N.J.’s Elo revisits title scene Star of 2004 team now leading cheers

BANGOR – Recognize the burly youngster in a black-and-white U.S. East jersey?

If you followed the Senior League World Series last year, you might. He’s Jason Elo, a first baseman-pitcher on last year’s Freehold Township, N.J., team that won the World Series championship.

Elo is back in Bangor this year, but the 17-year-old is too old to play. Instead he’s in town to cheer on his former teammates.

Elo, who played ball for his high school team and a summer league squad, was working at the beginning of the week and so he arrived in Bangor later than most of the fans.

But he still felt welcome.

“I walked into the hotel and I was like, I feel home again,” he said.

Elo watched Wednesday evening’s 12-2 win over the U.S. Southwest team from a corner of the Mansfield Stadium stands above the Southwest dugout. He did play-by-play for a local New Jersey television station that plans to show the game on tape delay.

Elo said he’s also done some traveling around the area – the sightseeing he didn’t have time to do as a player last year.

“I’m just hanging out now, doing something else besides getting ready for another game,” he said.

Elo’s jersey bears one distinguishing characteristic from those his former teammates wear during games – it’s got his name sewn on the back.

The jerseys were just one present the team got after winning the 2004 title. The rest of the swag included watches, rings, signs and dinners.

“We got a lot of stuff,” he said with a smile.

Elo went 2-0 in two complete games with a 2.00 ERA last year.

Yankees fans in Iowa

So just what is the team from Urbandale, Iowa, doing with batting helmets that have the Yankees’ insignia on the front?

And in Red Sox nation, no less.

Two reasons. First, one of the coaches from the U.S. Central team coaches a Little League team called the Yankees. Second, some of the guys on the Senior League team are actually Yankees fans despite the fact they’re native Iowans.

“My dad’s always been a Yankees fan and his dad was, too,” said pitcher Brad Watson, who tossed a one-hitter against the U.S. Southwest on Thursday afternoon.

Jared Norris admitted to also liking the Yankees. His dad does, too.

The Yankees helmets haven’t exactly gone unnoticed around Mansfield Stadium.

“People had been giving us crap for that,” Watson said.