I spent the last two weeks on-site at the Cal Ripken World Series as a team reporter for Team Pacific Southwest, a group of 15 12-year-old boys and three coaches from Honolulu, Hawaii. Oh, and upwards of 50 friends and family members who made the 4,863-mile trip from the island of Oahu to the expansive Cal Ripken complex just off I-95 in Aberdeen, Maryland.
Some necessary background: Cal Ripken Baseball is the youth division of the Babe Ruth League, the main competitor of Little League Baseball. In 2007, it wove an innovative thread into the time-honored quilt of youth baseball.