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The summer of 1969 continues to loom large in the public imagination. The summer singer Bryan Adams proclaimed were “the best days” of his life featured events of global and regional importance. The Moon landing and Chappaquiddick stand out to some, but ask anyone from West Tampa what they remember about that summer and one thing comes to mind: baseball.
The West Tampa Little League All-Stars, led by pitcher John Tagliarino, took the area by storm as they marched toward the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. An intimidating figure on the mound nicknamed “The Train,” the 5-foot-8, 180-pound Tagliarino pitched West Tampa into the Southern Regional Tournament in St. Petersburg on August 13. His first-inning home run and 11 strikeouts were enough in a 2-0 victory over Nashville, Tennessee.
In the regional finals, West Tampa sent to the mound the second-half of its killer 1-2 punch, Larry Rodriguez. In front of 4,000 fans at Al Lang Memorial Stadium, the West Tampa boys survived a thrilling seven-inning affair with a 1-0 triumph against Charleston, West Virginia. Herbie Arroyo scored the winning run from third as a ground ball hit by Nelson Garcia went between West Virginia hurler Greg Hansen’s legs.
Rodriguez pitched a gem for West Tampa, striking out 16 and allowing just two base runners. The victory, West Tampa's ninth straight tournament shutout, propelled them team to the big dance in Williamsport. The appearance would mark the second in three years for 12-year-olds representing West Tampa. This edition hoped to fare better, however, than the 1967 team that fell in the tournament’s opening round.
Arnold White, the Southern Regional Little League director, predicted a big tournament for the West Tampa team, citing the combination of physical size and the approach taken to the game by manager Emilio Echevarria’s squad.
“If they continue to play the type of game they are capable of,” White said, “I see no reason why they can’t go all the way.
If the boys had any nerves going into the tournament’s first game, they were put on hold for a day by a rainout that canceled the opening day of competition. So instead, West Tampa took to the field a day later on August 20 against a team of Americans – primarily the sons of military personnel – from Wiesbaden, West Germany.
In front of 7,000 fans, “The Big Train” pitched as if unfazed by the extra day between starts, fanning 16 batters and no-hitting the team from West Germany. Tagliarino came within one strikeout of the tournament record for a single game, and chipped in at the plate by adding a home run.
West Germany scored its only run of the game following a walk to leadoff hitter Paul Weissenborn. A combination of passed balls and a wild pitch allowed the runner to reach the plate for their only run of the game.
Dennis Valdes broke the 1-1 tie with a game-winning home run for West Tampa in the fifth inning to give his team its decisive 2-1 lead. Cuban-born outfielder Raul Gonzalez made perhaps the catch of the tournament in the sixth inning for West Tampa, with a running grab of a line drive to preserve the victory.
“That catch,” Echevarria said, “saved the day.”
For his part, however, Echevarria expressed concern with the lack of hits by his squad, which produced just four on the afternoon.
“We need to hit like we have in the past if we expect to get by California,” he said.
Unfortunately for West Tampa, they actually produced fewer hits (3) in the ensuing showdown against the team from Santa Clara, California. Santa Clara, sparked by a leadoff hit by future major league All-Star Carney Lansford, touched starter Larry Rodriguez for two runs in the first, but West Tampa rebounded with three runs in the third inning to regain the lead by one.
The wheels fell off in the fourth inning, as an fielding error at short by Randy Ferlita allowed two runs to score, giving Santa Clara a 4-3 lead. Ferlita turned in two defensive gems in the third inning, but fell victim to a tough hop off the bat of Jerry Hinkle. Still, the damage had been done and West Tampa would not threaten the rest of the way.
If the boys were stung by their defeat, they didn’t show it in the consolation game against Elyria, Ohio. Tagliarino – denied the individual game strikeout record in his previous start – shattered it against Ohio by striking out 22 batters. He homered again in what turned out to be West Tampa’s only run in a game that ended in a 1-1 tie
after nine innings.
West Tampa finished the tournament tied for third, at the time the best finish by a local team at Williamsport. A parade through Ybor City and downtown, as well as a banquet at the Sweden House restaurant, awaited the team upon their return.
Mayor Dick Greco even proclaimed August 26 “Welcome Back, West Tampa Day.”
“West Tampa did a great job in the world tournament and has made Tampa very proud,” he said. “Tampa’s name has gone all over the world because of their achievements.”
This would not be the last time kids from the Tampa area would make it to Williamsport, but their run forty years ago has proven to be a lasting highlight from a very memorable summer.
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.
