Port Washington winning the Little League\u2019s first-ever New York State title<\/a> in its 63-year history. The team advanced, for the first time, to the regional round of the LLWS, which is being televised on ESPN this week.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a good luck charm,\u201d Jack said of the phone ban.<\/p>\n
Port Washington supporters sending the team off to the regional round. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n
His dad, Neal Gomez, joked that he should get \u201ca few buckets\u201d for home.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime you could put those phones down and let kids be kids and just play ball and have fun \u2014 that\u2019s really what it\u2019s all about,\u201d the proud dad said.<\/p>\n
The tweens realized that the five hours passed by quickly as they spent it bonding and playing fun games like a homemade version of \u201cFamily Feud.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although a winning answer was broccoli on pizza, it\u2019s the effort that counts, parents said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just go back to basics and love talking to each other, having fun, being creative, hanging out in each other\u2019s [hotel] rooms,\u201d said Rikki Kien, the mom of shortstop Brandon.<\/p>\n
\u201cTalking constantly about the game, talking about what\u2019s happened so far this summer, and for sure, more natural face-to-face time with one another,\u201d she added, praising the coaches\u2019 \u201cwonderful\u201d idea.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like the team is being tech-shunned either. They routinely played left fielder Carlo Cafferata\u2019s PlayStation 5 together at appropriate times in their Rockland County hotel during the state championship.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re also dedicating spare time to Wiffle Ball and other activities rather than texting the day away.<\/p>\n
Port Washington Legends third baseman Jack Gomez told The Post the phone ban may be a good luck charm. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n
Sure, the guys may have gotten kicked out of a pool for all going down a water slide together, but who wouldn\u2019t celebrate a state title run accordingly?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey look forward to it these days. They\u2019re like, \u2018we\u2019ll give you our phones,’\u201d Theoharis said.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018we\u2019ve still got a little time. Enjoy it before we take it away.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Port Washington was up in Bristol, Conn. Sunday to play the best teams from the area \u2014 Bayonne Central, NJ; Darien, Conn,; and Lincoln, RI \u2014 trying to represent the Metro region at the big show in Williamsport, Pa. later this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Port Washington\u2019s Mikey Catuogno beating a throw to second base during a regional round game against Lincoln, RI in in Bristol, Conn. on Aug. 8, 2026. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
The Legends came out scorching hot with a 10-3 opening round win over Lincoln Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
Confidence, not phones, is buzzing among both the players and their parents as Port readies to play Bayonne in the winners bracket on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re locked in. Their minds aren\u2019t on what they might have seen from schooling,\u201d added Kien, whose son drove in a pair of runs against Lincoln.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have more clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Screen time is outta here! A\u00a0Long Island baseball team is\u00a0having its best season ever \u2013 now just a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27518,4207,68,119113,776,57,9,11,10,49,51,50,25446,319,4730],"class_list":["post-317360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-cell-phones","tag-children","tag-exclusive","tag-little-league-world-series","tag-long-island","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-screen-time","tag-sports","tag-teens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}