Airport strike fouls Tbilisi travel plans

BANGOR – In many cases, the baseball games are the easy part of participating in an international baseball tournament such as the Senior League World Series.

That surely will be the case for the team from the capital city of Tbilisi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which earned its airfare to Bangor by winning the Europe-Middle East-Africa region.

The team could barely get here from there.

According to Little League vice president of operations Joe Losch, the team was split into two groups for its trip from Georgia to Maine. One group flew British Airways, while the other group flew Air France.

The Air France contingent flew from Warsaw, Poland, site of the EMEA regional, to Paris, where mechanical problems forced their originally scheduled flight to Boston to be canceled.

But that was nothing compared to the British Airways contingent, which flew from Warsaw to London – only to be caught in the middle of a 24-hour walkout by Heathrow Airport workers that caused more than 500 flights to be canceled and stranded about 70,000 travelers.

“They basically sat in the airport for a day and a half until they could get that cleared up so they could get on a flight to Boston,” Losch said. “We had no knowledge of when they were finally going to get here, we had an idea but nothing definite.”

The Air France contingent arrived in time for Saturday night’s SLWS opening ceremonies, while the British Airways contingent didn’t arrive until about 3:25 a.m. Sunday – without all its luggage, including baseball equipment – after SLWS tournament director Mike Brooker arranged a late-night bus ride to get the players from Logan Airport in Boston to Bangor.

While tournament officials in Bangor were sought donations of baseball gloves for the team Sunday, when the Georgians might get their luggage remains up in the air.

According to a report from London, as of Saturday night some 10,000 pieces of luggage had not been returned to their owners, with no timetable on when that would take place.

But with the team finally reunited in Bangor, it could return its focus on its first-ever appearance in the SLWS.

“The players who were here [Saturday] night were just in awe,” said Losch. “They’re just tickled to death to be here. We’re trying to build our European program, and to give them a chance to play at this level only gives them more incentive to go back home and develop more leagues.”

The Tbilisi team was scheduled to face defending SLWS champion Freehold Township, N.J., at 8 p.m. Sunday in its first game of pool play.

Hawaiians blend books, baseball

Among the many teams with high hopes entering the 2005 Senior League World Series are the U.S. West champions from Pearl City, Hawaii.

Pearl City reached the U.S. West championship game a year ago before losing to the El Rio Senior All-Stars of Oxnard, Calif. The Oxnard team went on to reach the 2004 SLWS title game, where it lost 10-1 to Freehold Township, N.J.

Six players are back from last year’s Pearl City, which this summer was 12-0 in tournament play heading into Sunday’s SLWS opener against Agana, Guam, as well as four players from the Pearl City team that qualified for the 2004 Junior League World Series for players ages 13 and 14.

Pearl City survived several close calls in its run to this year’s Senior League World Series, among them 3-1 and 2-1 victories against rival Hilo, Hawaii – the 2003 SLWS champion – in its state tournament, and a 1-0 win over Milpitas, Calif., followed by a 2-0 victory over Palmdale, Calif., in the semifinals and final of the U.S. West tourney.

The bulk of the team also played for the same manager, Gary Nakamoto, for Pearl City High School last spring and won its state championship.

“We knew the team that beat us last year [Oxnard] made it to the finals here, so we hoped to do well this year,” said Nakamoto.

But while baseball is the focus of attention for the Pearl City team this week, there’s also book work to be done.

The Hawaiian school year began on Monday, Aug. 1 – the day after the team left for the mainland to begin play in the U.S. West regional. But the players have brought their textbooks with them, and Nakamoto schedules study hall periods several days a week.

“But not every day,” he said. “We’re here to have fun, too.”