Little League Is a Hit in Upper Northwest

Capitol City Little League Giants pitcher Vince Kardos warms up before stepping on the mound at the baseball field in Chevy Chase. (Dominic Bracco Ii - By Dominic Bracco II -- The Washington Post)

Murphy is African American and estimated that about 20 percent of the players in the league are ethnic minorities. He pointed out that two sons of D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty play in the league in the minor division with the Monarchs, although the Fenty family does not live in Chevy Chase.

"This neighborhood is tremendous," said Murphy, a lawyer. "You don't find neighborhoods like this in too many places. This league is such a community anchor."

One of the other community anchors is Lafayette Elementary School, where Lisa Jensen has been a teacher for 18 years. Two of her sons, Cooper and Jeremy, played in the Capitol City league this year.

"We come to these games, and it is hard to root for your own team because you know people on both teams," Jensen said. "Capitol City is trying to foster baseball in other parts of the city, which I think is great."

The Capitol City program has sent alumni to the varsity level of several local high schools, including Wilson, Maret, Georgetown Day, Gonzaga, Landon, Sidwell Friends, St. Albans, St. Anselm's and St. John's.

And some players have advanced to the college ranks, including Ian Horkley (Davidson), Will Krasne (Stanford), Byron Peyster (Washington & Lee), Ben Sestanovich (Harvard), Mike Sheridan (William and Mary), Alex Spilotes (Haverford), Marcus Stoiber (Occidental), Tommy Vladek (Pomona) and Daniel White (Kenyon).

Sheridan, 21, was drafted in June out of William and Mary by the Tampa Bay Rays and made his pro debut this past summer with the Hudson Valley Renegades in the New York-Penn League. He hit .321 in one of the lowest rungs of the minor league ladder.

Sheridan grew up on Northampton Street and started attending Capitol City games to watch his two older brothers play for their father, an accountant who coached the White Sox. Mike Sheridan attended elementary school at Lafayette and Blessed Sacrament in the Chevy Chase neighborhood.

"I think one of the best things about it is it gets a bunch of kids from the community together," said Sheridan, who noted that many of the players attend different schools. "I met kids I am friends with today. There is a lot of sitting around and talking in baseball. You meet a lot of people."

Sheridan was teammates with Cameron Dantley, the son of Basketball Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley, who now plays football at Syracuse University. They played in the league at the same time as Luke Russert, the son of television journalist Tim Russert.

"It is a pretty high-scale neighborhood. Parents are working through the hours of the night," Sheridan said. "It has brought us kids together, which in turn brought families together."

When Sheridan was 11 he played on a Capitol City All-Star team that lost to a squad from Toms River, N.J., in a regional tournament. That New Jersey team won the Little League World Series.