Plane Tix: Yes. Hotel: Yes. White House Invite: No
Park View Little Leaguers won World Series months ago
By ERIC S. PAGE
Updated 2:43 PM PST, Fri, Nov 20, 2009
The Little League champs have a free ride, food and hotel but still need an invitation.
The Park View All-Stars won in it all in Pennsylvania more than two months ago, beating Chinese Taipei 6-3 in front of 30,000 fans. While Williamsport's nice, they'd also like to visit Washington, D.C.
Paul O'Sullivan, a former team spokesman, said last month that a coach told him Park View got an invite from someone with White House connections: "I was told by one of the coaches that Vice-President Joe Biden walked up to each player and said he would invite them to the White House."
Well, the team's bags may not be packed, but they're ready to go.
Southwest Airline's Olga Romero said that the boys and their families have a jet with their name on it whenever a date is set.
"If they are flying to Washington, D.C., to meet with White House officials, we will provide air transportation, and we are working with a local hotel ... and we will also provide the hotel," Romero said.
Wait, there's more: AT&T is also sponsoring the team if the trip is made and will pay their meal expenses, Romero added.
So what are Chula Vista's boys of summer waiting for? It's that pesky invitation -- they still need a date with the leader of the free world. The White House said this week that the issue was on its radar.
"We are working with the team to find a date to bring the champs to the White House," White House spokesman Adam Abrams said Tuesday.
However, Park View president Rod Roberto, whose son Bradley played right field for the championship team, said he's not working with anybody in Washington on the trip. He said no one associated with the team has had any contact with the White House since NBCSanDiego.com's original report on Oct. 28. Roberto said he would know if anybody had been contacted by the Obama Administration.
"I'm the president [of the Park View Little League] and all the parents would come through me," Roberto said.
Roberto did say he had not initiated contact with the White House.
"I have not personally reached out to the White House, but I figured they would contact us when they were ready," Roberto said on Wednesday.
The team is still waiting -- and hoping -- to get that invitation.
"There hasn't been any correspondence -- you would think if we were coming, they would reach out to us and say that we're working on the schedule, but nothing like that has been communicated to us yet," Roberto said.
NBCSanDiego.com contacted the White House on Thursday morning for a response regarding Roberto's comment that there had been no recent contact regarding the White House visit. A follow-up call was placed on Friday morning. We are still awaiting that response.
Maybe it would be easier for the White House to schedule the visit if the World Series champion Bronx Bombers and the Little League World Series champion Blue Bombers made their trips to Pennsylvania Avenue at the same time. Surely Park View's Luke Ramirez would want to meet Yankee Edwar Ramirez? No doubt Kiko Garcia would be thrilled to meet Yankee pitcher Christian Garcia. And who could doubt that Bulla Graft would want to shake hands with Joba Chamberlain?
Eric S. Page reports about all things San Diego, but he draws the line at cat stories. You can follow his updates at twitter.com/espage or send him a story idea.
First Published: Nov 20, 2009 10:36 AM PST
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