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This game will
never grow old

YOU watched it again yesterday, didn't you?

Yeah, me, too.

They still won.

It was still great.

Yesterday, almost a week after it happened, Ewa Beach still beat Curacao to win the Little League World Series Championship, this time on ESPN Classic.

And yesterday, we sat down and watched it again.

That was the question a state asked, as soon as it was over: "When will they show it again?"

The game. That was the magic, wasn't it? Not the parades or the airport crush or the school assemblies or any of that other stuff that's happened since.

Photo-oppers trying to attach themselves to this team? That kind of scrapes the finish off the fairy tale. Twelve-year-olds giving autographs? For some reason, that wipes the pixie dust right out of my eyes.

No. They should be playing baseball. That's what 12-year-olds do.

That game. That's what got us. That's why we watched again, yesterday, even though we already knew the score. That's why we sat down, and taped it, and watched it, even though we'd already felt every thrill.

And we felt them all again, even when we knew they were coming, this time.

There was something about that game. Maybe it was that the Ewa Beach boys roared back twice when most teams might have folded both times. Maybe it was that manager Layton Aliviado didn't even argue about a blown call that could have crushed his team. Instead, all he did was walk out to his guys and tell them it was OK, just get the next one, let's go.

Wow.

And they did.

Maybe it was that we could see the families in the stands with tears in their eyes as the game was going on. This one was that chicken-skin.

Every player on the team did something special to win this one. That was the best part. Each and every one.

The joyous innocence on Layson Aliviado's face meant just as much as the glowering menace on that of Vonn Fe'ao.

Ty Tirpak's bunt was just as big as Alaka'i Aglipay's home run.

And it was the guy who hadn't had a hit all day, Michael Memea, who came up with the swing that won it all.

Wouldn't you know it, Brent Musberger's reaction was exactly the same, yesterday. But then, so was mine.

I'll skip the assemblies, where they get feted in front of the whole school. Somehow, I don't want to see youngsters signing autographs for their fellow kids.

But that ball is still going, on my VCR tape. That's where I freeze it. Memea's finger is still pointed to the sky.

That game. We will always have that game.