In 1982, a team from Washington won the Little League World Series and became famous. Forty years later, here is what the players learned.

SEATTLE — Pitcher Cody Webster didn't realize the magnitude of what he and his friends had accomplished until he saw the front page of a Chicago newspaper during an airport layover.

It was 1982, and Webster had helped lead his Kirkland, Wash., team to a Little League World Series championship over perennial powerhouse Taiwan. The victory snapped a five-title and 31-game winning streak by Taiwanese teams.

Webster and his teammates were 12, and at the time they'd just been playing baseball and having fun with their friends. Even after they lifted the LLWS trophy 40 years ago in Williamsport, Pa., they hadn't anticipated the fame that followed. They suddenly became heroes, Webster said.