BRISTOL, Conn. ? One by one, the parents of the Peabody West players gathered under the pavilion that separates the dormitories on the A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League complex and the field on which their sons had just completed a thrilling come-from-behind victory.
There, they could sit down at a bank of computers and, perhaps, buy pictures from the game, or email friends and family back home.
Most of them, though, stood in amazement at what their boys had just accomplished.
?I?m still in awe,” said Bob Hosman, whose son, Matt, hit the grand slam that proved to be the decisive blow in this memorable game. “Even now ? I can?t fathom it. It hasn?t sunk in.
?Matt struck out three times, and it looked to me as if he was just trying to do everything,” Hosman said. “Then, he got a base hit his fourth time up, and that settled him down and got him more into his game.”
(Matt Hosman was so amped up before he hit the grand slam, however, he admits to feeling nauseous).
There was also Dick Dooley ? who turned Thursday, and who has spent his golden years teaching his grandsons how to play the game. Dooley ? a contemporary of the late Harry Agganis (they were teammates at Classical) coached his daughter, and then his grandson, Glen, in the Pine Hill Little League in Lynn. He?s also ? at various other times ? helped out Alisa Fila with the English softball program.
All he could do was smile and shake hands, knowing that his grandson, A.J. DeFillipo would be going to the world series.
His daughter, Joanne DiFillipo, A.J.?s mother, was equally ecstatic.
?This is the way it should have ended,” she said. “One swing of the bat. It was awesome. What a great game!”
What made it even sweeter for the Dooley and DiFillipo familes is that A.J. was very involved in the winning rally, poking a single to left field to put runners on first and second with no one out in the bottom of the sixth.
Scott Wlasuk has other things on his mind. He is the head football coach at Peabody High – and beginning Monday, Aug. 24, he?ll definitely be a man of divided loyalties. That?s when football starts and his son, Cody, will be in Williamsport with his teammates.
?My first phone call, after the game ended, was to my offensive coordinator, and it was like “oh, oh, now what are we going to do?”
Things break well for Wlasuk, who is also a Peabody policeman, in that Monday the 24th is a scheduled day off for Peabody West, with plays every other day ? as long as it doesn?t rain ? down in Williamsport, Penn.
?I?ll be able to go Friday and Sunday, and then I?ll come home for football,” he said. “I might have to miss Tuesday?s game.”
Hosman works in campus security at St. John?s Prep and also helps in the press box on football game days. For years, he has brought his son Matt with him ? even letting him run the 40-second clock once in a while.
They?ve taken some father-son outings together to Williamsport to watch, “and we?ve always talked about how great it would be to be able to go down there and play America?s game on that field.”
They were able to steal a touching moment after the game ? before Little League officials whisked the boys away from their parents and into the recreation room to speak with the news media.
?I was standing in right field when he hit it out,” Hosman said. “So when the kids went by (the pavilion is on the right field side), I called over to Matt, and we hugged.
?It was a special moment,” Hosman said.
Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item
