I could have waited to write this column after the Little League World Series Championship game but what the youngsters from Billings have accomplished in Williamsport, Penn. will not be enhanced or diminished by whether they win the chipper.
This group of All Stars made an improbable run through the regionals at San Bernardino, Calif. and then have done the unthinkable by sending sportswriters scrambling for story lines about a group of youngsters that simply epitomize the way we think of things in Big Sky Country.
They represent the rule, not the exception.
They’re a team – read that again – a team, that cares about basics, execution and heart and have risen to the heights of a prestigious national event against a variety of odds, the biggest of which might be the fact that there is not a star player among them.
Sure they’re all stars at this point but time has shown that mostly because of the weather and the lack of varsity baseball in high school, there are just few Montana youngsters who progress to the Division-I level of baseball.
There are even fewer who make it to the “bigs.” Although one has to remember the late Dave McNally and Jeff Ballard were Major League pitchers who began their baseball careers in the Magic City.
But in these days of sports controversy, wasn’t it refreshing to see a David vs. Goliath matchup where a bunch of kids say the right thing during interviews, credit their teammates and their opponents and make clear they think they can “play,” not necessarily beat, anybody in the field?
They now will be personified as the Butler of Little League baseball.
Now, mind you, the Little League World Series has had its share of controversy over the years with falsified birth certificates and pitchers who appeared to easily be a foot-plus taller than the minions they were tossing pitches past.
But it might be as close as we can get to pure amateur competition these days.
And maybe the placard that showed up on Facebook meant the most to me. It depicts a Griz and Cat emblem followed by, “We Are Montana” in support of Big Sky Little League.
That feeling was further illustrated to me just this week when Dan Ogden’s mother, Lynne Rider, approached me at a Lakeside eatery to first tell me she enjoyed my play-by-play, but also to update me on her son, an All-Conference Bobcat defensive end from Kalispell, who opted to complete his education in Bozeman rather than pursue a play-for-pay position.
We are, after all, pure at heart Montanans.
We take pride in where we live, how we live and who we are and truly are passionate and protective about our beliefs and, of course, our teams.
This group of Billings youngsters represent what is best about Montana and gives us a reason for even a non-sports fan to talk about their success.
My grandson, Christopher Landers, is their players’ age, lives in Billings and, like all of us, is living vicariously through their successes.
After all, so much of what kids become is shaped by those young sports and extra-curricular experiences, like cheering for a group of pre-teens who instead of going back to school are performing on the national stage.
They deserve more than just their 15 minutes of fame. Thank you for the purity and respect you have shown my favorite game.
And as famed sportswriter Grantland Rice once said – “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”