Paseo Verde LL had a run for the ages

HENDERSON, Nev. — According to Little League Baseball, there are more than two million boys and girls from 80 countries playing Little League.

The odds of making it to the championship game of the Little League World Series is approximately 1 percent.

So here’s to the 1 percenters, the Paseo Verde Little League of Henderson, Nevada, which defied the odds and made it to the final game of the season in South Williamsport, Pa. Sunday afternoon.

That Paseo Verde was defeated 11-2 by Curaçao shouldn’t diminish the accomplishments of the boys and girl that started this improbable journey almost a month ago when it won its District tournament. It would win the Nevada state tourney, then go on and win the Mountain Regional, which is why you saw them in those gold and red uniforms with the lower case “M’ on their caps at Lamade Stadium.

And this team was undefeated throughout and even had a 2-0 lead over Curaçao, an island nation of just over 185,000 that loves its baseball. You can see it in the exuberance displayed by its Little Leaguers on the field. They love to play the game as much as our kids from Henderson.

And if you were watching, how could you not marvel at the skill of these teams? So well schooled in fundamentals. So impressive in their mechanics and their IQ of the game. It’s nice that elements like laying down a bunt, hitting a cutoff person and understanding the strike zone is not beyond the grasp of an 11- or 12-year-old. Paseo Verde turned six double plays in the LLWS.

Of course, it takes a village, as they say, to pull something like this off. In Little League, everyone is a volunteer. If you’ve had a kid play, you know the drill. Dads help prepare the fields before coaching. Moms man the snack shack and sit behind home plate keeping score. Grandparents, aunts and uncles keep an eye on the younger brothers and sisters. It’s all about the kids, which is as it should be.

Every year, we read stories in the paper or watch a segment on local television of how the parents of the teams in Williamsport have been away from home for weeks, how they’ve had to take time off from work, how someone has to keep an eye on the house, arrange to get the mail, take care of the family pet. And it’s the truth. There’s a great deal of sacrifice involved to be part of a kid’s summer baseball experience.

Same for the managers and coaches. They have families too and for them, it’s no different than their players. Which is why when it ends, it’s pretty painful emotionally speaking because you’ve invested so much in order to try and take it the distance.

But we know kids are resilient. As they return home to Southern Nevada, they’ll do so as celebrities, be it at their school, their church or their neighborhood. There’s probably going to be a parade for the Paseo Verde team, the United States Little League champions, and it figures to be a fun time. They’ll carry memories of this amazing experience that will last a lifetime and 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now, they’ll gather, reminisce, do interviews about what it was like to be on the verge of nearly winning it all and how much fun they had in doing so.

They’ll talk about the immaculate ballfields they competed on. They’ll talk about the friends they made. They'll talk about being on ESPN and ABC. They'll talk about playing ping-pong, video games, meeting major leaguers from the Braves and Brewers and being treated like baseball royalty. Most of all, they’ll talk about the memories they made.

It’s what comes with the territory of being a 1 percenter.