Is this Iowa? No, it’s heaven.
The Urbandale Little League All-Stars became the first Iowa team to represent the Midwest Region since 2005 this week, playing on what most Little Leaguers consider the field of dreams — Howard J. Lamade Stadium in Williamsport, Pa., home of the Little League World Series.
“Only eight teams from the United States get to make that trip,” said Kevin Kelley, the president of Urbandale Little League. “I have a lot of pride for what they accomplished.”
So to do the residents of Urbandale. During the team’s World Series run, the town of 38,000 located just outside of Des Moines was buzzing with excitement.
“I was at the Iowa State Fair, and people kept coming up to me and asking ‘How are our boys doing?’ ” said John Hoberg, a former Urbandale Little League president. “Many of these people weren’t from Urbandale. It’s great to see how Iowans are embracing this team.”
Baseball fans on the East Coast embraced the Urbandale youngsters as well, treating the kids like professional ball players during their weeklong stay in Williamsport.
“Everyone treats the boys like rock stars,” head coach Scott Grau. “It was cool to see other kids asking for their autographs.”
After dropping the first game of pool play to Warner Robins, Ga., Urbandale rallied to defeat Mercer Island, Wash., 5-3, scoring all five runs in the fifth inning.
The victory marked the first time an Iowa team had won a World Series game since the field expanded to 16 teams, snapping a 14-game losing streak. It came down to a nationally televised game in prime time against Staten Island, N.Y., to decide whether Urbandale would move on to the next round or head back home.
Prior to the game, the team got a call from Los Angeles Dodger third baseman and Indianola, Iowa-native, Casey Blake.
“He told us good luck and that he would be watching,” said 12-year-old outfielder Mikey Staub. “It was cool to talk to a professional baseball player.”
With Blake and much of the state attending to their TV sets, the stage was set in front of a crowd of 16,900 screaming fans.
Urbandale unfortunately fell behind 2-0, and after a four-run sixth inning, the team trailed Staten Island by eight. Urbandale rallied in the sixth inning, but the deficit was too much to overcome, and the team eventually lost, 8-3.
But the games are just a small taste of what the Little League World Series is about. For Urbandale, it was about a team from the Heartland hanging out with a team whose home field is over 6,000 miles away.
“We made a connection with the Japanese team,” said Jaran Sabus, a 13-year-old outfielder. “We were on the same parade float together at the beginning of the week, and we lived in the same complex during the entire World Series.”
The Urbandale All-Stars also spent a lot of time swimming with the Japanese team. Staub even traded some of his Urbandale Little League clothes for a traditional Japanese headband.
“We talked to them through a translator sometimes,” 13-year-old second baseman Jake Grau said. “But we didn’t have to talk that much to understand each other. We all liked to swim and have fun.”