One of the most famous ties in the lifetimes of most of us might be Escanaba native Kevin Tapani playing for 13 years in Major League Baseball, mostly in the 1990s.

Now, though, a team from Negaunee is getting on a Midwest stage, which might become the entire country’s stage in a few days.

The Major Division All-Star team from that western Marquette County community won its state Little League tournament just over a week ago and is headed to play in the five-state Great Lakes Regional in Whitestown, Indiana, starting on Sunday.

This marks what is thought to be just the second title won a Negaunee LL baseball or softball team, matching what was done by the 2023 Junior Division baseball team, according to a listing on the Negaunee LL website, leagues.bluesombrero.com/Default.aspx?tabid=2115030.

Negaunee’s Ben Paananen watches the play with his sunglasses on during a Little League baseball Major Division state tournament semifinal game played against Grand Rapids Southern on July 22 in Saginaw. (Photo courtesy BaseballMichigan.com)

All games in this year’s Great Lakes Regional will at least be available on ESPN’s online platform, and with just one win by the Negaunee 11- and 12-year-old boys, they will get a chance to be seen on one of ESPN’s cable television channels.

This regional tournament is the final step to get to the famed Little League World Series that is played annually in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

While multiple divisions of LL, both baseball and softball, get some TV coverage, it is the Major Division that has had for many decades — and still has today — the most expansive TV coverage.

Just about every game in both the U.S. and International brackets is shown over a two-week period on ESPN and ABC.

All this hasn’t gotten lost on Negaunee manager Joe Dost.

“It’s a great opportunity for our kids, getting out of the state of Michigan and competing against other states,” he said. “It’s a new experience to see other teams from areas we normally would never see.

“The key is not to get overwhelmed by all the cameras and crowds. I imagine they can be quite a distraction if you’re not prepared for them.”

Especially at this preteen age.

Dost and his coaching staff are emphasizing playing the game the same way they’ve played it all along, which has netted Negaunee nine wins in nine games between their Upper Peninsula district tournament and the Michigan state tournament.

“One of the big things we’ve been telling our kids is that you have to want the baseball,” Dost said when players are on the field. “You can’t go in with fear or with nerves.

“We tell them some things that are similar to the movie ‘Hoosiers’ — it’s the same field, the same 46 feet from the pitcher’s mound to home plate they always play on.”

Dost said he and other coaches were leaving for Indiana on Wednesday for some preliminaries that coaches have to take care of, while he expected the players and their families to leave today with opening ceremonies apparently being held tonight or Friday.

The Michigan representatives are making the longest trip of any of the Great Lakes Regional teams to Whitestown, a small city about 20 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

The other teams in the region are Brownsburg of the home state of Indiana, Clarendon Hills of Illinois, West Side of Ohio and Lexington Eastern of Kentucky.

With a bracket that was set up well before state champions were determined, Negaunee as the Michigan representative drew a first-round bye and is the only one of the five teams not playing on the opening day of Saturday.

Instead, Negaunee opens play at 4 p.m. Sunday against the winner of Saturday morning’s Kentucky vs. Ohio game.

This is a double-elimination bracket, except there apparently won’t be an “if necessary” game in the finals, which in a regular set-up of this bracket is conducted if the team coming out of the winner’s bracket loses to the team from the loser’s bracket in the first championship game.

All of Saturday’s and Sunday’s games, along with a Monday afternoon loser’s bracket game, are scheduled for ESPN+, an online-only platform of the cable TV network.

Starting with Monday night’s winner’s bracket final, the last three games of the tournament are set for cable TV coverage on ESPN, or possibly one of its sister stations that include ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN News.

There’s some question of whether every Monday night, Tuesday and Wednesday game will be shown in full on ESPN, considering there are 10 U.S. regionals all going on nearly simultaneously.

There may be some wiggle room for the broadcaster, considering that two regions start today, but all 10 will be playing on Monday and Tuesday and eight of them still have games on Wednesday.

By the way, the Midwest Region will also play its regional in Whitestown, Indiana, even though the eight states it represents run from Wisconsin west through North Dakota and south to Kansas and Missouri.

Here is the Great Lakes Regional schedule, listed with TV and online coverage. All times are EDT:

Saturday — 10 a.m., Kentucky vs. Ohio, ESPN+; 7 p.m., Illinois vs. Indiana, ESPN+

Sunday — 4 p.m., Michigan vs. Kentucky-Ohio winner, ESPN+; 7 p.m., loser’s bracket, Saturday’s losing teams, ESPN+

Monday — 1 p.m., loser’s bracket, Michigan-Kentucky-Ohio loser vs. Illinois-Indiana loser, ESPN+; 7 p.m., winner’s bracket final, Michigan-Kentucky-Ohio winner vs. Illinois-Indiana winner, ESPN

Tuesday — 1 p.m., loser’s bracket final, Monday afternoon’s winner vs. Monday evening’s loser, ESPN

Wednesday — 7 p.m., championship, Monday evening’s winner vs. Tuesday’s winner, ESPN

Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.