John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” is playing on the P.A. system. I’m sitting in the grandstand at an internationally recognized and beloved sporting event. I’ve parked, secured admission and had a little lunch in preparation for the Little League World Series International Championship game. Total cost thus far? Let me see…parking…plus ticket…add in a hot dog and a Powerade…total the column, carry the remainder…OK, if my math is correct, that comes out to a grand total of $4.50.

I haven’t even seen a pitch yet and this is already one of the best events on the “It’s Game Time Somewhere” Tour schedule to date. But then again, any day that starts with meeting a sportscasting legend certainly does get things rolling in the right direction.

It’s funny how planets align sometimes. Friend and former Futures Tour tournament director Howard Storck just happened to be travelling through Pennsylvania at the same time as I, he on his way to New York. And he was also stopping in Williamsport – not to see the LLWS, but to visit with a college roommate. Len Berman. Yes that Len Berman, of NBC Sports, The Today Show and New York City’s WNBC-TV.

Berman was in Williamsport as part of a tour to promote his latest book The 25 Greatest Baseball Players Of All Time. And all I had to do to meet him was sacrifice several hours of sleep and track down the location of the Williamsport Public Library on Saturday morning. Done and done.

A gracious guy with a very dry wit, Berman patiently explained to me that the reason that no Los Angeles Angels were on his list was that…well, they’ve never had any great players of the homegrown variety. Ouch. But point well taken.

Having recovered from that sting, all was right with my world as I sat at the far end of the right field grandstand in Howard J. Lamade Stadium, awaiting the start of the game between Japan and Taiwan. Even if I did have anything to complain about, it felt vaguely un-American to even entertain the notion.

I even succumbed to feeling kindly about the between-inning “entertainment”, which usually involved Dugout – a mascot dressed in a bear costume that danced and mugged his way through each game. I’m not a big mascot fan, but as mascots go, Dugout was impressive in his energy level, if nothing else.

One particular bit had him dressed up as a prizefighter, shadow-boxing to the theme song from Rocky for the full interminable duration of a TV timeout. Now I know I was only a couple hours away from Philadelphia, where a recent poll showed that 104.6% of the population believes that Rocky was an actual person, but please – that was a looooong time ago.

And speaking of time, I’m sure that Dugout joined me in wondering if that Rocky bit would ever be over. If it was left solely up to ESPN, they surely would have run four more commercials, after which time they would’ve had to drag Dugout’s spent carcass off on a stretcher, accompanied by at least two intravenous fluid feeds.

As for the International Championship game itself, most of the action came early. Japan made good use of the only hit they mustered over the first five innings and scratched out a run in the bottom of the first inning. Taiwan responded in kind in the top of the second, with two runs scored on three of the only four hits they recorded in the game. After that it was a pitcher’s duel, supported by excellent defense on both sides. Taiwan in fact turned two inning-ending double plays with major-league type crispness.

Down to their last at-bat, Japan sandwiched two singles around Taiwan’s only error of the game and managed to send the game into extra innings at 2-2. Then in the bottom of the 7th inning, a single, a wild pitch and a fielder’s choice set the stage for a game-winning single by Japan’s Ryo Motegi.

Just like that, the opportunistic Japanese had claimed the International Championship. Taiwan, the prohibitive favorite due to a prodigious offense that in one game alone had produced 24 runs, was relegated to Sunday’s consolation game.

The United States Championship game pitted a team from the Houston area – Pearland, Texas to be exact – against the Waipio All-Stars from Waipahu, Hawaii on the island of O’ahu. Remarkably, Waipio had won the Little League World Series title in 2008 and was now in a position to do so again – but with an entirely different roster. What were the chances?

Hawaii was in a tough position this time around. Little League rules put limitations on the number of pitches that a young pitcher can throw on a given day or series of days. Needing to play an extra game to compensate for a first-game loss in the double-elimination tournament had used up Hawaii’s front-line pitching ranks. So in this game for all the U.S. marbles, the ball was handed to 5’1” lefty Ezra Heleski – normally a starting outfielder – with the hopes that he could go as far as possible with his allotted 85 pitches. As it turned out, that didn’t have to be too far.

The LLWS employs a “Mercy Rule”, which states that, if one team leads by at least 10 runs after the trailing team has completed four innings of at-bats, the game is officially concluded. When Hawaii jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, the only question remaining was whether Heleski could finish the game before tossing his 85th and final pitch, thus saving what was left of a bullpen for the next day’s World Championship contest. He left the mound after five innings with a scant 14 pitches available for the job.

It became a moot point however, as in the bottom of the 5th, Hawaii scored three runs to extend their lead to 10-0 and trigger the Mercy Rule.

I felt somewhat uneasy as I watched this unfold. Given that Texas had mustered just two hits and Hawaii was running roughshod on the bases, it was pretty obvious to all in attendance that the eventual outcome of the game was not in doubt.

So when Hawaii pushed the issue in pursuit of a Mercy Rule win, I couldn’t decide whether I was witnessing a case of questionable sportsmanship. That thought process was exacerbated when Hawaii scored their 10th run as a result of yet another Texas miscue – a wild pitch – and jubilantly celebrated on the field.

If this game had been on any other level I wouldn’t have given this a second thought, but these are just 12 and 13-year old kids. And being embarrassed on national television can’t possibly have rolled right off their backs.

But then again, it’s been a long time since I was 12. And since I’m pretty sure that just being on national television would have pushed me perilously close to wetting my pants, maybe I’m not the right person to comment on this.