GV Little Leaguers earn (pin) stripes

Adam Candee

Friday, Aug. 8, 2003 | 9:33 a.m.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- Given infinite guesses to select from among the charming sights that enliven Al Houghton Stadium, your odds of picking out the main attraction are about equal to a juicy hot dog's chance of survival at the Little League West Region tournament.

Do not dock points if you are preoccupied by the 9-year-old brunette ball of freckles toting a wicker basket outside the stands and calling, "Grapefruits, 25 cents, picked this morning, home-grown!" Refocus if the chuckles brought on by middle-aged umpires and ice cream men joining on the field for a between-innings rendition of "YMCA" distract you.

The answer is revealed in the quiet determination of the Green Valley Little League All-Stars. Just don't look on the field.

Watch as Taylor Jones sits down at a picnic table beyond right field and focuses on a subtle negotiation between two older teenagers. Listen as Lucas Stetson excitedly tells two teammates, "Wait till you see my dragon, dude." Hopelessly try to decipher the art of the deal between two young boys as small gloves are dealt away for a Bart Simpson.

Get the impression the Little League champions of Nevada are working on something other than a curveball? Welcome to the esoteric world of pin-trading, which ranks a close second to chasing a trip to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., for the 11- and 12-year-old boys from Henderson.

"They're way into it," said Green Valley assistant coach Rob Welch, whose son Cory is on the team. "It's the main attraction after the baseball game."

Wednesday night's haggling over metal trinkets representing Little Leagues from all over the world preceded Green Valley's Thursday game against Northern California.

"Some people don't even watch the game," Green Valley's Tyler Wagner said. "They just come here to trade."

Free from the spartan dormitories on the campus of the Little League West Region Headquarters, the boys are in the middle of a three-day break between games. It's actually just the middle night of what could be 12 full days of baseball, pins, and an unforgettable taste of baseball in the spotlight for a bunch of bleach-blond middle schoolers.

"All the kids are having a great time," said Green Valley manager Rudy Reveles, who coaches his son, Michael.

Sure, spirits dropped some after a wrenching 8-7 loss Thursday night, a game that featured Green Valley rallying for six runs in the top of the sixth and final inning on Wagner's two-run double and Eric Stewart's grand slam before finally falling.

"We'll be fine," Reveles said. "I think this will be a wake-up call for them."

Yet 24 hours around Henderson's finest is a reminder that although baseball is certainly the top priority, being 12 and soaking up a big baseball summer camp trails only by a click.

Backdropped in her shaded grandstand tent by her cowboy hat-styled raffle board pegged with hundreds of pins, Sanders -- known here as The Pin Lady -- smiles as she describes how the first Little Leaguers created a pin to represent their district some 25 years ago.

Now, parents, players and traders create and fawn over district logo pins to dazzle the eyes, ranging from James Dean, to Popeye, to Ohio's "duckies" -- the favorite of the Green Valley kids. Sanders, 68, the first lady of the pins, crowns Las Vegas as pin royalty.

"Las Vegas probably has the greatest collection of all," Sanders said of the poker chips, showgirls, astronaut angels, and Elmer Fudds that have all come from the Valley.

The same can be said of the team itself. This year's Green Valley entry went on an undefeated rip through local and state play to earn a spot in the West regional. After dropping a 3-2, extra-inning decision to powerful Arizona, Green Valley rebounded to knock off Southern California, 5-2, in front of the home crowd before falling Thursday.

"When we played Southern California, we couldn't ever hear our own fans," Matt Scala said.

The Thursday night loss means Nevada must beat Wyoming tonight to advance into Sunday night's semifinal round. A win in the semifinals puts the boys into a nationally televised West final Tuesday night.

"That would be awesome," Green Valley's Braden Keathley said.

Yet this squad, together for just their third tournament since being assembled after the Green Valley Little League season, nearly stopped before it started as personalities clashed, according to Reveles.

"We had a coaches' meeting (because) we didn't know if this was going to work or not," Reveles said. "When we first started off, everyone was fighting for a position. I don't think they were rooting for the other kids."

A sit-down talk with the boys righted the situation, Reveles said, and the team now finds itself three wins from youth baseball nirvana.

"It's reliving your childhood," Shiroky said. "It's reliving everything you wanted to do as kids." Bob told Bobby what to expect in the dorms: lots of horseplay (it's happening) and a first-night warning to keep the late-night noise down (it already happened.)

"They're on a 12-day sleepover," Shiroky said.

Those sleepovers are increasingly common as year-round baseball across the Southwest takes hold of the kids. Both Jones and Green Valley coaches said that most of the kids have been playing with traveling club teams since the age of 8.

Jones said he tries to keep Taylor grounded by letting him play basketball and participate in karate, "just to keep the interest, get the diversity a little better." Shiroky concurs that kids should experiment with multiple sports before they get to high school. These parents may know their sons, but when it comes to pins, the elders are mostly as in the dark as coaches and onlookers about pin trading.

"When he's not playing ball or in practice, he's trading pins," Chuck Jones said of his son, Taylor.

In fact, even the man in charge decided to get into the pin game Thursday afternoon.

"I'm learning the trade," Reveles said of his two-for-one deal that sent a Hawaii glove and Green Valley pin to a youngster for a bulldog pin.

"Like, 15," Keathley said. "I made one out of 15 trades."

Maybe Keathley and his teammates were just worn out from the long days of water park slides and Magic Mountain rides that filled the downtime between Monday and Thursday games. The coaches pull out all the fun stops to not only keep the kids loose for baseball, but to make the experience memorable.

"That's where it gets kind of tough, trying to keep 13 kids busy," Reveles said. "You don't want to keep them in the barracks locked up too long."

That responsibility falls to coaches, as parents are allowed just two daily two-hour visitation windows to visit their sons during the tournament. Pin-trading fills the time gaps, even in the '60s-era dorms that Cory Welch calls "smelly." But how does one get initiated into the game?

"First, you have to know something about pins so you don't get ripped off," Keathley said.

Then, pick out what matters most.

"I could care less if they're valuable," Scala said. "I have gophers on skateboards, Barney, Mrs. Potato Head."

They were so relaxed talking about this pin-trading Thursday afternoon that it was easy to forget this group of kids was about to step into a pressure-filled night game that continues the culmination of a four or five-year youth career.

"When you've got 8,000 people watching at 11 or 12 years old, it's mind-boggling," Bob Shiroky said. Ah, Keathley said, nothing to it.

"We do that every day," Keathley said.

Coach Welch responded, "Now, you're just saying that."

Keathley displayed 12 years of wit, holding up two fingers on each hand to indicate quotes and firing back, "Sarcasm."

Pinned 'em, just like they try to do on the field en route to Williamsport.