Winning Is Ticket for O.C. Little Leaguers

Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” For a select few parents in this South County community, he might have added, “But you have to pack anyway, and you may be out a little dough, win or lose.”

At this point, the tickets are bought and the bags are packed, and no one is complaining.

If the South Mission Viejo All-Stars win their regional playoff tonight in San Bernardino against the Northern California finalist, Sunnyvale, the next step, as the sportscasters say, is huuuuuuuge:

South Mission Viejo would be the region’s entry in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., where finding a hotel is about as easy as stealing home. If the team loses, parents are still stuck with the round-trip air fare and one night’s stay in Williamsport.

But does anyone care?

“If we win [tonight], we’re going. If we lose, we’re all going home,” said Edie Cusick, 40, whose 11-year-old son, Matt, plays left field and third base. “Either way, it’s been a wonderful ride that none of us would trade for anything.”

For most of the parents on the 13-player team, the trip so far has been an exhilarating journey from the start of the season to now--which most view as having exceeded their wildest dreams. Why, tonight’s game is even being nationally televised on ESPN2.

“I don’t fly, I haven’t flown in 10 years,” said Debbie Kraker, 42, the mother of 12-year-old Brian Kraker, who, like most of his teammates, is taking it all in stride. “Oh, man, this is like big! It’s unbelievable! If we win [tonight], it will be un-be-liev-able!”

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South Mission Viejo’s last victory occurred Wednesday in San Bernardino, when the All-Stars trounced Gresham, Ore., 11 to 1 to advance to the one-game, single-elimination finals of the Little League Western Regional Tournament.

That means returning to the small field between the San Gorgonio Mountains and the dusty asphalt of Interstate 215 for today’s game (first pitch: 6:30 p.m.) with a 16-1 win-loss record and the chance to be crowned the world’s best in Little League.

The All-Stars are trying to equal the successes of Yorba Hills Little League, which won the Western Regional Championships in 1995; the Cypress Little League All-Stars, which won in 1990; and the Northwood Little League of Irvine, which took the same title in 1987.

If they make it to Williamsport, the South Mission Viejo All-Stars would vie with three teams from other regions of the United States for the right to play the best foreign team for the world title.

The boys have done their part, and now the parents are trying to cope with theirs: Flying from John Wayne Airport to Philadelphia first thing Saturday and then heading to Williamsport, where the rooms are booked--win or lose.

Players and coaches will fly to Pennsylvania courtesy of the national Little League organization, which is based in Williamsport. As for the parents, one managed to score a group rate on American Airlines for $279 round trip per person--which is nonrefundable.

But again, nobody cares.

“Would you rather lose one night’s rent in a hotel room or have no place to sleep once you got there?” said Karen Gattis, 42, whose 12-year-old son, Gary, is one of the players and whose husband, Jim Gattis, 44, is the team’s manager.

“Nobody has money to burn, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so none of us minds paying the money up front--and then possibly losing it,” she added.

But even discussing the grim alternative--losing--was enough to make the matriarch of the Gattis household shudder with fear.

“Since we’ve always been a one-game-at-a-time crowd, we’ve always been very hesitant to discuss any travel plans--you know, going or not going,” Karen Gattis said. “Why? ‘Cause baseball’s such a superstitious sport.”

In other words, she said, “Shhhhhhhhh!”

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Up to this point, South Mission Viejo has been involved only in double-elimination competition. Sunnyvale and South Mission Viejo emerged as finalists in the Western Regionals after finishing as the best squads on two blocks of seven teams each.

Tonight’s game is a one-shot-only playoff, meaning the winner goes to Williamsport and the loser goes home, thus increasing the anxiety in both Sunnyvale and South Mission Viejo, which hopes to send its opponent back to the land of downloads and microchips.

The All-Stars’ division championship recently prompted Tony Bennett, 46, whose son, Taylor, 12, plays right field and first base, to make reservations in Williamsport, which is in the Pennsylvania heartland, roughly a three-hour drive from Philadelphia,

The closest he could get was a small motel in Selingsgrove, Pa., which required a seven-day cancellation notice. No good. So, in the meantime, Bennett and most of the other parents reserved rooms at Williamsport’s Genetti Hotel, which requires a $125 deposit.

The Bennetts are hardly alone. Regardless of personal income, most of the families trekking to Williamsport--if, indeed, South Mission Viejo gets to go--are having to share quarters that figure to be as cramped as a World Series dugout.

The Bennett room alone will contain Tony Bennett and his wife, Debbie Bennett, 46, their younger, 9-year-old son, and Charlotte Cross, Debbie’s 92-year-old grandmother.

For Bonnie Elconin, 46, whose 13-year-old, Adam, is a member of the team, a single hotel room may have to hold her and her 10-year-old daughter, Alexi, as well as Elconin’s mother, Sarah Shapiro, 78, of Encino and her mother-in-law, Alice Elconin, 77, of Woodland Hills.

Bonnie’s husband, Allan Elconin, 47, a team coach and former play-by-play announcer for the Anaheim Angels, will be staying with the All-Stars in special barracks set up for the competing teams.

“The remarkable thing to me,” said Tony Bennett, who hopes not to leave his heart in San Bernardino, “is how confident and nonchalant the boys on the team are. It’s the parents who have all the anxiety. The boys are just out there playin’ ball and havin’ fun.”

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Part of that may be due to the kids knowing each other already--six go to Castille Elementary School in Mission Viejo, six others to Montevideo Elementary.

And before the all-star team was picked by a special vote of peers and coaches, many had played together in the South Mission Viejo Little League on individual teams--for six years or more, even since the days when they were preschoolers smacking the ball off a tee.

“If they lose? Geez, I don’t even like to think about it,” said Kraker, one of the team moms. “Sure, they’ll be disappointed, but they’re doing something that none of us ever dreamed would happen anyway. I mean, we’ve been watching this on TV for years, and now, we may be starring in it! Wow. . . .

“Win or lose, we’ll be so proud of these boys, and besides, we’re taking them all to Disneyland . . . win or lose. You can count on it!”