Little League a big hit in major league clubhouses

<p>Torii Hunter forgot about the Tigers and White Sox for a couple hours Thursday. He wanted to catch the Little League World Series.</p><p>The Little Leaguers are a hit in major league clubhouses.</p><p>"I tell you in Major League Baseball, Little Leaguers are like heroes. We watch these games faithfully," the Minnesota Twins Gold Glove outfielder said Thursday during a brief late-morning visit to South Williamsport.</p><p>"Some of these guys have the major-league demeanor down pat," Hunter said.</p><p>Hunter and Orioles reliever LaTroy Hawkins took a short flight from Baltimore, where the Twins and Orioles were playing a mid-week series, to promote "The Torii Hunter Project" and the Little League Urban Initiative, programs designed to encourage more children in urban areas to play baseball.</p><p>Hunter and Hawkins said baseball must do a better job of marketing marquee stars and grab children's attention at a younger age.</p><p>"Baseball isn't a sport you can pick up at 13 or 14 years old, unless you are a remarkable athlete," Hawkins said. "So you have to get kids at a young age. We are talking like 5 or 6, like in T-ball."</p><p>The major leaguers, who watched a couple of exhibition games involving urban initiative teams, left in the early afternoon, with plenty of time to make it to Camden Yards for Thursday night's game.</p><p>For at least a couple hours, they felt like kids again.</p><p>"When we drove up to the complex, we were like, 'Man, wow.'" Hunter said. "Both of us couldn't believe we were here at the Little League World Series."</p><p>___</p><p>LITTLE IDOLS:@ Now that the field has been whittled down from the original 16 teams, the remaining squads at the Little League World Series get the star treatment.</p><p>They're easy to spot _ they're the players in the crisp, clean uniforms who march in a row between the practice fields and batting cages on the way to games. The crowds part, and the players walk through to cheers.</p><p>The attention did shift Thursday when Hunter and Hawkins walked the grounds. One Little Leaguer's face turned pink when he saw the Twins star center fielder.</p><p>"I saw him hyperventilating," Hunter said. "I saw he was crying, and I thought, 'Am I Britney Spears?'"</p><p>___</p><p>THE OTHER SIDE:@ Little League president Stephen Keener said he had watched every minute of every Little League World Series for the past 26 years.</p><p>The streak ended this year, with good reason.</p><p>Keener's son Nick pitches and plays right field on a Babe Ruth team from Williamsport that is playing in that organization's world series for 13 to 15-year-olds at Clifton Park, N.Y., outside Albany. Keener drove up to watch his son's games Sunday night and Monday morning.</p><p>Keener said he wasn't worried about Little League World Series operations, though he was a little nervous about seeing Nick on the field.</p><p>"I have a much greater appreciation for the stress, anxiety and costs" of getting children to a tournament, Keener said. "And what parents have to go through to experience this with their children."</p><p>___</p><p>TEAM ANTHEM:@ They traveled from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia to play in the Little League World Series, but before Thursday's semifinal game, the Transatlantic region champion had the U.S. national anthem played for them.</p><p>The Arabian American Little League team is made up of children whose American parents work for Middle East oil companies.</p><p>The squad advanced to the international semifinals this year after failing to win a game in 2005. They played Kawaguchi City, Japan on Thursday.</p><p>___</p><p>ACE ZAMORA:@ Matamoros, Mexico, has a berth in Saturday's international finals in large part because of Omar Zamora.</p><p>The 13-year-old right-hander is 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA in two starts over 10 innings and has 23 strikeouts. Zamora is also hitting .500 on 7-of-14 hitting with six runs scored.</p>

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