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.
