Until next year!

The experience may be over for this year but the memories will last a lifetime.

A hearty THANK YOU goes to the Bermuda Little League Officials, the Coaches, the parents who came and those parents who remained in Bermuda and had the harder job of watching from a distance. We give a big Thank You to all our supporters and friends.

But the biggest THANK YOU of all goes to the kids, without who there wouldn't have been a reason to come and who impressed all with their effort and heart. They showed us that, despite planning, logistics, crummy hotel rooms and illnesses...

They just wanted to play Baseball!!!

Closing Ceremony

The closing ceremony of the Championship Game.

Closing Ceremony

The full series can be accessed by clicking on the picture above.

Curacao wins Championship

The Curacao 'A' team won the Caribbean Championship against the Curacao 'B' side with a score of 4 - 0. In the pictures, you can see just how many people turned out to see this game.

Championship Game

Click the picture to see the full gallery.

Scenes from Curacao

Some pictures of a stroll through Willemstad.

Curacao Scenes

Double click to access the picture gallery

It will be a Curacao vs Curacao final

Over the last few days we have been doing a lot. We have gone to Mambo Beach, had breakfast at Denny's, spent an afternoon swimming at the Hilton beach and watched a lot of the other games.

It is to be a Curacao vs Curacao final. Their A and B teams both made it. This game will be this afternoon and we will be there!

Friday 7/24/09	Saturday 7/25/09
Game 17 4:00 pm Semi-Final # A Curacao (B) 8 1st Place Pool B vs. Puerto Rico 5 2nd Place Pool A	Game 19 1:00 pm Consolation Game Puerto Rico Loser Game 17 vs. Dominican Republic Loser Game 18
Game 18 7:00 pm Semi-Final # B Curacao (A) 12 1st Place Pool A vs. Dominican Republic 2 2nd Place Pool B	Game 20 4:00 pm Championship Game Curacao (B) Winner Game 17 vs. Curacao (A) Winner Game 18

St. Maarten vs Bermuda 4 - 3

As the US Virgin Islands team was out sick, St. Maarten obliged us with a friendly game, their second today. It was our best game yet.

Here is a slideshow of pictures from the game. You can click on it to see the gallery.

Here is the video. It is unedited to give more of the flavor of the game and is about 30 minutes long.

Narrow loss 4 - 3

Quick update that the boys barely lost to St. Maartens by one run.

I hope to have video and pictures up on the blog tonight.

**Change of Plans**

Apparently the US Virgin Islands team we were supposed to play today came down with what appears to be food poisoning (details are sketchy). A number of their team are affected and thus they won't be able to play. Our boys have not been affected in any way and are okay.

Our boys are going to play a friendly against St. Maarten. I am not sure if it is to be televised.

Regardless of being televised on www.telecuracao.com or not, Phoebe will take pictures and I will take video to post on our site.

EDIT: The game is on and they are not filming so look to this blog later for pics and video.

Puerto Rico vs Bermuda 10 - 0

The boys lost 10 - 0 to Puerto Rico but won our hearts with their tremendous play and spirit.

Video of the game. Listen for the cheering section. Who says Bermuda fans don't make noise!

Pictures of the Game courtesy of Phoebe. Full series is here.

Phoebe's Pictures

Phoebe Barboza agreed to help with the website while travelling down to follow the team. She has been an absolutely immense help.

She has taken snapshots (and a few movies) of the boys that show a different perspective and a lot of personality. Phoebe has kindly allowed me to post them. They are very good and show much more of the playful, 11 and 12 year old side of our players.

Thank you very much Phoebe! Both for your assistance and these great photos.

Phoebe's pictures are here. There are a lot of them, so run the slideshow and see a different side of Team Bermuda!

Official Little League Schedule and Standings

Thanks to Joel for finding this. The website is here.

All times are 1 hour behind Bermuda time.

Saturday 7/18/09	Sunday 7/19/09	Monday 7/20/09
Game 1 11:00 am St. Maarten 5 vs. Bonaire 8	Game 3 1:00 pm Aruba 8 vs. St. Maarten 1	Game 6 1:00 pm Puerto Rico vs. US Virgin Islands
Game 2 8:00 pm Curacao (A) 11 vs. Puerto Rico 0	Game 4 4:00 pm Curacao (B) 2 vs. Dominican Republic 1	Game 7 4:00 pm Aruba vs. Bonaire
	Game 5 7:00 pm Curacao (A) 22 vs. Bermuda 0	Game 8 7:00 pm Curacao (B) vs. St. Maarten
Tuesday 7/21/09	Wednesday 7/22/09	Thursday 7/23/09
Game 9 1:00 pm Dominican Republic vs. Aruba	Game 12 1:00 pm Dominican Republic vs. St. Maarten	Game 15 4:00 pm Dominican Republic vs. Bonaire
Game 10 4:00 pm Puerto Rico vs. Bermuda	Game 13 4:00 pm US Virgin Islands vs. Bermuda	Game 16 7:00 pm Curacao (B) vs. Aruba
Game 11 7:00 pm Curacao (A) vs. US Virgin Islands	Game 14 7:00 pm Curacao (B) vs. Bonaire

The boys are cooling out...

The boys are in the pool at the Marriott as I write this. They are all at the wet bar in the pool watching Curacao playing St Maarten on the bar TV.

This is the life.

The full series of pictures is here.

Streaming TV Website - SOLVED

I am still looking for the website that streams the games.

Edit: Coach Joel to the Rescue

"It is www.telecuracao.com. You have to click on the TeleCuracaoTV Live Online box up in the top right hand corner. It is green with red writing. You'll have to sign up. I didn't have to pay a fee. Right now I have the St. Maaren/Curacao feed right now. You will have to check your email and activate your account. Hope it works for everyone.

Joel"

Adam Barboza adds, "You may need to upgrade to windows media player 11 in order to see it. There is a link on the website to download that."

Thanks Joel and Adam.

The next two games are at 4:00 Curacao time (5:00pm Bermuda time) on Tuesday and Wednesday against Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands respectively.

Monday Practice

Some pictures from Monday's practice.

The entire series can be seen here.

Video - Bermuda vs Curacao

Video of Sunday night's game versus Curacao

Thank you for your comments

Thank you for all your comments so far. We will be passing them along to the kids.

So far...

Some pics of the journey thus far...

Travelling

Our Ride

Our Hotel

Opening Ceremony

Beautiful Curacao

More pictures from this series are right here.

Highlights of Game 1 vs Curacao

Some highlights of the first game vs Curacao:

Pitching

• KJ pitched the first inning
• David pitched the next 2 + innings
• Bruce, Conor and Jaylen all took turns.
• Evan closed the game pitching

Hitting

• Abraham hit a single in the second, our one hit was one more than Puerto Rico had against Curacao.
• Conor was walked
• Riley reached base on an error.

Fielding

• Riley made some excellent plays from 3rd base.
• Liam was a standout as catcher.
• David Jones went over the fence to catch a potential home run hit that was just foul.
• KJ caught 2 outs.
• Abraham made 1 out at centre field.

Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony of the games:

The boys look great in Blue and Red!

Curacao vs Bermuda 22 - 0

Bermuda had their first game tonight against Curacao. The score of 22 -0 does not take into account the effort put out by the boys. David Lehman pitched very well for the first 3 innings after which the coaches decided to test the bench, using each pitcher. Several of the boys did reach first base. More of a play by play, pictures and video will be posted tomorrow.

Apologies for those looking for a website link to a live feed. I believe it to be:

http://www.telecuracao.com

It's hard to tell as this site is in the island language of Papiamento. I will try to get a definite answer from the organizers.

I know everyone is very proud. Facing the toughest team for the first game is not easy. Well done boys!!! You have faced the tiger and came through!!!

Here in curacao!

arrived very late last night, players have all settled in to their hotel and had a good night sleep.the pool selection was made:

Pool A

• Curacao PABAO
• Puerto Rico
• US virgin island
• Bermuda

Pool B

• Curacao Willemstad
• Dominican Republic
• Aruba
• St. Maarten
• Bonaire

Bermuda's first game will be Sunday, July 19 at 7 P.M. against Curacao. Their second game will be Tuesday, July 21 at 4 p.m. against Puerto Rico. the third game will be played on July 22 at 4 P.M. against US virgin island. WE have learnt that games will be televised and can be viewed live on www.curacao.com

Bermuda team picture

Bermuda, this is your team!

Team Bermuda

Bermuda, here is your team!

Team Bermuda

Practicing Hard!

The Bermuda National Team practicing hard for Curacao.

Some Facts about Curacao

Some little tidbits about the host country of Curacao:

• Curacao has reached the semifinals of the Little League World Series six of the past eight years, winning the title in 2004 and finishing second in 2005.
• With their victory, Curacao became just the seventh country to win a LLWS title.
• Curacao native and Atlanta Braves outfielder Andruw Jones is a national hero.
• Dutch is the official language, but English and Spanish are widely spoken. The majority of islanders speak Papiamentu, a Creole language.
• The island has about 130,000 residents.
• Curacao is about 10 miles by 40 miles and about 180 square miles.
• The official currency is the Netherlands Antilles Guilder or Florin (ANG or NAFl), which is divided into 100 cents. US currency is accepted everywhere and the guilder is tied to the US dollar.
• Local time is GMT -4.
• Electrical current is 110 to 130 volts, 50 Hz. Two-pronged flat plugs are used.
• Curacao Travel Guide Website link right here.