American Legion World Series

By Ron Kantowski (contact)

Friday, Aug. 22, 2008 | 2 a.m.

It sounds like something you might read on a roadside billboard on the way to Kansas City or Texas or some other place where they specialize in spice rub over hot coals or smoking wood.

“One, Two and Barbecue.”

That is how coach Chris Sheff summarizes Bishop Gorman’s first appearance in the American Legion World Series two years ago.

A young Gorman team was eliminated from the 2006 World Series in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the home of a huge Quaker Oats mill, before it could get used to the smell of oatmeal. But seven players from that team are still with this year’s Gorman qualifier — known as the Southern Nevada Titans. They will represent Nevada in this year’s Legion Series beginning today in Shelby, N.C.

Gorman will open the tournament at 10 a.m. North Carolina time against the Mid-Plains champions from Omaha, Neb. That’s 7 a.m. Las Vegas time, which seems way too early to be hitting the cutoff man. But Sheff says these Titans are more experienced — not to mention bright-eyed and bushy-tailed — and will be ready to play, regardless of the hour.

“The thing we hope we learned is not to go one, two and barbecue,” he said.

1. Tobacco (long) road

It’s 2,158 miles from Las Vegas to Shelby, N.C. It takes 32 hours, 17 minutes to get there in a car, although I’m told if you’re in a Kenworth haulin’ logs — and you’ve got a CB radio that still works — you can make it in 30 hours. Luckily, the Titans will be flying into Charlotte, but they left out of Phoenix, where they won the West Regional on Monday night, because there wasn’t enough time to come home and pack. So if the Titans get off the plane wearing Arizona Diamondbacks T-shirts purchased at Sky Harbor Airport, that would explain it.

2. Runs, hits and very few errors

The Titans will open World Series play with a 70-7 record. Since spring, when they formed the nucleus of Bishop Gorman’s Nevada state championship team, they have won 117 games while losing just 10. And you thought the Cubs were having a good year. Since 2004, this team has won 13 tournament championships as Bishop Gorman and 22 as the Southern Nevada Titans. That’s a dynasty that would do John Forsythe and Joan Collins proud.

3. Sheff’s salad days

Chris Sheff, Bishop Gorman’s year-round coach, was a star center fielder at Pepperdine and led the Waves to the 1992 NCAA baseball title. After that, he spent 10 seasons in the minor leagues, including six in Triple-A. The Titans are talented on the field too: Five players on this year’s team have committed to Division I schools: P Donn Roach (Arizona), P-OF Paul Sewald (San Diego) P-1B Jeff Malm (USC), OF-P Joey Rickard (Arizona) and INF-P R.J. Santigate (Long Beach State).

4. First time for everything

A Las Vegas team has never won the American Legion World Series. Local teams have made it to the championship game twice, losing in 1986 (to Jensen Beach, Fla.) and in 1993 (to Rapid City, S.D.). The 1986 team, called Darling’s 7-Eleven, consisted of Valley High players and was led by pitcher Dan Opperman, who would go on to become the eighth player picked in the Major League Baseball Draft (by the Los Angeles Dodgers). The 1993 team, made up of Green Valley High players, featured pitcher Tom LaRosa, who later pitched at UNLV, and outfielder Brian Shultz.

5. Hold the livermush

Shelby is in south central North Carolina, roughly 30 miles from Charlotte. It has a population of 19,477. Some if its more famous residents or natives are NFL Hall of Famer Bobby Bell, former outfielder Lenny Dykstra, ex-heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson, former NBA scoring whiz David Thompson and disco singer Alicia Bridges, who loved the night life, even though there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of it in Shelby. One of the major events on the social calender is the Livermush Exposition. Livermush, according to the Shelby City Council, “is the most delicious, most economical and most versatile of meats.” Sheff said he’d probably just take his players to the UNC-Charlotte campus and pass on the livermush.