The other day I came across some notes on a book called The Perfect Game, by W. William Winokur. I read the book shortly after last year's Little League World Series. It's the story of the 1957 Little League World Series, won by the miracle team from Monterrey, Mexico, the first foreign team to appear in the LLWS.The Perfect Game recreates the 1957 series and the amazing path taken by the Mexican team, a bunch of 12-year-olds from the slums of Monterrey, a gritty industrial city. Inspired by radio broadcasts of Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers, they learn to play baseball and eventually make their way, despite formidable odds and opposition---from parents, environment, circumstances, and sometimes even their own coach---to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. With scant money to fund their journey, they walk barefoot across the border and 12 miles into Texas to play their first qualifying game, then advance to play more, sometimes passing the hat and sleeping on church steps to keep going.
When they finally make it to the final, los chamacos maravilla ("the marvelous boys") are decided underdogs, six to eight inches shorter and 35 to 40 pounds lighter than their opponents, La Mesa Northern, a powerhouse team from California. But it was the "little giants", led by ambidextrous pitcher Angel Macias, who prevailed in a 4-0 victory. Macias threw the only perfect game ever in a LLWS championship game, fanning 11 0f the 18 batters he faced. The California kids never even hit the ball out of the infield.
It's a fascinating story of inspiration, faith, perseverance and the insouciant charmed luck of youth, but the book is way too long, by at least a hundred pages. Shortly into it, I realized that the writer was writing with Hollywood in mind. Indeed, it has since been made into a movie with the same name. If it ever made it, though, to a cinema near me, I missed it.
