Waipi'o plays Ft. Worth today
By Matt Traub
Special to The Advertiser
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Forget that the kids from Waipi'o won its opening game in the Little League World Series.
The real fun came later that night — when they watched themselves on SportsCenter.
"It was awesome," Kurt Tanabe said. "You see Griffey and Sosa and those guys on ESPN. Then you see them say 'Kurt Tanabe' and 'Travis Jones.'
"It's like, 'Wow!' Seeing yourself on SportsCenter is a big thing."
After Jones' dramatic home run with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning on Friday, which gave Waipi'o a 3-2 win over Northeast Regional champions Worcester (Mass.), the victors spent yesterday hanging out, taking some batting practice and doing a couple hours worth of study hall.
Waipi'o, the Northwest Regional champs, will play Southwest Regional champs Westside Little League from Fort Worth, Texas, today at 9 a.m.
The game will be televised on ESPN.
Waipi'o will play Webb City, Mo., the Midwest Champions tomorrow at 2 p.m. to finish action in Pool A. The top two teams from the pool will advance to the U.S. semifinals on Wednesday and Thursday.
For the rest of this year's tournament, the team will be without Kelsey Outram, who suffered a broken right ring finger on Friday when he swung at an inside pitch and it hit his hand. A cast covered most of Outram's hand and extended down past his wrist.
"When I found out that it was broken, I was pretty (ticked)," Outram said.
Sanoe Aina — the only girl participating in this year's tournament — had a ball go off her wrist while taking batting practice yesterday, but it was iced down and she will be ready to play today.
The team has had a crazy ride since winning the Northwest Regionals.
After winning in San Bernardino, Calif., the team took a bus ride to Los Angeles, flew from LAX to Pittsburgh, then to Harrisburg — the state capitol — and finally to Williamsport around midnight on Tuesday.
The team has been housed in the International Grove, renowned throughout World Series history. The Grove is where each of the 16 participating teams stay in dormitory-style houses. The idea is to get the kids to mix together and learn different languages and customs, plus trade each pins that represent each Region.
"It's really cool because you learn other cultures, like Japanese and European," Tanabe said. "You learn what they do for fun and a couple words that you might learn along the way."
And even with the time change, chances to make new friends and different weather — coaches said there is more humidity in South Williamsport than back home — the biggest change has been the food.
"We can't have rice and the foods that we like," Aina said. "It's not that good up here."
"In the morning, you're accustomed to eating rice, eggs and bacon," coach Delbert Macanas said. "Here, you get french toast and something." (Later, the team got some rice, see diary.)
"This morning, we had toast and cereal," Macanas said, laughing. "Even I said, 'Is this breakfast for today?' "
The kids and coaches have also been away from home for a couple of weeks now, which leads to some family separation.
Aina's mother and grandmother, Laurie and Marcia, are in South Williamsport with her. But her father and brother, Ben and Samson, are watching from home.
Same with the Macanas family. While Delbert and son Dominic are at the World Series, Alice Macanas is at home with the couple's other children, Denna and Delbert Jr.
There are almost two dozen fans from Hawai'i to cheer the team on, but some of the kids and coaches admit they are homesick.
"I really miss my family," Outram said.
"Some people miss their mom and dad, or our school friends," Tanabe said. "I kind of miss home. I miss sleeping in my own bed."
Said Macanas: "I miss my wife. I miss my other two kids. I've only seen my youngest son for the last three weeks. It's been hard."
