CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Osaka, Japan5 Phenix City, Ala.0

WILLIAMSPORT – Too much Beast hangover. That was the word yesterday after Phenix City, Ala. was buried 5-0 by Osaka, Japan in the 53rd Little League World Series.

“We left it all on the field against Toms River, we had nothing left,” South coach Tony Rasmus admitted after his team’s lackluster performance in the finale. “All the kids talked about all week was beating Toms River. I know the World Championship is supposed to be the big game, but our big game was [Friday], winning the U.S. title. Thank God it rained on Thursday or else we wouldn’t have been here.”

Toms River lost its 2-0 lead and its mojo after the rains came Thursday, falling 3-2 on Friday.

Rasmus lost a job, but gained a level of fame with this Little League run, so much so that singer Kenny Rogers, who performed here yesterday, said he is trying to buy Rasmus’ story and wants to play him in a film. The coach quit his high school teaching job and football assistant’s position to stay with his Little Leaguers. “I know he’s a lot better singer than I am,” said Rasmus, who lives in a trailer with his wife and four children, but purchased a $5,000 batting cage and pitching machine to gear his kids up for Little League. “This week has been un-beee-leeeve-able,” he said, drawing out the word to make his point.

That was the big-picture theme yesterday. Thirty-eight years after winning a championship here, ex-Cleveland Browns quarterback Brian Sipe said yesterday he still gets goose bumps when he walks into Lamade Stadium. Sipe, 48, was enshrined in Little League’s Hall of Excellence.

Sipe returned to the site where his El Cajon, Northern Little League beat El Campo, Texas, 4-2 in 1961. He brought two of his three children along for the ride, 22-year-old daughter Lonnie and 14-year-old son Nolan. “The biggest thing that stands out is that we won the game on a home run in the sixth inning,” Sipe told The Post. “I wanted my kids just to see the place. It hasn’t changed at all. This is a perfect slice of Americana.”

Sipe offered the perfect perspective on how hard it was for Toms River East American to repeat as champion. Like Casey Gaynor and Eric Campesi, he was only 11 years old when his team won the championship. As a 12-year-old he was hoping to return to the Little League World Series. “We were a marked team right from the first day,” he said.

His team never got out of the Districts. Back then it was a single-elimination tournament. “We lost 1-0,” Sipe said. “The kid that got the only hit against me also stole second, third and home.”

Turns out that Sipe’s regular catcher was sick that day and his new backstop couldn’t stop the ball from the kid with the golden arm.

Yes, the vagaries of Little League. Casey Gaynor yesterday hit a home run in a consolation game and said he is doing fine one day after the final loss to Phenix City. It was a day to soak in the joy of baseball as Japan dismantled the South behind the shutout pitching of Kazuki Sumiyama, who actually throws a knuckleball called the Kazuball.

Sipe wasn’t the only famous ex-Little Leaguer present. Hall of Famer Robin Yount was presented with the Bill Shea Distinguished Little League graduate award. In a touching speech, Yount brought his former Little League coach from Woodland Hills, Calif. here and presented him with the award, bringing tears of joy to the man.

Yount added that his All-Star team lost their first game the first year he was eligible, the second year they won 10 straight, coming only two wins short of making the trip to Williamsport. He then looked his old coach straight in the eye, put his arm right arm around his shoulder and said, “Well coach, we finally made it.”

The crowd of 42,000 erupted in a thunderous ovation. “I was crying,” said Rasmus, who will take his team to Yankee Stadium today. George Steinbrenner invited both finalists to the game. Standing to the left of Yount was the Toms River squad and coach Mike Gaynor. Those words gave the Beasty Boys a great sense of accomplishment for what they have done and how fortunate they were to make it back to the Mecca of Little League baseball. “It would have been fun to play Japan,” Gaynor said, watching the sloppy game.

One South fan was spotted wearing a “Where’s the Beast?” T-shirt. Richie Cunningham, the original Beast, went up and got his picture taken with the fan.

Such is the glory of Little League. The memories will last forever. Just ask the kids from Toms River, Brian Sipe, Robin Yount, Tony Rasmus or four-foot-seven Japanese second baseman Takas Sakurai, who picked up two hits. “I am the smallest player, but I am the most emotional player in our Little League,” Sakurai said.

The biggest heart is what this is all about.