Eastdale Little League’s World Champions Captured Hearts

How does one begin to explain the phenomenon that was — is — Johnny Tapia?

Yes, Tapia was a terrific boxer, rivaling the great light heavyweight champion Bob Foster as New Mexico’s best ever. Even in these days of myriad sanctioning bodies and 17 weight classes, the winning of five world title belts in three divisions speaks eloquently to his talent.

Yes, through the decades, Albuquerque followed his battles against drugs and the legal system with the gamut of emotions. Sympathy. Indifference. Disgust. And back again.

And, yes, the kid — I never stopped thinking of him as that, even as he hit the big four-oh and kept going — had an infectious smile and an undeniable charisma.

Yet, none of that, or even all of that, quite explains why almost 7,000 people showed up for Tapia’s memorial service at the Pit on June 3, a week after his death at age 45 from heart disease.

Could anyone else in this town, anyone else in the history of this town, have elicited such an outpouring of grief, praise, love and fond memories?

With Johnny, there was something undefinable at work, something a team of psychologists, sociologists and all sorts of other ologists might take years to isolate and identify.

And it’s that something undefinable that makes the end of Tapia’s “vida loca” and its aftermath — or so it says here — New Mexico’s single most compelling sports story of 2013.

During his 45 years on Earth, Tapia rarely found tranquility for long. Anytime it appeared he’d put his cocaine habit behind him, it seemed, he’d fall into its clutches again.

Yet, until the end, he kept scrambling off life’s canvas.

Rest in peace, Johnny?

“I believe he’s at peace,” boxing promoter Tony Holden said at the memorial service of his always-energetic friend. “But I don’t believe he’s resting.”

A strong one-time story No. 2, and far more upbeat, was the impossibly dominant performance of the Eastdale Little League Majors softball All-Stars en route to a world title in August.

In Portland, Ore., Eastdale swept through the championship field like a howling wind through Tijeras Canyon. The young Albuquerqueans outscored six opponents by a total of 67-5. As an ESPN2 audience watched, they crushed Windermere, Fla., 16-1 in the championship game.

“Hopefully there’s a lot of life lessons here,” Eastdale manager Reno Sanchez said. “Never sell yourself short, and set goals high. Anything’s obtainable if you put enough work into it.”

As for the No. 1 continuing story, we return you to the Pit, where the New Mexico Lobos play basketball.

As remarkable as the size of the crowd at the Tapia service was, it’s worth noting that everyone got in free that day.

And it’s worth noting that, on Nov. 5, paid attendance at a UNM men’s exhibition game against New Mexico Highlands was 13,055.

Biggest game in town? Lobo men’s basketball has been that for half a century.

In March, as the Lobos prepared for their second trip to the NCAA Tournament in three years under coach Steve Alford, I debated in print with Journal sports editor Randy Harrison which team was better — the 2011-12 edition that won the Mountain West Conference Tournament or the 2009-10 team that won 30 games. My choice was the 30-win group, led by Darington Hobson, Roman Martinez and Dairese Gary. My boss went with the Lobos of Drew Gordon, Kendall Williams and Tony Snell.

After our dueling columns ran, I was told by an impartial observer in the newsroom that Harrison had kicked my butt from here to Springfield, Mass. So be it. But since both teams reached the same plateau before losing — the round of 32 — I’m calling it a draw.

The question now is whether the current Lobos of Williams, Snell, Alex Kirk, et al., as of this writing 12-1, are better than either of those — and whether they can be the first UNM team to make the Sweet 16 since 1974, when only one victory could get you there.

Saturday, serious doubt was cast on that possibility when the unranked South Dakota State Jackrabbits beat the Lobos 70-65 in the Pit. But UNM could neutralize the Jackrabbit effect by beating eighth-ranked Cincinnati in the Queen City on Thursday.

Is it the destination that matters most, or is it the journey? Now, that’s a debate our state has been having since the late Bob King created Lobomania back in 1962.

Elsewhere in a memorable sports year:

The Olympics

Rather than follow his ex-Lobo dad, Michael, into track and field, Jarrin Solomon had always wanted to be a soccer player. He excelled at both sports at La Cueva, but was headed out of state to play college soccer before former UNM track coaches Matt and Mark Henry talked him into running for them at UNM.

Good move.

Competing for Trinidad and Tobago, his father’s native country, Solomon won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4-x-400 relay.

“Thank GOD for tonight!” he tweeted from London.

Worth noting as well:

Katie Ledecky, who won an Olympic gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle, is the daughter of former UNM swimmer Mary Gen Hagan.

Las Cruces teenager Letticia Martinez, a swimmer, represented the United States in London at the 2012 Paralympics. Martinez, who lost her sight as the result of a rare disease, swam in five events and placed eighth in the 100-meter breaststroke.

The Lobos

This has been a year to savor on the UNM south campus. If there’s been a little chest-thumping over there, it’s understandable.

In the 2011-12 final standings of the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup, designed to reflect an athletic program’s overall athletic excellence, New Mexico finished 41st of 277 listed NCAA Division I schools — best by far of any Mountain West Conference school and two spots ahead of former longtime nemesis Brigham Young.

As of this writing, the Lobos are 22nd in the 2012-13 standings — having gotten points from men’s soccer, and women’s and men’s cross-country.

Lobo football produced no Directors’ Cup points but got local praise, regional recognition and some national attention by winning four of its first seven games under first-year coach Bob Davie. The previous three seasons, New Mexico had won three games combined.

The Lobos proceeded to lose their last six games. Though five of their nine losses came by a total of 24 points, the final ledger reflected a truth Davie had been trumpeting from the start: There’s a ton of work to be done.

Running back Kasey Carrier became UNM’s all-time single-season rushing leader with 1,469 yards.

An astonishing run of bad luck, mostly in the form of injuries, plagued Yvonne Sanchez’s first season as women’s basketball coach. Even with a surprise run to the MWC tournament finals, the 2011-12 Lobos finished 11-20.

How much better are things now? The 2012-13 Lobos are 8-4, with a sweep of New Mexico State and a trophy win over Texas Tech.

The men’s soccer team made the NCAA playoffs for the ninth time in coach Jeremy Fishbein’s 11-year tenure; coach Joe Franklin’s men’s and women’s cross-country teams made it to the NCAA meet for the fourth consecutive year. Ray Birmingham’s UNM baseball team got to the NCAA regionals for the third straight spring.

The Lobos won conference championships in men’s and women’s cross-country, men’s basketball and baseball.

Highest individual honors went to Armin Triendl, an All-American and the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Skiing Association Male Skier of the Year, and Louisville Slugger baseball All-Americans DJ Peterson and Mitchell Garver.

The Aggies

It was a tough year at the interchange of I-25 and I-10.

In March, Wendell McKines and his 20 double-doubles (double-figure points and rebounds) led the New Mexico State men’s basketball team to a Western Athletic Conference tournament title and a berth in the Big Dance. In late May, the NMSU baseball team earned a trip to regionals.

No other Aggie team made NCAA postseason play in 2012. As the year approached an end, the NMSU men’s and women’s basketball teams went 0-4 against UNM.

The Aggie football team, meanwhile, was facing a murky future as a splintered WAC made plans to abandon the sport. New Mexico State’s 27-14 loss to New Mexico on Sept. 22 was a harbinger of losses to come; NMSU finished 1-11.

The Fighters

Albuquerque mixed-martial arts star Carlos Condit often has said he loves a good scrap. That really goes for the whole state — like it or not — and New Mexico’s appetite for a fight was never more evident than in 2012.

At least 19 professional boxing and MMA events, and countless amateur shows, were staged within the state’s borders.

In June, Albuquerque’s Holly Holm avenged her stunning, December 2011 knockout defeat at the hands of France’s Anne Sophie Mathis.

“I wanted to play the game that wins,” Holm said after thoroughly outboxing the powerful Mathis in the rematch at Route 66 Casino Hotel. “I didn’t care about ‘fight of the night’; I just wanted the win.”

Nationally, New Mexicans and/or New Mexico-trained fighters made some of the top headlines of 2012.

Albuquerque had its fingerprints and footprints all over the two biggest UFC showdowns of the year: Jon “Bones” Jones’ victory over Rashad Evans in April and Georges St-Pierre’s win over Condit in November. All four fighters are trained, or have been, at the Duke City’s Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA.

Las Cruces boxer Austin Trout had been a world champion for 21 months when he stepped into a Madison Square Garden ring against Puerto Rican icon Miguel Cotto on Dec. 1. But it was Trout’s victory over Cotto by lopsided, unanimous decision that finally etched his name into the consciousness of the boxing world.

The world’s other top junior middleweights aren’t exactly clamoring for the opportunity to fight Trout, a slick southpaw with extraordinary skills and quickness. Still, he has the talent and the connections. If he keeps winning, there are seven-figure paydays in his future.

In December came a troubling reminder of the bad things that can happen when people hit other people in the head. Albuquerque boxer Raymond “Hollewood” Montes suffered serious head injuries in the ring and spent two nights in the hospital. Montes will be OK, though his boxing career is over.

The National Pastime

Can Jordan Pacheco hit? Yes, he can. He always could.

The former Lobo and La Cueva Bear hit .309 last season for the Colorado Rockies — ranking him fifth in the National League and first among NL rookies.

Pitcher Matt Moore (Moriarty, Tampa Bay Rays) and outfielder Cody Ross (Carlsbad, Boston Red Sox, recently traded to Arizona) had productive years.

The Albuquerque Isotopes won the Pacific Coast League’s American Conference South Division but lost to Omaha in the first round of the PCL playoffs.

More important, the fans kept coming; the ‘Topes averaged 8,120 per game at Isotopes Park, ranking ninth in all of minor league baseball.

Milestones, etc.

April: Jockey Mike Smith, from Dexter, rode his 5,000th winner at Santa Anita.

May: The Mountain West Sports Network, known to most as The Mtn., went dark. Finding the Lobos on TV got a lot tougher, but there’s hope for better things in 2013.

August: The new synthetic turf at University Stadium was adorned with a new logo — Branch Field — after Albuquerqueans Turner and Margaret Branch gave Lobo athletics a gift of $1.5 million.

September: Lobo all-time great Mel Daniels and Pecos’ Cindy Roybal, a member of the All-American Redheads traveling basketball team in the 1970s, were inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

October: Sally Marquez, athlete, teacher, coach and administrator, was named to succeed Gary Tripp as executive director of the New Mexico Activities Association.

“I want to make sure that we’re using athletics to teach kids about lifelong skills, that we’re preparing them for the future,” Marquez said.

Never Happened

It was announced in February that the Mountain West and Conference USA would merge — or disband and form a new league, or engage in some kind of partnership, or something else — to protect themselves in the face of conference realignment.

They enter 2013 as completely separate entities, and it appears they’ll stay that way.

And, Just Because …

In June, the Journal’s Ken Sickenger wrote about Stevie Wonder, the blind pup who was adopted by Isotopes pitcher John Ely and became the unofficial team mascot.

Best line of the year, from ‘Topes infielder Arron Miles: “You know, (Stevie’s) teaching an umpiring class next week.”
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal