Little League team becomes the Beatles of Boerne

08/31/2024 05:00 AM

BOERNE SPORTS SPORT KERRY BARBOZA

SPORTS EDITOR

I think we might have to come up with another name for the Boerne Little League team. I like the Boerne boys of summer, but I think a more appropriate name might be the Beatles of Boerne.

Not everyone reading this knows about the Beatles, but they took the country and the rest of the world by storm back in the 1960s. So much so that it was dubbed Beatlemania.

Wherever the Beatles went, fans went crazy. In fact, wrestling fans would find it interesting to know that Wrestle-Mania borrowed its name from Beatlemania since they were hoping to draw attention to their wrestling PPV shows.

What’s a bit ironic is that one of the Boerne Little League players listed the Beatles as his favorite music group even though they broke up 54 years ago, proof that their music still resonates today.

When the Beatles played at concerts, girls screamed so loud that people couldn’t hear the music. Some of those same girls cried and some even fainted.

One time the Beatles landed in Australia and more than 300,000 people lined the streets to watch them drive from the airport to the arena where they were playing, so they went ahead and made an impromptu parade out of it.

Speaking of parades, when the Boerne Little League team landed at the S.A. airport Monday, they received a water cannon salute on the tarmac and then had a police escort to Boerne from there.

Once in town, they were treated to a parade down the Hill Country Mile where the community came out and welcomed back their heroes.

Despite rain showers, several thousand people lined the streets to get a glimpse of the players and coaches. It seems the Boerne Little League team had the same effect on the town as the Beatles had on this country.

One young person at the parade yelled out to one of the players, “You’re my idol.”

Now, I know he didn’t mean that he was going to worship the guy. Sometimes kids don’t always use the right words, but I think it’s easy to understand what he meant.

He really looked up to the player and appreciated him and all that he and the rest of the team did. They brought national and even international attention to Boerne since the games were carried on ESPN and ABC.

Following the parade, there was a short ceremony and afterwards, the players mingled with their fans. They were interviewed by numerous media outlets (including the Boerne Star), took photos and signed autographs for more than an hour.

I’ve been at every state championship that a Boerne ISD team has ever won starting with the first one in 2003 by the Boerne High boys cross country squad.

There have been celebrations and parades for those state champions but not like this.

I posted a video of the parade on twitter at @BoerneStarSport and as of Thursday night, it had 475,000 impressions. That’s the most by far of anything I’ve posted, and second place isn’t even close.

Yes, it’s all reminiscent of Beatlemania. I think it’s fair to call the Boerne Little League team the Beatles of Boerne or should we call all this Boernemania.