigitte Cornett's Little League World Series Blog

Wednesday, August 15, 5:17 p.m.