Tri Valley (California) players look out from their dugout as the sun peaks in during the Babe Ruth Baseball 14-Year-Old World Series championship game Thursday night at Bullens Field. The sun set, both literally and figuratively, on the tournament on its final day. (Photo by Marc St. Onge)
Critics and naysayers may point to Westfield’s record in the 2016 Babe Ruth Baseball 14-Year-Old World Series (1-4), and call it a failure.
They would be dead wrong. It is quite the opposite. The journey is just beginning.
As the sun set on the Whip City’s first-ever Babe Ruth World Series and the dust finally began to settle at Bullens Field, there was just one champion – California’s Tri Valley.
Does that mean the other 11 teams, who all came up just short of the title, wasted their time? Absolutely not.
It took Westfield nearly five days – the final day of pool play – to get its footing, and pull out a victory. For those 100-plus hours, players ate, drank, and slept baseball; fought back heat exhaustion; dodged lightning strikes; forged camaraderie; and learned that hard work and teamwork best gets the job done.
This is a stepping-stone for players to use as a building block for years to come. I can almost guarantee you that these Westfield players will not face this level of competition again in the coming year of high school. Westfield just battled some of the best 14-year-old ball players in the entire country, an almost insurmountable task that takes dedication and 100 percent focus.
As I reached my 17th hour in the wee hours Sunday morning – unquestionably the most grueling work day of my 20-year career – I realized, at that moment, just how much harder some of those players, coaches, and volunteers were working to navigate their path through the World Series.
Without the countless hours that local volunteers delivered in the year leading up to the tournament, and the time spent sweating, both literally and figuratively, over World Series week, the games never would have happened.
Thankfully, they did.
