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Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
The Little League World Series has had its share of drama before even getting to Williamsport
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — The road to Williamsport was filled with more drama than usual for a couple Little League World Series participants this year, including a Venezuelan team that needed visa exemptions to make the trip and an American club that narrowly knocked off a defending champ. Baseball's preeminent youth baseball tournament resumes Wednesday in central Pennsylvania. The festivities begin with a look at what makes the 20-team event special. ESPN is airing a documentary called 'Big Dreams: Little League World Series 2024" on Tuesday night. The filmmakers had great raw material. Lake Mary, Florida, defeated Taiwan 2-1 in eight tense innings last August to win the title. But director Rudy Valdez wanted to go deeper than wins and losses. 'These are kids, you know, I want you to remember that,' Valdez said. 'We're showing them how to navigate life, and we're showing them how to take wins and take losses and be good sports and how to get back up when you fall. 'We have to give them the space to learn and I wanted that to be the feeling of this, that you were really navigating this year of the Little League World Series through the eyes and experiences of them.' The film was set to premiere Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN and is available for streaming through ESPN+. Venezuela travels to Williamsport on exemption from travel ban Cardenales Little League from Barquimesto, Venezuela, will represent Latin America for the second straight year, but this time the team required a special exemption from President Donald Trump's travel ban. The team only learned of the exemption less than a week before its opening game Wednesday at 1 p.m. against Puerto Rico. The team declined to comment. Cardenales' exemption came after a different Venezuelan team was denied entry into the United States for the Senior Baseball World Series last month. This year's Cardenales team has a different roster and coaching staff than the 2024 group. Last year's team survived two rounds in the elimination bracket to advance to the international final. It lost 4-1 to Taiwan but beat Texas for third place. Venezuela only has two Little League World Series titles, the last 25 years ago. The path to Williamsport include a notable US upset Defending champion Lake Mary was one out away from making its return to central Pennsylvania, but there will be a different team representing the Southeast Region this year: South Carolina's Irmo Little League. In the regional final, Irmo trailed 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth — the last inning in Little League ball — with the bottom of their lineup headed to the plate and the goal of getting Joe Giulietti, the team's best hitter, to bat. Irmo succeeded but Joe never swung at a pitch. Lake Mary intentionally walked him with the bases loaded to make the score 4-2. Brady Westbrooks was up next and, down to his last strike, he found the fastball he was looking for, hammering a three-run double. Players were running around the stadium, carrying the Southeast Region champions banner, while their manager, Dave Bogan, was brought to tears. 'While we had confidence, we were the underdog,' Bogan said. 'When this team was forming, there was a lot of local excitement about our potential and our possibilities. But with that excitement comes pressure and it was a sense of relief that we did it.' Lake Mary previously defeated Irmo 14-0, and before the regional final, Bogan told his players they needed to believe they were 'going to shock the Little League baseball world.' Irmo is only the fourth South Carolina team, and second since 1950, to play in South Williamsport. It'll play Braintree American Little League, the Massachusetts team representing the New England region, on Thursday. 'Our motto is nothing is given, everything is earned and they really work hard to earn everything through this process,' Bogan said. 'They absolutely love to grind.' Taiwan tries to return to LLWS glory Taiwan's 17 Little League World Series championships are the most by any country other than the United States, which always gets a team in the championship because of the way the LLWS brackets are set up. But it has been nearly 30 years since Taiwan won its most recent title in 1996. Ten years ago, current manager Min-Nan Lai's club went 2-2 in the tournament, losing its second game in the double-elimination tournament to Mexico. Now, Lai is back with the Tung-Yuan Little League team after defeating South Korea in the Asia-Pacific regional final. The 2025 LLWS marks Taiwan's fourth consecutive and 33rd appearance in tournament history, and its first game will be against Mexico on Thursday. The Little League World Series first-round bracket matchups were announced not long before the Asia-Pacific regional tournament, something Lai and his team noted. They wanted to get another chance at the team that ended Taiwan's chances 10 years ago. 'A famous Taiwanese saying is you always want to do hard work for 10 years for one minute to shine,' Lai said through an interpreter. Tung-Yuan brings strong pitching to South Williamsport and Lai believes this is one of the best teams to represent Taiwan in recent history. Unlike last year's Taiwan club, his team doesn't seem to have any issues hitting. In the regional tournament, Taiwan outscored opponents 60-1 in the six games the team won. Taiwan also boasts five pitchers capable of reaching over 70 mph and Chin-Tse Lin throws at 80 mph, which looks much faster to the hitter because of how close the mound is to home plate. There are pitch count rules in Little League, requiring a certain amount of days rest depending on how many pitches a player throws. The Kuei-Shan Little League team from Taoyuan reached the final of the international bracket the past two years but wasn't able to win it all. Lai hopes for a different result for Tung-Yuan — he wants to bring Taiwan that 18th championship. 'That's the number one expectation,' Lai said. ___ Amanda Vogt is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State. ___ AP sports:
BBC News
13-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Why can 23-year-olds play at Euro U21s?
Players aged up to 23 years old can feature at the European Under-21 Championship, under way in is because its player registration rules are designed to ensure players can feature through an entire tournament cycle - from the start of the qualifiers through to the means that, for the 2025 tournament, players can feature if they were born on or after 1 January 2002 - meaning they were 21 or younger at the start of the year in which qualification tournament, which started on Wednesday, consists of 16 nations, each with 23-strong squads - a total of 368 those, 205 were aged either 22 or 23 on the opening day of the tournament - 55.7% of the total number of players. A total of 73 players were aged 23 on the tournament's opening day - 19.8%.Defending champions England, managed by Lee Carsley, are the only nation without a 23-year-old currently at the tournament. Middlesbrough midfielder Hayden Hackney does turn 23 two days before the final on 28 players in the squad who are aged above 21 include captain James McAtee of Manchester City, Liverpool's Harvey Elliott and Newcastle defender Tino Livramento, who is the only member of Carsley's squad to have been capped at senior 16 nations have a minimum of nine players who are 22 or 23 years of age. Georgia's squad has 19 players who were aged 22 or 23 on the tournament's opening oldest player at the tournament is Stoke City's Million Manhoef, who is in the Netherlands squad. He was born on 3 January rule regarding the cut-off date - meaning players can be no older than 23 years and six months - is a long-standing when it was first staged as an Under-21 tournament in 1978 - having previously been an Under-23s competition - each country was allowed two players over won the 1978 tournament spearheaded by 26-year-old striker Vahid Halilhodzic, who scored four times in the two-legged final against East Germany - including a second-leg hat-trick, external - and was named Player of the Tournament. Which other England players were eligible for the tournament? Of England's 26-man senior squad named by Thomas Tuchel's for this month's matches against Andorra and Senegal, seven would have been eligible to play in the Under-21 includes Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham, who has 43 senior caps but does not turn 22 until a day after the Euro Under-21 goalkeeper James Trafford and Chelsea trio Cole Palmer, Levi Colwill and Noni Madueke were all part of England's 2023 Euro Under-21-winning squad and would have been eligible for selection this time teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly, 18, was the youngest member of the senior Three Lions squad against Andorra and Senegal. Had he been named in the Under-21 squad, he would have been England's second-youngest player, after Gunners colleague Ethan players who could have been picked for the Under-21s include Everton centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite and Southampton's Taylor Harwood-Bellis. The Club World Cup v Under-21s dilemma In some cases, players have missed the Euro Under-21s as they are away with their clubs for the 2025 Club World Cup in the United States, starting on Saturday (local time).New Chelsea striker Liam Delap was in line to feature at the Euros, but having completed his moved from Ipswich Town the night before Carsley named his 23-man squad, he was left out and is instead at the Club World Jobe Bellingham was named in the initial squad, but was replaced less than 24 hours prior to England's opening victory over the Czech Republic on Thursday after completing a move to Borussia Dortmund. Bellingham was replaced by West Bromwich Albion's Tom City have a number of players eligible for the Euros who are instead going to the Club World Cup, including new signings Rayan Cherki and the 20-year-old duo of Rico Lewis and Nico O' Spanish midfielder Nico Gonzalez would have been the joint-oldest player at the Euros, had he gone there instead of the Club World striker Samu Aghehowa, who plays his club football for Porto, was his country's top scorer in Euro Under-21 qualifying - but he has also gone to the Club World article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team. What is Ask Me Anything? Ask Me Anything is a service dedicated to answering your want to reward your time by telling you things you do not know and reminding you of things you team will find out everything you need to know and be able to call upon a network of contacts including our experts and will be answering your questions from the heart of the BBC Sport newsroom, and going behind the scenes at some of the world's biggest sporting coverage will span the BBC Sport website, app, social media and YouTube accounts, plus BBC TV and radio. More questions answered... Why Alexander-Arnold is not allowed to wear number 66 for Real MadridYour guide to the 2025 Club World CupWho are Premier League clubs playing in pre-season?A squad worth £428m - but how good are England Under-21s?
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Ronaldo's son gets first Portugal Under-15s call-up
Cristiano Ronaldo and his son are both at Al-Nassr [Getty Images] Cristiano's Ronaldo's eldest son has been called up to the Portugal Under-15 squad for the first time. The 14-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo Jr is at Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia with his father, who signed for the Pro League side in December 2022. Portugal great Ronaldo posted a picture on social media of his son's name on the national team squad list along with the message, "Proud of you, son". Ronaldo Jr has been called up for a youth tournament in Croatia between 13-18 May, with Portugal scheduled to play Japan, Greece and England. Like his celebrated father, he has had stints with Manchester United, Juventus and Real Madrid. Ronaldo Sr is still a Portugal international and has scored 136 goals for his country. In March, he scored but missed a penalty as Portugal dramatically beat Denmark to reach the Nations League semi-finals.
