Hawaiʻi and Curaçao are playing today for the Little League World Series title.
Seventeen years ago today, I was staying in a hotel in downtown New Orleans with my parents and older brother, the day before Hurricane Katrina struck land. Although we had just received notice across multiple news outlets that Katrina was now a Category Five, I was not concerned about the storm. Twelve-year old me was only concerned whether I could watch the final championship game of the Little League World Series on the ABC channel: Ewa Beach, Hawaiʻi versus Willemstad, Curaçao.
Prior to my family evacuating to our hotel, I was so eager to watch the LLWS between my newly beloved Hawaiʻi team and Curaçao that I searched the Yellow Pages to retrieve the phone number to the ABC news station and ask whether they would be showing the LLWS championship game (hey, I was desperate and 12). I even had a script written down that said, “I know there is coverage about the hurricane, but I want to check if the Little League World Series is still airing.” I hoped that at least ESPN would pick up the game with all the hurricane coverage on ABC.
My parents looked at me with a mixture of disbelief and amusement as I spoke to a representative from ABC: Dad was ironing his shirt while Mom was packing some belongings. While the ABC rep was unsure whether the game would be aired, she did assure me that they were “trying to save people’s lives here.” I said, “Ok. I understand.”
Hours later, once settled in our hotel room with the television turned to ABC, there was no LLWS game. ABC was airing non-stop coverage of the encroaching Hurricane Katrina, the unprecedented one that nobody saw coming: the subsequent levee breach and 80 % of New Orleans submerged under water. At a moment’s decision, I changed the televison station to ESPN.
Right then, in the bottom of the seventh inning, Michael Memea was batting for Hawaiʻi, and within seconds, launched the game-winning home run to clench
Hawaiʻi’s first Little League title in a 7-6 victory against Curaçao. I shouted in elation and threw my arms across my dad’s shoulders (the man who introduced me to baseball and was my first coach during summer 2004 when I won my first Little League championship).
I felt a kinship victory with the boys of Ewa Beach, Hawaiʻi. Hours before a devastating hurricane would disrupt, destroy, and displace my family in many ways, God allowed me to experience joy through a group of Little Leaguers who grabbed my heart and whose Little League World Series victory captured my final hour of childhood.
Today, seventeen years later, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi and Willemstad, Curaçao are playing against each other for the LLWS title. In the very year that I plan to travel to Hawai’i for the first time this Fall and fulfill 12-year old Asia’s dream to visit the island of O’ahu where my Ewa Beach boys made history on this day, I embrace this full-circle reunion that made this New Orleans girl proud to be a Little Leaguer in 2005.