Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette Marlon Brown, 11, of Homewood, throws to Antwane Younger, 12, of Point Breeze, during practice at Hunter Park in Wilkinsburg on Thursday. Click photo for larger image. Wilkinsburg's boys of summer Malik Blakeman, Jonathan Brown, Marlon Brown, Kaleyl Carey, Demond Haynes, Khari Hicks, Brian Jones Jr., Dondi Kirby Jr., Troy McCune, Anthony Nixon Jr., Brett Pippens, Harry Randall, Christopher Reese, Antwane Younger Manager: Cliff McCaulley Coaches: Tyrone Freeman, Demond Haynes Sr., Lamont Smith League president: David Reese Related article Stroll in free to the 60th summer baseball classic

Kids in Wilkinsburg know all about reversal of fortune.

Ninety turned out for Little League this year, a baseball boom too big for the town to handle. Some began the season without gloves. Others could not afford cleats, so they played in sneakers or boots.

"We tried to find equipment for everybody, but in some cases you played with what you had," said David Reese, president of Wilkinsburg's six-team league.

After this humble start, the 14 players chosen for Wilkinsburg's all-star team will end the summer in grand style, playing in the 60th Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Lycoming County.

Wilkinsburg will compete in exhibition games against three teams from the Northeast. All were created through Little League's Urban Initiative, whose goal is to get more city kids playing ball each summer.

The Wilkinsburg team owes its spot in the series to Torii Hunter, center fielder of the Minnesota Twins. He lined up nine other big leaguers, and together they are paying the expenses of the four urban teams that will play in South Williamsport from Aug. 23 to 28.

One, Gary Sheffield, of the New York Yankees, knows the benefits of Little League. He played in the Little League World Series in 1980 on a Tampa, Fla., team that finished runner-up to a team from Taiwan.

The rest of the major leaguers simply liked Mr. Hunter's idea of investing in kids so they can play organized baseball.

"Traveling across this country, we have all heard stories of the struggles kids have trying to grow up safe and healthy," Mr. Hunter said. "Our involvement is a way of giving back to the communities and will help kids turn back on to baseball."

A native of Pine Bluff, Ark., he has no connection to Wilkinsburg or the other three teams he is sponsoring through the Torii Hunter Project. They are from the Bronx, N.Y., North Richmond, Va., and New Haven, Conn.

These teams will play at least four games against one another as a sidelight to the series, which features the top 16 Little League teams from around the world.

For Wilkinsburg's players, the trip to South Williamsport means not only a final flurry of baseball before school starts, but also a chance to meet kids from Asia, Europe and all across the United States.

Of the 14 on the team, none knew about the Little League World Series until they were invited to play in it.

"I didn't think I'd be on the team or make it this far," said Troy McCune, who lives in Homewood but was able to play summer baseball in the Wilkinsburg Little League.

Older people in Wilkinsburg have followed the Little League World Series for generations. The championship game has been a staple of American television since 1953, when CBS broadcast it. Last year, ESPN and ESPN2 televised 29 of the 32 series games in the United States.

"I'm feeling like a little kid," said Wilkinsburg manager Cliff McCaulley, 37, who has watched the series on TV since boyhood and now will see it in person.

His players, though, still aren't sure what all the fuss is about.

Anthony Nixon Jr., who plays the outfield and third base, said his expectations are simple.

"I want to have a day of fun. No, a week of fun," he said after remembering that the boys from Wilkinsburg will be at the series for five days.

The Wilkinsburg team won the Pittsburgh championship last week, defeating a Mount Washington team in the final at PNC Park. In that cavernous ballpark, makeshift fences were put up to accommodate the Little Leaguers, all of whom are 11 or 12 years old.

When they get to South Williamsport, the players will find pristine ballparks equipped with 200-foot fences, the Little League standard. It will be quite a change from the sprawling, weedy field off Coal Street where they practice.

Wilkinsburg's affiliation with Little League is a year old, but the town has a long history of organized baseball. Mr. Reese, 50, has seen the face of the game and the town change.

He said youth baseball in Wilkinsburg was all white in 1958, a reflection of the borough's demographics. This summer, 89 of the 90 players in Wilkinsburg's Little League were black.

David L. James, director of Little League International's Urban Initiative, says the organization does not track players by race. But it found that participation in organized baseball had declined in cities, many of which have large ethnic populations. Little League created its Urban Initiative in hopes of reviving interest in the game.

"Our participation was down until we joined Little League," Mr. Reese said. "We're getting more kids out there. Now we need to get more dads involved. I'll take the mothers, uncles, aunts and cousins, too."

Little League International estimates that 175 U.S. leagues were created through the Urban Initiative. They accounted for 2,212 teams and 286,000 players.

In all, Little League baseball and softball had 2.66 million players worldwide this summer.

For Wilkinsburg coach Lamont Smith, the Little League World Series is a highlight of his own comeback. Paralyzed in a random shooting two years ago, he works with the players from his wheelchair.

"I watch the Little League series every year, so this is a special feeling," said Mr. Smith, 35.

He coached in youth baseball programs for 11 years before somebody shot him. The crime has never been solved, but he tries not to dwell on it.

"There's nothing you can do but move forward," he said. "That's what I tell everybody."

Mr. Reese says the boys have responded to a coach who has maintained his spirit, even though his body is broken.

"Lamont is not really angry about it," Mr. Reese said. "He may get down, but he picks himself up, and the kids see that."

An exhibition team this year, Wilkinsburg has bigger aspirations for its Little Leaguers.

"We want to get to the series next time not as a team playing exhibitions. We want to be competing for the championship," Mr. Reese said.