LOS ANGELES, CA    Both coaches will tell you the same thing: The road to Williamsport, the site of the Little League World Series in
Pennsylvania, is a marathon, not a sprint.But Bill Taylor and Janice
Golden, respective coaches of two teams representing the Martin
Luther King Jr. Little League on that trek, won't just be competing
against the best talent in the area --and perhaps even in the                       country--when they begin their bid to make it to the Little League
World Series.   They'll also be competing against tradition.                         With little foundation and even less tradition, Taylor, Golden and
company will be vying to give the Martin Luther King Little League
something it lacks: history. The league is still considered relatively
young--it's just in its fifth year--and has never had a team make it
out of the district. 

Sure, both teams are stockpiled with the best players from the
greater Crenshaw and Inglewood area, but talent doesn't always
win out.The 9- and 10-year-olds began the journey Thursday at
Santa Monica Field in Santa Monica and the 11- and 12-year-olds
start play tonight on the same field.   And as MLK league president Fred Thomas accurately pointed out, to make baseball history and build tradition, the MLK teams will have to compete with and, more importantly, defeat teams that have history and tradition falling out of their pockets when they round the bases.

"The biggest challenge is dealing with such tradition," said
Thomas. "Some of the leagues have a good foundation and baseball
is the lightening rod of their community. Their players have an
understanding of baseball and we're just trying to get kids to come
out to the park."

The road to Williamsport can be a long one, consisting of many
steep hills and razor-sharp turns. In all, the trip lasts almost three
months. And just to get out of the district, Taylor and Golden's
teams will have to play seven games and win at least five if they
wish to advance to sectional.  So Taylor, who coaches the 11- to 12-year-olds, isn't exactly filling out the lineup card for when he gets to Williamsport.  "We don't talk about Williamsport, we talk about the game
we're playing now," said Taylor. "As far as we're concerned, it's a
100 years down the road. We have to concentrate on today, not
tomorrow. There's no tomorrow if we don't win today." 
Of course, Taylor's been around baseball long enough to know
that looking ahead can be a very dangerous thing. So naturally, it's
tough for some of his less-seasoned players, like 11-year-old Peter
Gomez, to resist the temptation of peeking through the curtain. 
Williamsport and the thought of playing at Williamsport is what
Gomez has been thinking of since he started playing baseball two
years ago. 
And who can blame him, really. He's not the only kid in America
who is dreaming of Williamsport before his head even hits the pillow
every night.  "I really love baseball and I'm excited to be playing on the team," said Gomez, 11. "I like my team and we're really good." 
Therein lies the challenge for Taylor, who is going to have to find
a way from keeping the little dreamers from dreaming too far into
the future. 

Golden, who manages the 9- and 10-year-olds, has a problem
very similar to Taylor's. It didn't take her long to figure out that the
players need to concentrate on the game they're playing, and not the
Big Game they hope to be playing in three months from now. 
Right now we have had problems with the kids not being
focused," said Golden. "The only place they've played is MLK so
when they go somewhere else, they get intimidated. They have to
be ready." 

But Golden is also aware that one of the fastest methods for
building confidence is fan support. Confidence starts in the
audience.   'We need more parent participation, the interest is not great,"
said Golden. "We're basically practicing every day and we talk to
the kids a lot, but we need parents to come out." 

9- AND 10-YEAR-OLDS 
Coaching Staff 
Janice Golden, McKinley Ferguson and Alvaro Gonzalez. 
Roster Players: Jahvry Bailous, Araisi Harris, Trent Harris,
Angelo Golden, Edward Gonzalez, Christopher Key, Kevin Negrette
Edwin Posada, Randy Robinson, Eric Stewart, Amos Tillett,
Christopher Terry and Tramell Williams. 

11- AND 12-YEAR-OLDS 
Coaching Staff 
Bill Taylor, Nicholas Hagan and Jose Gutierrez. 
Roster Players: Robert Clark, Eduardo Deleon, Robert Gillette,
Peter Gomez, Andre Harris, William Harrison. Martin Mendoza,
Adonis Mitchell, Paul Rivas, Goldbourne Sebastain, Sasha
Sebastain, Tre'von Taylor and Fred Thomas.IV