These champions deserve to be celebrated

By Ron Kantowski (contact)

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Most people don’t get too excited about high school baseball.

That’s too bad, because if they did, they’d be holding a ticker tape parade for Bishop Gorman today on the Las Vegas Strip — provided, of course, it didn’t get in the way of anybody trying to play blackjack or wager on the Red Sox vs. Yankees game. And provided that you can still find ticker tape.

After winning the past three Nevada state high school championships, a thinly disguised Gaels team — it answers to the name Southern Nevada Titans during the American Legion season — defeated a team from Pasco, Wash., 5-1, Wednesday morning to win the Legion World Series in Shelby, N.C.

Other than the Little League World Series, there is no kids’ baseball tournament steeped in tradition like the American Legion one. They’ve been playing it since 1926. A team from Southern Nevada had never won it, until Wednesday.

Everybody do the Titan Up. Isn’t that what Archie Bell & the Drells sang, albeit with a slightly different spelling?

We not only swing but we can dance just as good as we walk, was the way they did the Tighten Up in 1968.

These Titans added another verse in North Carolina.

We not only swing the bats but we can make all the plays just as good as we walk. And we get clutch hits, make quality pitches and seldom miss the cutoff man.

Tighten up on that organ, now.

Every summer, on sandlots from Maine to Hawaii — and even a few fields that have grass on them — thousands upon thousands of high school kids start out with a dream of playing baseball in a place like Shelby, N.C., because Shelby is the kind of town where the locals do get excited about high school kids getting down a bunt, or hitting behind the runner, or going deep in the hole to backhand a ball and make a play they have no business making.

But only one team gets to dump the water bucket on its coach’s head at the end of a long season.

“This is a great accomplishment,” Chris Sheff, the Gorman coach, told reporters after toweling off. “It doesn’t get better than this, a national thing with 6,000 teams starting out wanting to be No. 1.”

Earlier I compared the American Legion World Series to the Little League’s, but it’s different, and not just because Brent Musburger doesn’t call the final game on national television with thousands of spectators in the stands. Championship games played at 9 o’clock on Wednesday morning generally don’t draw well, and I don’t care if Derek Jeter is playing shortstop and Jose Feliciano is singing the national anthem.

It’s also different because there’s not a big kid standing in the middle of the diamond throwing smoke and, when it’s his turn, hitting a baseball off the end of the bat and over the fence with the bases loaded. When you stand a foot taller and weigh 50 pounds more than the other kids, and the fences are only 200 feet from home plate, you don’t really need to get all of it.

In American Legion, there are Danny Almontes at every position. That’s why every player has to contribute — like in real baseball. Plus, the center-field fence is 400 feet away.

They don’t have American Legion World Series shares, but if they did, every Titan would be able to buy his pals a Slurpee today. The Gorman kids didn’t lose a game, and they weren’t really challenged in the last two. But only three players made the 13-person all-tournament team.

First baseman/relief pitcher Jeff Malm was named the MVP, because you almost have to name a guy from the winning team the MVP. Besides, Malm, who will play college baseball at USC (next year, when he’s old enough), is pretty darn good.

Third baseman Scott Dysinger and pitcher Matt Hall also made the all-tourney team. But every time you went to the concession stand for a Livermush sandwich — considered a delicacy in Shelby — there were like six Titans getting two hits apiece, four more driving in key runs and three others retiring the side in order.

If you think getting the Titans out is tough, try writing a story about one of their victories off a box score. It’s difficult to identify who plays the biggest role when so many contribute.

This is what happens when you finish the summer with a 75-7 record.

This is what happens when you play for a program that has won 12 high school tournament titles since 2004.

This is what happens when you play for a summer team that has won 24 American Legion tournaments over the same time period, including the biggest one of all.

On a damp field on a Wednesday morning in rural North Carolina you get to dump the water bucket on your coach’s head, and pile on top of your teammates on a field still wet from the previous day’s rain, and mug for photos in front of a national championship banner.

A couple of hours later, there was an update on the BishopGormanbaseball.com Web site.

“Titans win American Legion World Series,” it said matter-of-factly and without fanfare.

“We start up again Sept. 1.”