Day Six – South Hosts the Lits!

The day started out as a treat for me, as Arnie (Arnoldas Ramanauskas) now the District Administrator for Lithuania and I called my normal time slot of 10:30 am major game at NMVLL. Arnie as you know did the Junior World Series in Taylor, Michigan three years ago. It has been a number of years since he and I have had the opportunity to call a game together, as when we are in Lithuania he is always the announcer, music player etc. during the tournament there. We had a great time, Yankees/Twins of NMVLL. The Yankees manager is a host for two of the Lit kids, so he had them in the dugout and we let them coach the bases, kids just loved it, truly a fun time for all.

The rest of the Lit kids hung for the most part at the fields all day as they know kids on every team by now, for the baseball junkies that they are, think it was heaven for them. Of course the snack bar would not take their money, so the candy, cheeseburger consumption had no bounds. The snack bar Mom was more than dismayed when she poured them a Pepsi with the normal amount of ice, and every Lit kid asked for less ice or no ice. “My God, they want straight Pepsi, yuck”.

Practice at three pm, with games against South Mission Viejo (SMVLL) at 4:30 and 7:00 pm. (video available on YouTube here) They played the Yankees first with the team giving each kid and VN a Under Armour type shirt with the Yankees logo on it, you know my feelings about the Yankees, pains me to think the Lits will be wearing Yankee stuff. Again defense did not help the pitchers, fly balls are an issue. Pitchers, Rapalas Petronis-Marius Balandis-Vykintas Kaziulis, all pitched very well, but the Yankees won 8-5.

As they are introduced before the second game, they are given a gift bag with SMVLL t-shirt, crackerjack, peanuts etc. kids loved it. Nomeda is given a special bag with a pink shirt in it, she wears pink sleeves under her uniform shirt always. Justinas Sabalys threw an absolute gem of a game, he was focused, hitting his spots and threw 85 pitches thru the 6th inning with two outs, Evaldas Grinys came in as the closer, threw three pitches, Lits win 5-2, over the Rockies. The second game continues to be when the Lits play solid ball, maybe because it is dark, it is colder than the first game, who knows, but they play solid ball every second game of a doubleheader so far.

Justinas Sabalys not only threw a gem, but hit a ball that went off the top of the fence and bounced back in, missed a home run by an inch at most. Nomeda again pulled off the slap hit, did not strike out at all today. Little Pupininkas again had three walks. The youngest Ed of the family of Eds, hit the ball very hard, pretty sure he had three hits today.

You will remember Nolan Adair who was on the team from here two years ago that went over to Lit. He was the plate umpire on the first game, 1st base on the second game, and sang God Bless America before the start of the second game. He is fast becoming one of the top youth umpires in my district and he can belt out a song, proud of the kid. Ana and Egilides were announced during the game as being married a few days ago in Vegas, announcer asked for a standing O for them, of course entire crowd came to their feet, thunderous applause. Both of them turned beet red, waived to the crowd, then both look at me and wagged their fingers, I of course am roaring which just made their embarrassment worse. Hey if you can’t have fun, what’s the point.

SMV did a tremendous job hosting the the Lits, besides the afore mentioned gifts and Nolan singing, they had a sister of one of the Yankees players sing the national anthem, she nailed it, spaghetti dinner between games and pizza after the second game. The kids will be ten pounds heavier when the return home. The Mayor threw out the first pitch, truly was high and outside, but he received polite applause anyway. Kaziulis during the second game was at shortstop, took a one hopper to the throat. The batter from the Rockies, ran over from first base said he was sorry and hoped Kaziulis was OK, class act and showed great sportsmanship. In the immortal words of Lina from Pasadena, Kaziulis had a little weep, VN asks him if he wants to come out for awhile, not sure what Kaziulis said, but it sure sounded in Lithuanian like, no way coach are you taking me out of this game, dries his eyes, looks at me and says, “I am fine, lets play ball”, another gamer.

The twins Vilimas, one a lefty the other a righty, no other way to describe them, they are studs. Not sure there is a position they cannot play, they hit the ball, tremendous attitude and love of the game and truly just awesome ambassadors. Would adopt them both as would every person that comes in contact with them. Hope they stick with the game, as they grow they will be superstars.

The kid that just makes me laugh is Adomas Aleksandravicius. He is never not smiling and the poor announcers as hard as they try, butcher his name every time. The kid is stuck with a name that has every vowel and when his name is butchered, he just gets the giggles. He is also a gamer, gives his all every moment of every game. Never gets bummed when his at bat does not go well and is always cheering for his teammates, you gotta just love the kid. A number of folks have expressed concern for “poor Egle.” Egle is the Mom that has the duty of sitting in the dugout as the other adult, a LL rule that there must always be an adult for safety reasons. Reported a couple of days ago that her host Mom had pulled her out of the dugout to go shopping. Egle is a school teacher in Lithuania and has a son on the team. Next day I asked her how she like going to the mall and shopping. “The mall is very large, unbelievable how many stores there are and the choices for things to buy.” I of course ask her what she bought, “nothing just looked, have not yet decided what to buy and truthfully I am not a shopper.” I of course immediately asked her to marry me, turns out she is married, turns out I am also married, who knew. She does not like to shop, can you believe it. Her host Mom grabbed her again tonight as Egle did think of a couple of things to buy and then on to a party that the host Mom had been invited to attend. Bottom line, Egle loves her son, loves every one of the kids on the team, is happy as a clam to sit in the dugout with the kids and share their joys and disappointments and is truly just a peach of a human being. So I got to be the other adult for half of the first game and all of the second, now have the Lits yelling YAHOOOOO when a great play is made or one gets hit.

They have the entire day off tomorrow spending their last day with NMVLL host families, some going to Hollywood, some going to Knott’s Berry Farm. No games and not even a practice, yes it was a battle that I won.

Day Five – Sporto Vilkai visits Ladera Ranch + an Elvis Wedding!

The days continue to fly by and the Lits are I truly believe having the time of their lives. Most went to Lake Mission Viejo for a picnic, swimming in the lake, riding the 2 person electric motor boats, beach volleyball and picnic lunch with their host families. Couple of others went to Angels Stadium in Anaheim with their host Mom, who knows somebody who knows somebody and they got the VIP tour, on the field, in the dugout and met Mike Scioscia the Angels manager.

Tonight another doubleheader, so another 7 plus hours of baseball if you add in the hour of practice. The played tonight Ladera Ranch LL who will be their host families next week. Of course this league went way beyond any expectations in hosting tonight’s games. Two different four man ump crews for each game, announcing their names, a great meal of sandwiches, chips, soda etc. The dugout had iced down Gatorade & water and of course again the Lits barely touched them, like their beverages air temperature, they do not get our fascination with incredibly cold drinks.

First game as they are each introduced they were given one of the huge Easton duffel type bags with their respective name embroidered on it. The look on the faces when they saw these was priceless. The bag has a pull out handle and wheels, way cool. As has become the custom, the first game is not a defensive gem. The youngest Ed of the family of Ed’s, pitched a truly great game with the right handed Vilimas coming in after Ed had reached his pitch count max, final score with the Lits going down to defeat 12-8. Again probably five outs per inning. The highlight of the game, little Nomeda has a 3-0 count, fakes a bunt, third base charges in, she slaps a shot over his head and gets to first base safely, the crowd of host parents of course goes nuts, the home team crowd gives her very polite applause. So she has her first hit, yahoo!!!! Other highlight, little and I mean little Pupininkas gets two walks in the game, he may be tiny, but he has a tremendous attitude. Turns out, Pupininkas is a cousin of Jesse James, yes our notorious Jesse James.

Second game against the Mets. Like every night so far, the Lits are a different team, hitting the ball, making solid defensive plays, Lits win 6-4. Left handed Vilimas throws a gem of a game with Balantas closing out the last inning with only 7 pitches. The Lits are given a gift bag with a Ladera t-shirt, red socks, a Ladera baseball and a few other things I forgot to write down. We are starting to have a number of expatriate Lits at the games, so they are hearing the language and being cheered on with garai-garai-garai, very cool.

In the fifth inning of the second game, the host Dad of the couple Ana and Egilides brings them to the game from the airport. Those of you that have been reading from day one, will remember they flew over to Vegas for two nights. They went to the Grand Canyon the first day and wait for it……………. YES they did get married by Elvis in one of the chapels over there. They were a little disappointed to find out that there are four Elvis’s, but hey, they were married by the head Elvis. He even sang for the Viva Las Lithuania for them. As they are walking up to the field she is carrying her bouquet. Of course the word was out and as they walk up they get a standing ovation, what a hoot. The host Dad, Bob Bishop is so proud that this was all pulled off by he and Egilides, you would think he was the father of the Bride, again what a hoot.

NMVLL host families have come to the realization that they only have them for two more days, depression is setting in, they were again warned that tears will not be acceptable and deep squats will be enforced if I see tears.

Day Four — Rancho Mission and Rod Carew welcome the Lits!

Great day had by all. Most of the team went down to Dana Point to the tide pools and some beach action, throwing rocks in the ocean, looking for migrating whales etc. weather remains perfect. Others went to a freshman high school baseball game, they loved watching the older kids play and rather amazed at the speed of the game.

Practice at 2:30 again today, hitting, fielding etc. Saw two of them take a ball off the head when the infamous fly ball came down and somehow missed the glove. The fly ball in the outfield is just a real problem, VN is going to go ballistic at some point, but recognizes that the kids are truly trying to make the catch.

They played Ranch Mission Viejo LL tonight, first game against Oregon, second game against Carolina, many leagues out here are going to college uniforms as it saves them a ton of money as the do not have to pay the onerous MLB royalties. We get to the fields and the Lits are all given RMV all-star jerseys, hats, belts and socks, must say they looked terrific. Changed of course into these “new” uniforms so the aqua green ones they have been playing went back to the van. They even had a uniform for VN, very cool.

RMVLL went way over the top, the only thing they missed was the fly-over by the Blue Angels. Boy Scout color guard, soloist did the US national anthem and the Lithuanian national anthem was played.  Truly awesome to see every Lit kid proudly and with gusto singing his national anthem. Rod Carew, 9 time all-star, 6 time MVP and Hall of Fame inductee came to throw out the first pitch.  Well he not only did the first pitch, brought 15 autographed Angels hats, an autographed picture of his hall of fame plaque, autographed copy of when he was on the cover of Time magazine and a Rod Carew autographed bobble-head doll.  He also had a photographer come, had his picture taken with every kid in a group shot, and then also individually.  He then sat in the stands for the first four innings of the first game, a superstar who just cares about the kids and thinks it is just a beautiful thing that these little guys can come here to play the game that was and is so good to him. He is one of my new heroes.

The announcer with a little help from Arnie did a great job with the names and the kids had a blast. First game, again the outfield is an issue, probably had again five or six sure outs an inning, but played all six innings, lose 7-1.

Second game, just like the last two nights, Lits come alive, making plays, hitting the ball etc. Lits the visiting team, ahead going into the bottom of the fifth 4-2, but Carolina pulls ahead for the final score of 6-4. We use continuous batting order (CBO) here and batting 15 kids is tough. Each kid plays a minimum of six defensive outs also. They came so far, it is only right that they all get to play, but when the other team only bats 12, makes it hard to bat 15, especially when a good number of them have not played for that long a time. But we are all seeing progress being made, the confidence level is growing and if the Lits just get both games to be like the second game has been the last three days, we will be rocking by the end of next week.

Mike Schaaf from Dublin, California who went to Lithuania with a team two years ago showed up at tonight’s game. Of course VN thrilled to see him. Poor Egle, the Mom that came with the team has been sitting in the dugout as the other coach, as there always has to be an adult in the dugout. Her host Mom decides that Egle needs a break, shows up and says that the two of them are off to the mall. Coach Mike from Dublin, steps up and is for a number of innings the Lit assistant coach in the dugout, pretty sure he had a blast, at least he did not get ejected by an umpire, so he behaved himself. Must say that when the umpire rang up little Nomeda on a beautiful third strike pitch, the entire crowd showed their displeasure, umpire never looks at the crowd, just nods his head, too funny. She made great contact on one at bat, but straight to the first baseman who just touched the bag, she is close to spanking the ball. A couple of others look like they cannot wait for their at bat to be over, but give them credit they are trying.

Have convinced VN that maybe, just maybe a little less pre-game practice would be a good thing. They have been practicing for an hour and half before the games at night, so it has been a seven hour plus baseball day for them, on top of all the adventures with their host families. So tomorrow, they all have to show up at 3:15 PM for practice, 5;00 pm first game time, second game at 7:30 PM against Ladera Ranch LL who will be their host families next week.

Day Three — First full day in the OC

Reports are that they all slept very well last night, poor little Nomeda did not make it out of the parking lot from the game last night, sound asleep before the car doors were even shut. Grant Mullen, President of NMVLL and the host family for VN and Arnie, is now I gather hooked on Lithuanian Brandy, why bother to use a snifter when a wine goblet holds so much more of the delicious amber liquid.

A good portion of the day was spent at Betsy’s house, highlights included:

• A salt water swimming pool in her backyard, an ocean at a house, amazing.
• Played basketball, of course she has a hoop.
• Foosball, as her house is made entirely of the male species, poor Betsy, the formal dining room was eliminated years ago and is the Foosball capital of Mission Viejo. The new reigning champion, beat all comers, VN. Who knew, he rocks at Foosball.
• An orange tree in the backyard along with the pool. Tree is full of fruit, to be able to pick an orange and eat it sitting under the tree from whence it just came, a huge treat.  Many pictures taken pretending to eat the orange right of the tree, a hoot had by all.
• Weather has been perfect, high 70’s low 80’s during the day, mid 60’s at night.

They have now been with the NMV host families for roughly 30 hours and it has begun. At the games tonight, “that’s my kid, think the ump is squeezing my kid, strike zone should be a little bigger for my kid, that’s my kid pitching, hey Sammy you see that play-my kid” etc. etc. etc. Of course they are all talking about their Lit visitor, know we are going to have tears
when they move Monday over to Ladera Ranch families. They have been warned that I do not do Mom tears and they will be doing squats if I see tears. The killer quote of the night, “want my kid to love me more than the Mom they have next week”.

Of course the Lit kids are the most well behaved, most polite, most thankful kids these folks have encountered. All hoping that their own kids learn valuable lessons on deportment from the Lit kids.

The NMV Yankees coach from last nights second game, went out today and got them all cups and sliding pants. He was aghast that only the catcher wears a cup and they are sliding with just uniform pants on. Hour and a half practice before tonight’s doubleheader and then games at 5:00 PM and 7:30 PM at Viejo LL.  Viejo did a great job of hosting, fields looked awesome. Announcers for the games, national anthem played, 4-man umpire crews, a different crew for each game, awesome. Steak meal between games and burgers and hot dogs after the second game.

First game the Lits took a beating, mercied after 4 innings 16-4 to the Red Sox. With no outdoor practice at home, the outfielders are having a terrible time adjusting or seeing the ball off the bat. When they throw pop fly’s to each other, no issue, but of the bat, Big Problem. Probably had five outs an inning if the ball would have been caught. Also pretty sure none or very few of these kids have played under the lights before, different experience as we all know. Post game the Red Sox gave each Lit a bag with new batting glove, a league pin and other goodies.

Second game, THE LITS WIN 10-4 beating the Cubbies. Great infield defensive and solid pitching, Petronis throwing 81 pitches and the closer Vilimas throwing only 18 pitches to close out the 6th inning. Little Ed, “Commander Sam, we rocked the second game, we get better every game.”  Gotta love the kid.

Cubbies gave the Lits another bag filled with goodies and one of the Dads from the team works for Hyundai, so there were all given beautiful duffel type bag with the Hyundai logo on it. Every bag is going to be needed to get all the stuff home.

Grant Mullen tells me even after only a day and half, he can no longer get his car in the garage, donated equipment, uniforms etc. filling it up. The poor Ladera parents who host VN, are going to need a truck just to get the stuff to their home. How all of this is going to be checked baggage is beyond me, but VN keeps saying, No problem it will all work out. Viejo today gave them over 300 t-shirts, uniforms etc. One of the local club teams, The Knights, gave a complete set of Knight’s uniforms, including belts, hats, socks, the whole shebang, gorgeous.

Bob Slabinski came by the game with his Bride. He has been selected to go again to do the EMEA Seniors which will be held in Lithuania, and Bob has been anointed the UIC for the tournament. He and Arnie talked thru the umps that are coming etc., how cool is that Bob is not only going back again, but got to meet the TD for the tournament almost in his backyard, Bob lives about an hour or so away from me in Corona.

The big news, Ana and Egilidus flew over to Vegas today, be there for two days. The big plan is to get married by Elvis in one of those chapels, not sure Ana has agreed to this or maybe even knows of this plan. Will update when I get the story upon their return.

Great day had by all the Lits, the host families and the folks at Viejo LL.

Day One … and Two — The trip to Orange County

The group, 15 kids plus 5 adults did finally arrive here. It was an adventure to say the least for them traveling here. Two of the adults were traveling separately on Delta as the flight with the team was a sell out. The two adults were to arrive at LAX Monday night at 5:45 pm after changing planes in Brussels. I gather there was some issue in Brussels as they did not make the flight from Brussels to Atlanta and then LAX.

I arrive at 5:15 pm to get them, the baggage comes down the carousel, no two adults. I am holding up my Lithuanian sign and asking all if they are Ana and Egilidus, no one responds. I then go to Delta baggage and ask if they made the flight, of course Delta says they cannot tell me anything, finally after getting the supervisors supervisor, she tells me their itinerary has been canceled and if the are coming to LAX it is not on Delta and to go home. I get back to the house at 9:00 pm and just as the tires hit the driveway, phone rings, Ana on the line, “we are here at LAX, you come get us”? Delta re-booked them from Brussels to JFK and then LAX, so turn around drive the hour and half back to LAX.

The team was to arrive at 11;49 PM at LAX so, stay to await their arrival and one big group will come down to Orange County. Go over to United, the 18 of them are on this airline. The screen for arrivals in United baggage claim says “see agent”. Oh boy another nightmare has begun. The flight shows it as FRA-LAX, but what United does not tell you is that it goes FRA-SFO-LAX. So the team had arrived at SFO gone thru customs and re-checked their bags to LAX. United does not have a crew to fly the plane to LAX so the team is stuck at SFO. United SFO was truly terrible to the team. They were not going to give them anything, no food or hotel vouchers, nothing. To my rescue was a United agent in LAX, Terri Reis. When I told her what was going on, she flipped out had me get Arnoldas on the phone, had Arnie demand a supervisor, had Arnie hand his phone to the SFO supervisor, and Terri proceeded to rip this schmuck a new one. Hotel vouchers all of a sudden became available etc., more on this in a minute.

SFO refused to re-route or give them boarding passes for the morning flight, so Terri did it all in LA. She re-routed them to John Wayne (SNA), changed the baggage from going to LAX to going to SNA etc, she was truly awesome. The hotel refused to let the kids be in rooms by themselves and “had no connecting rooms”, so the three adults had five kids in each of the three rooms they were given. They arrived at the hotel at 10:30 pm and left the hotel at 5:00 a.m. pretty sure very little to no sleep was had.

They did arrive Tuesday morning at SNA at 8:00 a.m., but of course United SFO did not un-load the bags as they were supposed to from the LAX flight, so no luggage and another battle began. United SNA, Regina stepped up to the rescue, wrote down all the bag tags etc, and sent us on our way to meet the host families. Regina must have called me three or four times to make sure that LAX had contacted me and that the bags were being shipped by a baggage service United contract with. At 11:00 AM, the baggage shipper calls me, I tell them we need the bags badly, baseball players etc. and their first game is at 4:30 PM with the Virmides warm-up session at 3:00 PM. “yes sir, you will be our first stop, no problem”, liars pants on fire. Finally after repeated calls to them, get the driver’s cell number, he tells me he has already made 6 stops and has another 5 before he gets to me, sometime after 6:00 PM. Ballistic does not properly describe my reaction to this news. After much cajoling and the promise of a $40.00 tip, he re-routes and brings the bags to the fields at 3:30 PM.

The Lits are ecstatic, clothes flying everywhere as they dig into the bags, get gloves uniforms etc. Their first week here they are staying with North Mission Viejo (NMV) families. We meet in the parking lot at the fields. Lits amazed to see the baseball complex, 11 diamonds within the complex, lights, dugouts etc.

Divvy up the Lits with their respective families and headed home to find the baggage. Some of the Lits did nap I gather, others went swimming, host families have pools in their backyards, a huge thing for the Lit kids, played basketball etc.

Back to the fields for warm-ups at 3:30, the rest of the trip they will have to be at the fields 2 plus hours ahead of the first game start time, VN has to work the kids, they had snow as they were leaving Vilnius, so he is taking every moment he can to practice them.

First game of the night, 4:30 PM, NMV Braves, Lits are nervous, tense etc. and fielding errors just killed them, they lose 13-4. Lots of deep squats this year, no push ups, building the leg strength this year. NMV kids amazed to see Lit kids doing these and after one particular inning, the entire Lit team in their dugout doing 100 squats each.

Second game, Lits ahead 6-2 going into he 6th inning, but the NMV Yankees pull it out 8-6. The Lit pitcher had gone a full five innings, reached his pitch count max of 85 pitchers, so new pitcher who could not keep the Yankees from smacking the ball all over the park. Lits learned that kids here hit the ball hard, they outfielders played way to far in, think they have learned to play deeper for the rest of the trip. Between games, Sam Kim’s parents, you will remember him from the summer in Lit. the kid that thought he would be the first to hit a home run in the Utena ballpark, they have a restaurant, catered a meal for the team and then pizza after the second game.

They are spending the day today at Betsy Gray’s house in her pool, practice at 2;30 PM, first game at 4:30 PM second half of the doubleheader at 7:00 PM. against Viejo Little League (VLL).

Manny Pacheco came by the field to see VN and the team, he Betsy and I are standing together, and we all at about the same time made the same comment, “how cool is it that they are here, listening to Lit being yelled by the kids to each other and instructions be barked at to the kids by VN”.

Had a coach from one of the NMV teams come up to me last night with an envelope, so pretty sure I have enough cash to give the four or five with nothing, cash for their day at Disneyland, trash/trinkets for their siblings and food at the park, people I guess should not surprise me, but I continue to be amazed at the generosity and thoughtfulness of folks.

Sporto Vilkai to visit LL District 68 in South Orange County

Through the efforts of the leadership of District 68 of Little League Baseball, (particularly Ezio Petrella and Sam Griffith) in southern Orange County, CA, this team of 11-12 year old baseball players from the Sporto Vilkai Little League team in Vilnius, Lithuania are traveling here March 23-April , 2008 to enjoy a couple weeks of baseball and fun and goodwill with kids and families of the Little Leagues of District 68.