I took a little break from softball last night and headed to The Bite of Oregon at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland. We listened to music and enjoyed great "bites" of the best our state has to offer: beef, seafood, microbrews and wine -- delicious.
But I am getting my fill this morning: I have the LL Baseball Midwest Regional on ESPN, and have the LL Softball World Series live boxscore open on my laptop, and the webcast of the same game over the speakers. I'll be heading up to Alpenrose soon, but I am taking it all in while I can. Pity those people that have weddings, family barbeques, etc. today :)
I enjoyed the watching the Central/EMEA game yesterday afternoon. I wanted to meet Dennis Grall, the Michigan reporter who drove out here with his wife to cover the Central team for their local paper. He and I had talked a lot back a few years back when Escanaba LL represented the Central region, but Denny couldn't make the trip.
The Oregonian featured the EMEA team in this morning's paper, and their lack of tournament experience compared to the teams from the United States. The team is made up of American families stationed at the air base in Ramstein, Germany, and I watched as they struggled against pitching faster than they have seen. But I noticed in both their games, they seemed to pull it together after the first inning, settle down, and hit the ball. I would really like to see the Alpenrose crowds appreciate this and take this team under their wing. They represent what this this tournament is all about.
Folks from all over are hanging out up at Alpenrose, all for girls softball. In my wildest dreams as a Little League softballer in the late '70s, I never could have imagined the World Series played there and ESPN coverage, never in a million years. What a blast for these girls and their families...
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