Though the kids of Kirkland are grown, their '82 World Series memories remain
At thirtysomething, Cody Webster sits on a couch with the Mariners game on TV and a scrapbook on his coffee table. The photos have faded in the 19 years since Webster and the Kirkland National All-Star team won the 1982 Little League World Series, but not the memories from a summer as the nation's most-favored son.
Webster appeared on "Good Morning America," was interviewed by Tom Seaver and turned down an offer to appear with Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show." At least one baby was named after Webster. The 5-by-7 photo of the doe-eyed infant named Cody is mixed among newspaper articles and letters stashed at the back of a scrapbook so full the memories overflow.
"I just had a big game at the perfect time," Webster said. "It just happened to be that was my day."
He pitched a two-hit shutout, hit a home run and became a national hero after Kirkland's 6-0 victory ended Taiwan's streak of five consecutive championships.
Webster has lived with his Little League legacy ever since. For better and at times for worse. Now 31, Webster embraces the memories of a summer when 14 Kirkland kids became the first team from Washington to win the title. They were also the last Puget Sound-area team to reach Williamsport, Pa.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Until this season. Tomorrow, Bainbridge Island's All-Stars get the same once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the Kirkland team had in 1982.
ABC television provided the stage, and Webster was big enough to fill it. He was a 5-foot-7, 174-pound 12-year-old with a fastball his coach still calls dynamite.
The victory was a national story. Webster got his first hint when the team's return flight landed and his picture was on the front page of both local papers.
He was in Chicago, not Seattle.
A bigger reception waited back home. Police cars escorted the Kirkland team's bus from Sea-Tac Airport, President Reagan sent a telegram and the players rode through town in Corvettes for a victory parade. Webster threw out the first pitch at a Mets game, the team was flown to Milwaukee for the World Series and there were countless local appearances at Seahawks, Mariners and Huskies games.
"You name it, we did it," Webster said. "Every single night for a good month it seemed we had something to do."
Their legacy lasted far longer. For more than a decade, ABC's Wide World of Sports began with Webster lifting first baseman Mark Peterson after the victory, their celebration billed as "the thrill of victory."
"I've been replaced now, which is probably best," Webster said.
Other things have stayed the same. Mike Adams lives in Oregon, but is still known as "Moose." He was the first of three Kirkland players who played professional baseball. Six played Division I college baseball, but only Dave Keller is still actively involved in the game, coaching baseball at Spokane Falls Community College.
Chad Hartvigson, the youngest player on the team, had the longest playing career. In college, he set Washington's career strikeout record before starting a six-year minor-league career. He reached Class AAA in the San Francisco Giants organization, yet he still calls his team's All-Star run his best experience in baseball.
"Every kid dreams of getting the opportunity to play on a worldwide TV," said Hartvigson, now a financial adviser who lives in Seattle. "To play on a team with a group of guys you grew up with and beat a team from the Far East, it's pretty special."
Webster was the center of attention, the biggest player on the team and a dominating pitcher who threw 75 mph. In the title game, he hit the longest home run in World Series history, and afterward, his teammates celebrated while he stood on the mound to pose with the home-run ball. He held it on his fingertips as if it were an egg. He answered questions in a monotone as half a dozen photographers clustered around.
"Little League, that was definitely my best," Webster said.
In high school, Webster was a starting lineman on Juanita's state-champion football team and pitched for the baseball team that won the state title. He pitched one season at Eastern Washington.
"It was hard for me," he said. "I mean I had a lot of pressure throughout my baseball career to produce. It just got to the point when I was 17, 18, 19. I just wasn't as good anymore. It's just a fact."
Today, Webster lives on the Sammamish Plateau and drives a black Jeep to the building-supply company in Maltby, where he supervises the shipment of building materials to Hawaii. He coached Kirkland's American Legion team until two years ago, and is considering completing his college degree so he can teach.
As a teenager, Webster grew tired of discussing the World Series. The underlying question was always why he was no longer as dominant as when he was 12. He grew only four more inches, but has grown up to put the accomplishments in perspective.
"I don't know what else you would want to do if you could play baseball at age 12," Webster said.
He watched a tape of the game earlier this year with a friend and flashed back to 1982 when the style was tight jeans and feathered hair, and Kirkland prepared for every game by listening to Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger."
They were kids who played like pros. Grade-schoolers who practiced twice a day, ran wind sprints at midnight and played for a coach who took three months off from his job as a longshoreman to manage the team.
"We took it pretty serious," said Brian Avery, a reserve on the team. "Nobody told us we were little kids. We pretty much thought we were big-leaguers."
Manager Don Cochran and assistant Pat Downs taught the fundamentals, but scouted with a radar gun. They clocked opposing pitchers, recorded speeds and prepared the team at batting practice by setting the pitching machine accordingly.
Webster threw the hardest of anyone the team saw, his fastball so explosive that Cochran still says he was "throwing dynamite."
But in Williamsport, he was becoming gun-shy from all the attention. He hid under a pillow the morning of the championship game because he didn't want to face reporters in the clubhouse. There was no hiding in the bullpen, though, where more than a hundred people stood to watch Webster warm up.
"That can be a little much when you're 12," Webster said.
Webster returned to Williamsport four years ago as part of the 50th anniversary. A new stadium was built with lights and he said the accommodations are now like a hotel, quite an improvement from 1982 when the bunk beds had single mattresses.
But the opportunity has remained unchanged and this weekend Bainbridge will try to follow in the footsteps of Webster and his Kirkland team.
"I'll be rooting for them," Webster said.
Danny O'Neil can be reached at 206-515-5536 or doneil@seattletimes.com.