'Whirlwind of an experience': Auburn team nearly won Little League World Series in 1959

Williamsport, Pennsylvania, has been the pinnacle of Little League Baseball since 1947. Every August, the best of the best from around the world gather in the town of 28,000 to determine the Little League champion. In 1959, West Auburn Little League became the first Northern California team to make the journey back east. To this day, West Auburn is one of three teams from the Sacramento area to make it to Williamsport. Jim Arbogast of Charlotte, North Carolina, was a member of that team and remembers it fondly. "First, you have to realize that we were 12-year-olds. We didn't know nothing about nothing and had barely been outside of Auburn," Arbogast said. In 1959, the Little League World Series was a single-elimination tournament rather than pool play and double elimination today. Teams had to win 14 games in a row through various levels of all-star competition to call themselves world champions. West Auburn came oh so close, winning 13 straight before falling short in the Little League World Series Championship Game 12-0 to National Little League of Hamtramck, Michigan. "It was a whirlwind of an experience," Arbogast said. "On the last game of the Western Regionals, they told both teams to pack their suitcases because the plane leaves for Williamsport an hour after the game. When we got there, it was very hot and very humid and we weren't used to that. We had wool uniforms back then." West Auburn played its first game in Williamsport against National Little League of Gadsden, Alabama, winning 3-1 to advance to the semifinals. West Auburn then rolled past Schenectady Little League of New York, scoring seven runs in the first inning on the way to an 8-1 victory to advance to the championship game. The craziest part of Auburn's run is that it almost never happened. During the Northern California Tournament in Oroville, West Auburn trailed Redding by three runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Arbogast was on second base when Redding walked the team's star player, Bob Sunada, to load the bases. With the season on the line, West Auburn coach Lloyd Beggs brought in Billy Epperson to pinch hit. Epperson took the first pitch down the middle for a strike and quickly found himself behind in the count with two strikes. Down to his final strike, Epperson sent a high fastball over the fence for a walkoff grand slam to keep the season alive. "As games got tougher, we didn't seem to have any trouble," Arbogast said. "We only had four teams in Auburn to choose the all-star team from. It just happened to be the right combination of coaches and players that made this thing work." Despite the championship loss, the Little Leaguers were celebrated when they returned home. "We had a very big parade that started at the old Executive Airport in Sacramento. They picked us up in brand new Thunderbird convertibles and stopped in every town on the way up to Auburn." Arbogast recalled. "I think everyone from Auburn showed up to the Central Square to greet us." Sixty-three years later, the memories from Williamsport still resonate with Arbogast, long after his playing days have passed him by. "I think about the memories all the time. We all still keep in touch quite a bit," he said. "I haven't been back to Williamsport, but I still watch the Little League World Series every year." The team has its own area in the Placer County Museum at the Auburn Courthouse that's filled with memorabilia, pictures and a trophy they won on the journey to represent Auburn at the Little League World Series.