Evolution of a rivalry

San Mateo split a pair of championships with their East Bay counterparts last week. San Mateo’s Majors All-Star team captured the Section 3 title with a 8-0 win last Tuesday. San Mateo’s 10-11 team could not duplicated that success, as Danville beat SMA twice to take the 10-11 crown.

“There seems to be some hostility between the two leagues,” said Paul Witten, manager of the San Mateo American 10-11 all-star team after their loss in the championship game.

The origins of the rivalry, however, can be traced back a generation and was started with the San Mateo Post 82 American Legion Orioles during the 2005 postseason. That was the year Post 82 made a magical and improbable run to the Western Regional tournament in Yakima, Washington. Playing as the underdog, the Orioles overcame a lot of adversity, on and off the field, that season to make it one step away from the American Legion World Series.

But it started with a San Mateo sweep of Danville in the Area 2 championship game. The Danville Hoots were a nationally recognized power, led by its equally memorable manager, Don Johns, who had guided Danville to a national title in the mid-1990s.

Danville breezed through the winner’s bracket of the Area 2 tournament in the summer of 2005 and eventually faced San Mateo in the championship series. The Orioles needed 11 innings to beat Palo Alto in the semifinals on a Friday night and turned around and swept a doubleheader from the Hoots in the championship series the next day.

A couple of seasons later, the Hoots left the American Legion and affiliated itself with the Connie Mack organization. Post 82 alums joke it was because of that 2005 championship series that Danville left.

Since then, Little League has taken over the rivalry mantle, as District 52 teams —including Belmont-Redwood Shores, Hillsborough, Pacifica American, San Carlos and San Mateo American — faced off with Danville in the various Section 3 tournament finals at least eight times since 2003. District 52 teams have four wins, Danville has four wins.

The rivalry was accentuated even more this season as Danville became Public Enemy No. 1 among San Mateo American fans. SMA was poised to host its first sectional tournament at its Trinta Park facility this season and got it all spruced up.

Danville, however, protested the venue, saying the field was not to Little League regulations. Danville was right, the protest was upheld and SMA and District 52 officials were forced to scramble to find another facility, finally teaming with crosstown rival San Mateo National to use its field at Lakeshore Park.

There was a little extra emotion as San Mateo, behind a towering home run and bat flip from Bennett Simon, cruised to the 11-12s crown with the win over Danville and advanced to the Northern California state tournament currently being played in Rocklin.

The energy from that 11-12s title game Tuesday transitioned to Danville Wednesday as a boisterous Danville crowd helped lift its team to the 10-11 championship over San Mateo — despite the game-long protestations from San Mateo fans toward the strike zone of the home plate umpire.

“We knew it would be a hostile environment,” Witten said.

And now we know why.

***

If you wanted to know the gravity of competing in the Olympics, look no further than American skateboarder Nyjah Huston.

The 26-year-old from Davis is deemed the best street skater in the world. Winning the prestigious Tampa Pro-Am as a 10-year-old, Huston has been a force in the world of skateboarding for the better part of two decades and is definitely the face of the U.S. Olympic team.

But as the pressure mounted during the street final Saturday, you could tell this was no longer the X Games or the Dew Tour. Huston got off to a decent start, but was facing a do-or-die situation on his penultimate best-trick attempt. The camera zoomed in on Huston’s face before he pushed off toward as 12-step set of stairs with a rail down the middle, he pulled up at the last second and went back to his starting position.

Again, the camera zoomed in on his face and you could almost see the pressure building. He intently stared toward the nose of his board, taking one beat, then a second, a third, four, five, six.

He finally pushed off, launched into the air and onto rail — falling off as he neared the bottom.

Huston would end up finishing seventh out of eight finalists.

The loss, however, doesn’t change the fact that Huston is one of the best skaters in the world, but it does illustrate that you need to be at your best on that one day to be an Olympic champion.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 650-344-5200 ext. 117. Results and statistics can be emailed to: sports@smdailyjournal.com.