Langley Little Leaguers remember 1998
One of Canada’s best teams to play in Williamsport tournament getting together for 20-year reunion
In a way, losing that heartbreaker to Japan 20 years ago taught Jordan Lennerton how to win.
It’s two decades since the Langley All Stars — 14 boys aged 12 — did what no other Canadian team had done and went undefeated through 16 district, provincial and national championship games, then went undefeated through three games of international round-robin play at the Little League World Series in 1998 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
They lost in the Little League World Series semifinal to Japan, 3-2 in two extra innings, after having beaten Japan 10-5 in the round robin.
“Williamsport was the start of my career of really, really wanting to win,” Lennerton said. “The fact we didn’t win ... we all felt we could have won and possibly should have won. It makes you want it even more.”
The experience propelled Lennerton, now 32, to an NCAA College World Series championship with the Oregon State Beavers and a 10-year minor league career in the Detroit Tigers and Atlanta Braves organizations as a first baseman, designated hitter and relief pitcher.
Lennerton hit two home runs and pitched a game in the ’98 Little League World Series and is now the hitting coach for the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades and a coach at the Yard Baseball Academy in Chilliwack.
This Sunday he’ll join his fellow ’98 Langley Little Leaguers for a reunion.
Dave Mihalech, who coached the Langley team that year, said the boys and their families were the most harmonious group he has worked with.
He figures there will be a slew of wonder-filled stories swapped back and forth, with the benefit of 20 years’ hindsight.
“We had great pitching,” Mihalech said. “But also, of our 14 players, seven hit lefthanded.
“Williamsport was surreal. The kids stayed in a compound, their parents couldn’t even visit them. Games were televised, there are 35,000 people in the stands.”
Mihalech has been watching VHS tapes of the ’98 games, video he can’t wait to share with his former players.
“I haven’t seen the videos in 19 years,” former leadoff hitter Andrew Bell said from Victoria, where he works for Thompson Community Services. “I mean, who has a VHS player? It’ll be cool.”
Bell played ball into his 20s, at schools in California and Texas, and in the Western Major Baseball League. He said Williamsport seems like “forever ago, but it also feels like it was last week.”
“I’ve still never played in front of a crowd as big as at Williamsport,” the former shortstop said. “And I’ve never been treated any better by any league I’ve played in as I was when I was 12.
“We were treated like kings. We had our own cafeteria, our own pool with the other teams from all over the world. We got whatever we wanted: If you wanted ice cream, you got ice cream; if you wanted a sandwich, you got a sandwich.”
Today the former Langley All Stars teammates can be found spread across the Lower Mainland, on Vancouver Island, in Alberta, in Portland and even in Dubai.
“Bottom line,” Mihalech said, “this group of players we coached were good in this community, not just outstanding athletes but outstanding people. They’re just a special group.”
Little League is among several minor baseball organizations in B.C. and Canada, and teams from British Columbia have dominated the national championship in recent years. When the Whalley Allstars won this year’s Canadian Little League championship in Quebec to advance to the World Series, they became the 13th team from the province to do so in 14 years.
As Whalley coach Mike Marino said, his boys probably won’t fully appreciate their Williamsport experience — the team finished 2-2 after a 9-4 loss to Puerto Rico Wednesday — until they can reflect back on it years from now.
Only Valleyfield Quebec, with eight national championships, has more than Whalley’s six. Trail has five, White Rock South Surrey four and Hastings Community three.
It is often harder getting out of your district and winning provincials in B.C. than winning the national title.
For perspective, B.C. has won half — 27 of 54 — of the Canadian Little League championships it has contested. Before that, B.C. competed in a Pacific Northwest championship for a berth at Williamsport, with Alberta, Oregon and Washington.
By comparison, Quebec and Ontario have won just 13 championships apiece since the national tournament began in 1958.