A week of baseball and hopefully more begins today for the Logan County Little League All-Stars, but whatever happens in Indianapolis in the next
week cannot diminish the lofty place this team jolds in local sports history.
Undoubtedly they are the most successful Little League team ever in Russellville/Logan County. We have to assume they are also the best team ever.
Kentucky state champ Logan opens play in the Great Lakes Regional of Little League Baseball Friday at 4:30 agaubst Hamilton West Side, the Ohio
state champion. They also have games scheduled against Bartholomew County National (Indiana) Sunday at 4:30. West Madison American (Wisconsin) Monday
at 7:30, and Grosse Pointe Farms-City (Michigan) Wednesday at 10 a..m.
The only one of the six state champions not on their schedule is the team from Illinois. After a week of play, only two teams will be eliminated.
The other four go into Thursday's semifinals. The last two standing will play in the finals on Saturday in a game to be televised by ESPN.
There's no reason to believe the Kentucky state champions cannot be the team which survives all this and heads to the Little League World Series
in Williamsport, Penn. They've been winners all along the way.
This state championship is no fluke. Most of these guys were also on the team which became the first Logan County Little League state champions
two years ago as 9-10 year-olds. The younger group doesn't advance past state.
Members of this historic group include Tucker Baldwin, Daniel Beatty, Caleb Bruner, Barrett Croslin, Zach Denny, Matt Harper, Joe Holliday, Desmon
Quarles, Jacob Wood and Ian Woodall.
Kevin Gettings is the coach. When they won the state two years ago, he was writing stories of the game for me at the N-D&L at no charge. He
just wanted to get the word out. Now he's coaching the team, volunteerig countless hours to the development of these players, even though he doesn't
have a son on the team. He's also directed them to some wonderful experiences with a travel team.
Ronnie "Pee Wee" Croslin is a coach. He was the head coach when the team won the younger state title in 2007.
Earlier this year the travel team played in a tournament held at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Being on the road is nothing new
to them. In fact, one of the players, Barrett Croslin, made the trip to Dodgeville, Wisc. in 1999 when the first local team to earn a berth in a
multi-state tournament went on the long road. Barrett's brother Matt was a member of that Bees team.
The Bees-- like the current Logan County squad-- had a coach who wasn't a parent of a player. In fact, neither Manager Keith McReynolds nor Coach
Rich Ewald had a son on that 16-year-old team.
The parents and grandparents of these players are having a wonderful time, but they've had to make sacrifices, too. Bearing he expense of going on
extended road trips is tough at any time. Some might have given up being paid on the jobs they're missing for this. In the economy of 2008, it's got to
be challenging. It's a time to cherish, however. There are no guarantees anything like this will ever happen again. After all we've gone almost 40
years as a sanctioned little league and never had a team to advance this far before.
I think of the hundreds of people who've been associated with Russellville Little League over the years who never got to enjoy anything like this.
It's also an appropriate time to remember some of the early stalwarts of the league, including Jack Whipple and the late Bobby Sawyer, who led the
Russellville Optimist Club in the fund-raising effort to create City-County Park. Jack and the late Starling Murphy are among those who gave of their
time as league presidents and board members. We also should pause to think of the late Caleb Slaton, for whom the little league field is named.
The LoJo
The first local Little League team to make it to state didn't appear until this century. Greg Meacham coached the 11-12 team which made history.
Members were Zach Knuckles, Blake Meacham, Tyler Meacham, Wesley Rutherford, Kevin Saunders, Tyler Swift, Just Rust, Justin Harris, DeShon Bellamy,
Jarae Grinter, Travis Hooper and Ian Cook.
Helping coach were Robin Rutherford, Tracey Knuckles, Rick Cook, and Travis Harris.
Many of those players were part of the Logan County Babe Ruth team which finished as state runner-up the following year in the 13-year-old
division. They were joined by some key components, including Chad Taylor and Kyle Lyons of the Auburn league and John Kenner of the Lewisburg league.
The LoJo
One of the most successful teams of this age group ever around here couldn't even legally be called a Little League all-star team. What we called
"Auburn Little League" was really Auburn Youth Baseball, since the league was not sanctioned by Little League Baseball. No attempt was made to sanction
it until a few years later,
This group of Auburn players won eight tournament in their four years as all-stars. As 10-year-olds they won all three in which they played. When
they were 12, they again won all three. In fact, they never lost a game, let alone a tournament in those two years. They didn't allow their opponents
to score a run until the final inning of the last tournament.
League President Jackie Jessup coached them as 12-year-olds with help from Brian Stanley and Grant Minton.
A starting lineup usually found Seth Barnett on the mound with Ben Rogers catching, Brian Fox at first base, Ryan Roche at second, Kelley Jordan
at short, and B.A. Jessup at third. Kevin Jackson and Adam Hendricks were in the outfield. Barnett was the centerfielder, but when he was on the mound,
Ben Pawley or Adam Clark were most likely to be the other starter. Other team members were Codey Lewis and the only 11-year-old, Matt Wilson, who also
played with them as a 9-year-old on the 10-year-old champs.
We'll never know how they would have done in sanctioned play.
We do know some of them had outstanding high school careers for Logan County High School, playing on championship teams. In fact, Jordan was the
starting shortstop as a freshman for what may have been the Cougar's best-ever team in 2000. Jackson, Roche and Barnett also became key high school
players. Clark started for both LCHS and Bowling Green High as a football quarterback, and Rogers played high school basketball. Jordan and Roche
played college baseball.
We look forward to the futures of the 2008 Logan County All-Stars. But there's a lot of baseball still to be played in their Little League
careers. We wish them well as they continue to make history.