My latest thrill was living through James Ripley, son of my good buddy from Zumbrota, Jeff Ripley. James was a member of the team from the Plymouth / New Hope baseball league who recently played in the Little League World Series (LLWS) in Williamsport, PA. Even though this team from Minnesota lost all of their games at the LLWS it still was a big thrill for them and me as I took another trip down "vicarious lane".
Background Section
Jeff is the younger brother of Mike Ripley, a life long friend of mine who graduated with me at good old Zumbrota High School. Our life long friendship was built during our days as teammates on several very good high school sports teams.
The Ripleys were also my neighbors in my pre-school years and I often would push little Jeff in the Ripley's swing set. Jeff was only 3 years younger but at that age he was the cute little fella that hung around with big guys (Mike and me).
It was at Mike's wedding in the mid 70's where I officially took Jeff "under my wing" and guided him through life during his early 20's. Fortunately for Jeff he was able to recover from those years and go on to lead productive life.
Setting the Stage
The fact that I have only seen James a few times in my life and really don't even know him has no bearing on my ability to live vicariously through him. All that mattered was that James was the son of one of my life long friends from my hometown........the cute little boy next door.....the younger brother of one of my best friends.....my teammate on the Zumbrota town team baseball team...and the guy I took under my wing so many years ago.
As soon as I got the news from Mike Ripley that James was playing in the Little League regional tournament in Indianapolis I was officially "on the band wagon." As a young lad I had always dreamed about playing in the LLWS and needless to say that was never going to happen to a 12 year kid living in Zumbrota in the 1960's......James was now "my boy".
James now represented my ticket to the "big dance" being held at the famous little league ball park in Williamsport, PA.
Official Celebration
Seeing I had jumped on the bandwagon with both feet I decided that I just had to attend the official celebration that was being held for the team upon their return from Indianapolis. It was quite the big night at the ball field in Plymouth...all of the TV stations were there doing interviews....newspaper people everywhere....hundreds of people....thousands? .....the players signed autographs at an official autograph table....a ceremony was held where they introduced the players and coaches.....even Dan Gladden, former Twins World Series star, was there....the pomp, the pageantry, the hoopla and the ballyhoo at this event were second to none.....the hubbub wasn't bad either....
Highlight - As I approached the field from the parking lot I could see that the team was having a practice session. From about 400 yards away I saw an adult was pitching batting practice to the team.....even from that far away there was no doubt in mind that the guy on the mound was none other than my old buddy, Jeff........I would know that throwing motion anywhere......sure was fun to see Jeff on the mound again. It only seemed like yesterday that I was watching Jeff perform his magic on the mound as I manned my center field position on the Zumbrota town team baseball team.
Photo Gallery - Celebration
Modest Jeff is introduced as one of the key assistant coaches
James being interviewed by a reporter from the Star Tribune
Memorable quote: "I'm not this popular in school"
(Yes, I stood in a long line with countless 12 year old girls and got the autographs of all the players)
Just the facts ma'am......
-The team is an all-star team from the Plymouth/New Hope League.
-11 players were on the team - all must play and bat during every game.
-James Ripley was one of the team's pitchers and played some third base.
-Qualified for the Little League World Series by winning the Midwest Regional tournament in Indianapolis.
-Won 6 consecutive games in the regional tournament - spent 10 days at the tournament....just crushed every opponent.
-Jeff helped out with the team and threw batting practice...he was not one of the two official coaches ...arm was dead after 10 days of batting practice in Indianapolis.
-Jeff was with the team in Indianapolis for the entire tournament along with attending all of the games at the Little League World Series.
-James got the game winning walk off hit in the Minnesota State Tournament championship game...down 9-6 going into their last at bat....won 10-9....keep in mind that there would have been no LLWS for this team without the clutch hit from my (excuse me, Jeff's) son James....sometimes I let this vicarious living thing get out of hand.
-Lost the first LLWS game 10-8 to a very tough team from Texas.
-Lost the second LLWS game 5-2 to a team from Washington...felt they should have beat this team....the hot hitting they had at the regional tournament did not carry over to the LLWS....this loss eliminated them from the tournament.
-Played and lost the guaranteed third game to a team from Germany.
-James had a nice series.....a hit and 2 RBI's in game #1....pitched two strong innings in game #1....made two consecutive sparkling defensively plays at third base in game # 2 and received high praise from the big time ESPN announcers, Karl Ravich and Bobby Valentine (you ESPN heads would know these guys as the hosts of the nightly "Baseball Tonight" show on ESPN).
-Both of the games were televised live on ESPN...not ESPN2...not ESPN3.....not ESPNU......this was the big time, man.
-Jeff got some quality air time on national TV as the ESPN cameras showed the parents in the crowd quite often....my man Jeff looked so good on HDTV.
-Interesting observation - I noticed that when James was pitching he had the habit of taking his hat on and off between pitches.....this is the exact same thing that Jeff did when he was pitching back for the Zumbrota Town Team baseball team....it was a little spooky for me to watch....a little bit of the Twilight Zone.....Rod Serling would have been excited......like father, like son I guess.
-James is a big kid for his age...5'11"...160 pounds.....12 years old.....size 13 shoes.....how big will he be is the question.
Summary
All in all it was a very good run for me . I now am waiting for one of my other friend's kids to provide me the next opportunity to live through them. I'm sure he or she is out there preparing to give me another big thrill.....can't wait!!!
