There's No Joy In Woodinville -- Little Leaguers Lose A Big Bid

WOODINVILLE

The television broadcast ends, the commentators sign off and, 1,220 miles away from the action, it's a good three minutes before anyone speaks.

The Woodinville West Little League all-star baseball team has just lost a 3-1 heartbreaker of a nationally televised regional championship game in San Bernardino, Calif. In the living room of this large, suburban house in Woodinville last night, all the air is suddenly gone and a community's dream has just fizzled away.

"You're just kind of numb," said Janine Nicol, mother of Cory Nicol, the 12-year-old with a smooth glove who patrolled second base all night.

Fifteen minutes earlier, Janine, her husband, Bob, and about 30 others had been anxiously waiting for the final out that would propel Woodinville to Williamsport, Pa., and the Little League World Series. Woodinville would have been the first team from Washington to make the tournament since Kirkland won the world title in 1982.

The local team was up 1-0, the sparkling cider was ready, and the fantastic dream of these 11- and 12-year-old kids was about to come true.

The trips to the bathroom were quicker, the pizza in the kitchen was getting colder, and the eruptions were coming louder from the crowd moving closer and closer to the television, tuned to ESPN2.

Five innings of cautious lines - "I'm just really proud of where they are, no one expected us to get here" and "We're just glad they're hanging in there" - had changed dramatically into chants and claps and peeping through fingers over their eyes.

"I'm real calm - just kidding," Bob said. "I'm kind of in shock right now. To be this close and not go would be a heartbreaker."

A few feet away, Janine barely got this out: "I think I'm getting sick, I'm shaking inside, I'm quivering."

Meanwhile, Michael Wagner, 16, who plays baseball at Woodinville High School, was fidgeting in disbelief.

"Some of these kids used to run around our house and now, to see them on ESPN, yeah, I'm pretty nervous," he said. "Now I know what my parents feel like when they watch me play."

But it was a good nervous buzzing around the room. People were still talking, "go get 'em boys" still peppered the air and everyone was feeling confident.

But that was before the Cypress, Calif., team tied the game in the sixth, and way before the next inning, when a tall, lanky kid named Matt Swims smashed a game-winning two-run homer into right-center field.

Now it's all over, and the 10,000-plus pro-Cypress crowd is going nuts and throwing trash into the air in celebration, and Little Leaguers from California are mobbing Swims at the plate.

And what can anyone in Woodinville do but throw a hat onto the floor or take a deep breath or just stare hard at the television screen?

"I'm disappointed," Janine said. "I think they'll have a quiet night tonight. But it will be good to see Cory tomorrow."

The team will be arriving at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 7:44 tonight on Delta Flight 2049.