A week of Alpenrose magic will last a lifetime

PORTLAND, Ore. - A stogie the size of a small musical instrument dangling from his lips, an older gentleman, maybe in his mid-60s and dressed in a maroon Asia Pacific T-shirt, takes a seat at a picnic table behind a tall fence at Alpenrose Stadium. About 100 feet away, hidden by bleachers and a sea of people, ESPN cameras are rolling as a Little League Softball World Series semifinal between Latin America and the South is being played Tuesday night on a field fit for softball queens. "Isn't this something?" he asks, his cigar smoke dying into the cooling evening air. "I never get tired of it." The man, a volunteer host for the team from the Philippines, was talking about the atmosphere, the excitement, the dreams being realized. A week at A