NASCAR driver Kyle Petty honored at LLWS (PA SportsTicker)
August 29, 2010
By GENARO C. ARMAS AP Sports Writer
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP)—Long before he won a NASCAR race, Kyle Petty strapped on catcher’s gear and played Little League baseball on Saturday afternoons growing up in North Carolina.
His father didn’t watch many of the games.
“Absentee,” Petty said when he asked about how involved his father, NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty, was with his youth baseball days. “My mother was my Little League parent. … Obviously, playing on Saturdays, when my father raced, (he) was always gone somewhere.”
Petty was enshrined Sunday in the Little League Museum Hall of Excellence, honored in a ceremony at Lamade Stadium before the start of the World Series title game between Japan and Hawaii.
Petty understood why his father couldn’t be there often to watch his Little League games in Randleman, N.C., – racing was the family business. Petty said one of his lasting memories from Little League was learning during a game that his father had wrecked during a race at Darlington.
He played baseball, football and basketball growing up, though those were just activities to help pass the time before he was old enough to drive.
“All I ever wanted to do was be a race car driver,” Petty said. “I was probably 9 or 10 years old before I realized not everybody’s father had a race car.”
Petty made his Little League all-star teams, though those squads never got far. They would practice for about 10 days “and we knew our season was going to be over this coming Saturday.”
Now a NASCAR TV analyst, Petty said he learned about teamwork and sportsmanship while playing youth baseball. His advice to Little League parents is to help teach children to understand how to accept defeat, which will help them learn to take winning gracefully.
As for his days at the plate, Petty was never a good hitter.
“I could get hit,” he said laughing. “The reason I was the catcher was because I was the biggest kid. They knew I could stop the ball.”
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INSTANT REPLAY: Little League officials are pleased with how the expanded instant replay system worked at this year’s World Series.
For the first time, managers were allowed one replay challenge per game, similar to how the NFL allows coaches replay challenges. Also, replays were expanded from just outfield fence or boundary calls to close calls on the base paths.
As of Sunday’s consolation game, replay had been used 16 times during the 10-day tournament, with eight calls upheld and eight overturned, according to league vice president Lance Van Auken. The total delay for all 16 calls was about 52 seconds.
One of the concerns entering the tournament was how much replay would slow the game. League president Stephen Keener said the system would be evaluated after the series, though it would likely be kept in its current form next year.
ESPN provides the video that a replay team of a Little League umpires and officials reviews to determine whether a call should be upheld.
“At this point, I would assume we could continue to use it,” Keener said. “We’ll evaluate all aspects of it, and we’ll try to make it even better.”
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ROOTING INTEREST: The Waipio Little League all-star team from Waipahu, Hawaii, that played in the championship game has a big fan back home.
“All of Hawaii is extremely proud of the Waipio All-Stars who will now represent the United States for the 2010 Little League World Series Championship title,” Gov. Linda Lingle said in a statement. “They have shown tremendous respect and aloha for their competitors and for the sport of baseball that they clearly love.”
The Hawaii players and coaches, and many of their families, have been on the road for tournament ball since Aug. 4, and a statement from Lingle’s office said travel expenses have reportedly exceeded $10,000 per player. The Hawaii Children’s Foundation was accepting tax-deductible donations to help the Waipio team defray costs.
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CURVEBALLS: One of the volunteer hosts for the Taiwan team introduced the players to a cheer unique to central Pennsylvania. “We are … Penn State,” the Taiwan players were taught to chant at the players’ cafeteria. State College, where Penn State plays, is about 90 minutes southwest of South Williamsport. … Players from last year’s World Series-winning team from Chula Vista, Calif., were in attendance, wearing their powder-blue “Chula Vista” shirts and holding green tea leaves passed on to them by Hawaii fans who have been bringing them to games for good luck. … Pearland, Texas, lost to Taiwan, 14-2 in the consolation game, though that that didn’t prevent the Texans from partaking in a Little League tradition. They jogged back out of the dugout and ran to the center field wall to pay homage to the bust of Howard J. Lamade, the stadium’s namesake. “We need to pray for these kids. I don’t know how they adjust to being regular kids again,” Texas manager Mike Orlando joked about his players’ 10-day run as Little League stars.
