World Series win was 'just awesome'

Coach Tim Sims, who played on the '83 Dixie Series championship team, sums it up, "This was great baseball.''

By GREG AUMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 5, 2000

The long trek home from Euless, Texas, adds up to about 20 hours on the road, but it probably won't seem that bad when the Hernando County majors baseball team gets home today.

Time flies when you're Dixie World Series champions.

Hernando will bring home the Dixie trophy for the first time since 1983, thanks to a 7-6 victory over Lufkin, Texas, in the championship game Thursday night.

"This feels really good, just awesome," said coach Tim Sims, who was a player on the '83 team but had seen his teams fall short of the title in four Series since. "It's a great feeling as a coach when something comes together like this. This was great baseball."

The team's coaches and 16 players planned to stop in Dallas on the way home to visit Dealey Plaza, the site of John F. Kennedy's assassination, for a dose of education after a steady diet of baseball, baseball and baseball.

"We want to have some time for learning, for a little history," Sims said.

The team had that covered Thursday night, putting itself in the record books by winning a tournament that included state champs from 10 other Southern states.

"There were some quality baseball teams that we sent home this week," said Sims, whose team lost its first game against a Georgia team but rebounded to win its next five games. "We've been together 17 days, counting the state tournament, and there hasn't been one problem. They have been so focused."

Thursday's victory gave redemption to many players on the team. Seven of the nine starters were on Sims' team at Hernando High School, which had seen its season end with a 9-8 loss at Eustis in the regional semifinals. Senior catcher Chris Cole, in particular, struck out four times against Eustis after just seven strikeouts all season, and the Florida State signee needed a solid summer of Dixie ball to get that bitter taste out of his mouth.

That was certainly gone by the time Cole smacked a two-run home run -- his third of the tournament -- over the right-field fence in the bottom of the sixth Thursday, rallying Hernando from a one-run deficit to put the majors ahead for good. Outfielder Dee Brown scored on that home run, and five innings earlier, Brown had broken out of a 2-for-19 slump with a two-run home run of his own.

"Dee had struggled this whole tournament, and he'd never really been in a stretch like that, so he was pressing a little," Sims said. "To see him get two big hits with the home run and the base hit that got him on for Cole's homer, you've got to feel good for him."

Hernando's road to the title game wasn't exactly the path of least resistance. Losing the first game sent the majors into the losers bracket, which carried with it earlier starting times to better experience the sweltering Texas summer, which saw the heat index at more than 100 degrees in the early afternoon. Over four days, Hernando played games at 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2 p.m. and 1 p.m., literally baking a sense of unity into the team.

"To survive that was awesome," Sims said. "It made us really come together."

Dixie championships have been elusive for Sims -- as a player, he saw Hernando teams lose on the final day of the tournament in 1981 and '82 before winning a title in 1983. Sims can still recall the championship game against Phenix City, Ala., when Hernando was clinging to a one-run lead in the last inning, as it was Thursday night. Phenix City had the go-ahead run on base, as Lufkin did Thursday, but Hernando ended the game with a double play. Seventeen years later, Sims found the same thrill when reliever Patrick Ryan forced a groundout to third base to clinch another title.

"The players all piled up on each other on the field, but I was just walking around like a zombie at first," Sims said. "This feels every bit as good as it did (in '83). As a player, you're more relieved when you win it, but as a coach, I'm just proud of them all."

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