Baseball: It’s Little League playoff time
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Seventeen years ago, I got to attend the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., when Matt Cassel & Co. made it from Northridge Little League. There’s nothing like it in American sports.
The Little League playoffs have begun across the Southland, and in the San Fernando Valley, the playoffs are going on at Sherman Oaks Little League.
On Saturday, Northridge is playing Encino in a 3 p.m. game. Both teams have produced numerous high school standouts through the years. This year, Northridge has the 12-year-old son of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame assistant football coach Jeff Kraemer as one of its standouts. Derek Kraemer hit a home run and went three for three in a win over Sherman Oaks earlier this week.
It’s a long ways to go before having the chance to reach Williamsport, but the competition is good and the food is usually even better, so there’s no reason not to spend part of your Fourth of July weekend watching Little League baseball and maybe a future high school, college or NFL standout will be on display.
-- Eric Sondheimer