Belmont Heights Plays for Title, 8/30/80

In the 1973 Little League World Series, a team of 11 and 12-year-olds representing Belmont Heights in East Tampa ran up against a baseball-destroying machine from Taiwan. The final score of their semi-final contest – 27-0 in favor of the team from the Far East – put a damper on what had been a spectacular summertime run.

The Belmont Heights bunch took third place overall in the series, but this would not be the last appearance in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for this organization. In 1975, Belmont Heights sent a team all the way to the finals, losing 4-3 to a team from Lakewood, New Jersey. The summer of 1980 produced yet another memorable Belmont Heights squad, one that would again prove to be among the elite in the nation.

“This team is way stronger than the ’75 team,” said manager Vernard Felder. “We’ve got better pitchers and more hitters. We don’t have to rely on one man. All these guys hit the ball.”

If future potential alone were his criteria, Felder would be proven quite prophetic. Future major leaguers Gary Sheffield and Derek Bell – along with Team USA standout Ty Griffin – patrolled the diamond for Belmont Heights that summer.

At the Southern Regional Tournament in Gulfport, Belmont Heights opened the action by topping the team from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, 7-1. Behind three home runs and eight RBI from Sheffield, Belmont Heights spanked the team from Logan, West Virginia, 17-2 to advance to the finals.

Against Clarksville, Tennessee, it was pitcher Kirk Walker who did the dominating. The ace of his team’s staff, Walker allowed just two hits and recorded 15 strikeouts in a 2-0 blanking of Tennessee to capture the South Region title.

The manager of the West Virginia team, Roger Gertz, predicted great things in the World Series for Belmont Heights.

“I went to the World Series last year,” he said, “and this team is on the same level as Taiwan. I tell you what, I look for them to beat Taiwan in the finals.”

Belmont Heights certainly had a team built to beat the perennial favorites from Taiwan. First, however, they had to knock out the East Region winner from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. This turned out to be no problem.

On August 26, Belmont Heights emphatically lived up to their reputation as “Taiwan South” by demolishing Pawtucket 20-3 in a five-inning massacre. In this game, Belmont Heights just missed trying the record for most hits in a game, 21, which had been established against them in the 27-0 loss to Taiwan in 1973.

In the U.S. title game against the West Region representative from Kirkland, Washington, Belmont Heights continued their assault on America with a 16-0 lashing. Sheffield and Griffin combined for two homers and nine RBI between them, and Andra Mack pitched six shutout innings for the victory.

“I just don’t know how much better we can get,” Sheffield said after the game.

Despite scoring 36 runs and recording 40 hits in two games, Belmont Heights would face the ultimate test against the team from Taiwan. They were in the midst of their own dominating run, having spanked the Canadian champions 23-0 in the semifinals. These were clearly the only two Little League teams on the planet capable of slowing down the other.

The long-awaited showdown took place on August 30 in front of a crowd of better than 30,000 – which included Republican Vice Presidential nominee George H.W. Bush -- at Howard J. Lamade Stadium.

A one-hour pre-game rain delay and the magnitude of the moment might have triggered some nerves in the team from Tampa. A shaky first inning, which featured three fielding errors, put Belmont Heights behind early 2-0.

“I didn’t expect those errors in the first inning,” Vernard Felder said after the game. “That’s not like us.”

Ty Griffin responded, however, with a solo shot in the bottom of the first to cut the lead in half.

Down 2-1 in the third inning, Belmont Heights’ starting pitcher Kirk Walker gave up back-to-back home runs to Shuh-Shin Li and Sheng-Dean Chen, putting his team in a 4-1 hole. Belmont Heights rallied for a run in the fourth, and Walker kept Taiwan at bay for the next three innings to give his team a chance heading into the bottom of the sixth.

Trailing 4-2, Sheffield scored from third on a controversial call to cut the margin to one run. To many, it appeared as though Taiwan’s first baseman took his foot off the bag before throwing the ball home to try and gun down Sheffield. The umpire called Derek Bell out at first base for the second out of the inning. The following batter, George Hornsby, then struck out to end the dramatic game.

During their amazing run, the team from Belmont Heights picked up some fans in high places, including Tampa resident and New York Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner.

“What a job they did,” Steinbrenner said. “We’ll treat them right. The Belmont kids are champs in my book.”

Thanks to his generosity, the players and staff of the United States champions were treated to a whirlwind trip to New York from September 20-21. The weekend began with pre-game festivities on the field at Yankee Stadium prior to a game between the Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The players lined up with their professional counterparts during the national anthem and posed for a group shot with slugger Reggie Jackson.

The team also toured Yankee Stadium, and capped the day by dining in elegance at the top of the World Trade Center in the Windows on the World restaurant.

Ben Rouse, president of the Belmont Heights Little League, could not have been any prouder of his team.

“Our kids distinguished themselves,” he said. “They played well and they were gentlemen. We would liked to have been champions of the world, but we can’t complain about being champions of this country.”

Belmont Heights Hits Williamsport, 8/22/73

This week, the Tampa Bay area sent a team from Citrus Park to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The boys from Citrus Park joined a long line of successful youth baseball teams from this area to play on the national stage. Win or lose, they have earned an esteemed place in local history.

Another group of youngsters representing Belmont Heights in East Tampa had their shot at Little League glory this week in 1973. Their journey to Williamsport began by winning the state title at a tournament in Auburndale, followed by the Southern Regional Tournament at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg. The Belmont Heights All-Stars entered the tournament on a seven-game winning streak, and won their first two games over teams from Texas and Kentucky before facing South Carolina in the final.

Belmont Heights used a four-run outburst in the sixth inning to hold off South Carolina, 7-3. Their berth in the Little League World Series was the third time in seven years a Tampa area team advanced to Williamsport, but the first time a local team from somewhere other than West Tampa advanced. Following the game, shortstop Barry McNish made a bold prediction: “I really feel we can win the World Series,” he said. “But we will have to give 100 percent.”

Belmont Heights’ manager Zeke Thomas called them the best all-around team he ever coached. Officially the best Little League team in the South -- and the region’s first ever all-black squad -- the Belmont Heights youngsters now had a chance to prove themselves against the best Little League teams from around the world.

Their first challenge was against the team from Canada, whose catcher, 160-pound Jerry Scramstad, opened the scoring by clobbering a hanging curve from Belmont Heights starter Darryl Mitchell for a two-run home run in the first inning. In an early hole, Belmont Heights answered in its half of the first inning with two runs to reverse the momentum.

Belmont Heights went on to score 11 unanswered runs in the 11-2 triumph over Canada. Outfielder Quinton Kincy’s fifth-inning grand slam put an exclamation point on the game, in which he had a total of 6 RBI. After allowing two runs in the first inning, Mitchell settled down and gave up only one hit the rest of the afternoon while striking out 10 batters in six innings.

The triumphant victory earned Belmont Heights a date in the semifinals with powerhouse Taiwan. Zeke Thomas put on a confident face in assessing his team’s chances against Taiwan, whose teams had won the previous two Little League World Series titles.

“[Taiwan] has a great team,” he said. “But I think we can win. We’ve played teams of their caliber before. It’ll just be a case of one good team playing another.”

After the game, neither Thomas nor his team could say they had ever seen a team of Taiwan’s caliber. Taiwan opened its tournament with an 18-0 rout of Germany, Europe’s best. Pitcher Huang Ching-Hu recorded just the third perfect game in LLWS history. He so dominated the German team that only two batters managed to put the ball in play - both weakly hit infield grounders.

On August 22, in his first news conference since March 15, embattled President Richard Nixon announced to reporters that his critics “want me to fail. I’m not going to fail. I’m going to do the best I can.”

Like the president, Belmont Heights would need to do their best not to fail. What happened the next day against Taiwan, however, can only be described as merciless. Despite overwhelming love from a crowd that cheered their every move while often booing Taiwan, no amount of support could have helped. By the end of the second inning, Taiwan had scored 10 runs off pitchers Bobby Graham and Bryce Mattox. Thomas, so optimistic before the game, quickly realized his team simply could not compete with Taiwan.

“As soon as I saw them at bat,” Thomas said, “I knew there was no way we could win.”

Taiwan hit a LLWS-record five home runs in a 20-hit onslaught. Pitcher Kuo Wen-li threw a no-hitter, allowing just one base runner on a walk to second baseman Marlon James. A 13-run sixth inning in which 17 Taiwan batters came to the plate turned the rout into a farce with a final score of 27-0.

Thomas provided the understatement of the day when after the game he said, “I’ve never seen anything like it before and I hope I never see anything like it again.”

Despite the loss, Belmont Heights still had one more game to play with a chance at third place on the line. In a game more resembling baseball than a circus, Belmont Heights showed the heart of a champion against Michigan. Third baseman Lemuel James scored the winning run in the top of the seventh to break a tie, and Darryl Mitchell scattered three hits while fanning 13 to lead Belmont Heights to a 2-1 victory over Michigan. With the win, Belmont Heights could proudly claim to be the second-best team in the country behind only Arizona, victimized 12-0 by Taiwan in the championship.

The whirlwind experience for the kids from Belmont Heights -- many of whom had never been outside Florida -- continued after the Series. Visits to Gettysburg, Washington, D.C., and a Baltimore Orioles game rounded out their memorable week. The team returned to Tampa as heroes, receiving a parade from Al Lopez Field to their home park in Belmont Heights. A dinner banquet that night attended by more than 500 people at the Sweden House restaurant capped the festivities.

Belmont Heights may not have come back to Tampa with the title, but the heart and dignity they showed in the face of adversity has made them an enduring source of pride in a community steeped in rich baseball tradition.