It wasn't exactly the Bad News Bears, but it wasn't your average, ordinary little league baseball team that captured the Western Boys Baseball Association World Series title Saturday in Helper.
The Central City All-Stars, which hadn't even won a postseason game in 20 years, capped an incredible year with a 15-10 victory over Santa Monica, Calif."They went from the outhouse to the penthouse," said Central City Coach Dave Spatafore.
The Central City Stars won seven of nine games in two tournaments to earn the right to represent the Salt Lake area in the World Series and then swept three games in Helper, winning two with amazing comebacks.
What made the feat more remarkable was the fact that Central City wasn't working with the financial support that most teams enjoy. In one of the tournaments, the Central City team had half its bats disallowed because of their substandard condition and also had a couple of their chest protectors break.
"We don't have the same type of league as others in the valley," said Spatafore. "We have maybe 140 kids, while some leagues in Sandy have as many as 1,200."
Many of the Central City kids, who come from an area between 2nd and 33rd South and I-15 and 13th East, are from low-income families, and a large number come from broken homes, said Spatafore. "A lot of kids didn't even have phones and we'd have to track them down by their addresses," he said.
In the first game of the World Series, the Central City All-Stars found themselves down 9-0 to American Fork National before they even had an out in the first inning. But R.L. Ellis came on to pitch one-hit ball and Danny Rivera smashed two home runs, leading Central City to an 18-9 victory.
In the second game, Rivera pitched three innings and knocked another home run as Central City beat Idaho Falls Northeast 8-3.
In Saturday's final, Central City came back from a 9-1 deficit after four innings, thanks to Rivera's two home runs, the second a grand slam capping a 10-run 5th inning. He also got the save in relief of Brent Zumwalt.
"The kids never gave up," said Spatafore. "We told them they had to learn how to win - and now they've forgotten how to lose."
In other games Saturday, Idaho Falls Northeast captured third place with a 14-7 win over Price National, Helper defeated Cache South for fourth place with a 21-18 win in 10 innings and American Fork National took seventh with a 10-6 win over Providence.