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.
