Out to the ballgame

If you have an appointment with Dr. Barry Gendron at Portsmouth Regional Hospital tomorrow, you had better reschedule. The doctor is out. He's in Williamsport, Pa., where he'll watch his son, Pierce, and 12 other Portsmouth, N.H., players live out their big-league dreams at the Little League World Series.

``I think my patients will understand," said Gendron, who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Portsmouth opens play in the Little League World Series tomorrow at 4 p.m. against Northwest champion Murrayhill Little League of Beaverton, Ore. Portsmouth advanced to the World Series by defeating Glastonbury (Conn.) American Little League, 3-0, in the New England Regional final in Bristol, Conn., last Sunday.

While life has been turned upside down for the coaches and players on the Portsmouth Little League team, which also draws players from the towns of Newington and Greenland, the same can be said for their families. They have followed their hardball heroes from New Hampshire to Connecticut and now Pennsylvania. The familiar routine of everyday life has been replaced by an endless summer full of baseball games, missed workdays, and anxious moments in the stands.

``It's been a roller-coaster ride," said Amie Trefethen of Newington, the mother of Portsmouth second baseman Conor Trefethen . ``We knew we had a strong team, but when we started in districts we didn't think we'd get this far. It's like a huge family, the kids and the parents. This team is just phenomenal."

Trefethen recently started a job as a receptionist at the Haven Health Center in Hampton, N.H., and she's had to take time off for the New England Regional tournament Aug. 5-13. If Portsmouth advances to the championship game of the Little League World Series, she could be in Williamsport until Aug. 27.

Barry Gendron and his wife, Tara, are veterans of the lengthy Little League summer. Their son, Blake, was on the 2004 Portsmouth Little League team, which fell one game short of going to Williamsport, losing to Lincoln, R.I., 3-0, in the New England final. This summer, the other Little League parents leaned on the Gendrons for advice.

Tara Gendron said it's been fun the second time around.

``It's a lot of time, but it's well worth it," she said , decked out in a Portsmouth T-shirt with a Hawaiian lei and two strands of Mardi Gras beads around her neck. ``It was really a little bittersweet to do it this year."

The road to Williamsport can inspire a lot of superstition.

Many of the parents wear the same outfits to the game. Tara Gendron and Lisa Hemming, the mother of first baseman Stephen Hemming of Greenland, wear the Mardi Gras necklaces, which are replete with little baseball, bat, and glove charms. Hemming picked up the party beads at a store in Saugus. It appears some of the good luck from the 2003 Saugus American Little League team, which advanced to the US final, has rubbed off on Portsmouth.

Stephen Hemming's father, Stuart, wears a titanium necklace similar to the ones that are popular with big-league players. In addition to the beads, Lisa Hemming has a lucky pair of earrings. And the Hemmings ate at the same Dunkin' Donuts every day in Bristol.

It's not just the parents that are putting their lives on hold for the team. The siblings of the players have gotten into the spirit as well. Stephen Hemming's sister, Kathryn, 15, and Arielle Bean , 14, sister of Portsmouth ace pitcher Jordan Bean , are fixtures at the Portsmouth games with their homemade signs.

Both girls said they're enjoying spending their summer as fans.

``When you see someone you've spent your whole life with experience something like this, you feel you're experiencing it, too, even though you're not playing," said Kathryn Hemming , who said her school - appointed summer reading list has been the biggest casualty of her brother's Little League success.

Arielle Bean agreed. ``This is a once - in - a - lifetime chance. Baseball has become my life."

Portsmouth manager Mark McCauley said the team appreciates its fans.

``It's going to be a pleasure to be around these guys and their parents for another week," said McCauley. ``With everybody that's supported us, it's unbelievable the support we've received. The support we got from not just Portsmouth, Newington, and Greenland, which are the three towns these kids are from, but the state, it is heartwarming. It just feels so good."

McCauley said it's difficult for the team to have a sense of what kind of impact its run is having back home, outside of immediate family. Little League Baseball Inc. sequesters the players and coaches in on-site dormitories for the regional and Williamsport tournaments. Interaction with the outside world is limited.

Amie Trefethen was more than happy to fill in McCauley.

``It's mayhem at home from what I hear," she said. ``The whole town of Portsmouth has been so supportive.

``It's a riot," she added. In Bristol, ``kids we don't even know ask them to sign a ball, a shirt, anything. It's been like that all week."

With the ESPN interviews and big-league treatment, it's easy to forget that the Portsmouth players are 11-, 12-, and 13-year-olds, until you see Pierce Gendron ask his mother for money or hard-hitting center fielder Keegan Taylor smiling to reveal a mouth full of braces.

Or the never-ending quest to keep their rooms clean.

Even after the big win in Bristol last Sunday, what some of the mothers were most eager to brag about was that the Portsmouth team won the cleanest room competition at the New England Regional tournament.

``They're showing what great kids we have in Portsmouth," said Amie Trefethen. ``Everyone commented on how well-behaved they were here."

It's clear that while the players have bonded on the field, the same has happened to their parents and siblings off of it.

``We're looking forward to another week together," said Tara Gendron.

Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com.