The Little League World Series champion Waipi'o baseball team will begin selling its official championship T-shirts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today during the league's registration at Waipi'o Gentry Shopping Center.

The T-shirts — designed, printed and packaged through Waipi'o Little League — are the only "official" championship shirts approved by the league. All proceeds will go toward Waipi'o Little League.

Other shirts have been sold at retail outlets in the past couple weeks, but those were designed and distributed by third-party vendors, according to Waipi'o Little League president Lenny Fabro.

The official Waipi'o shirt also will be sold from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the same Waipi'o Gentry Shopping Center location. Fabro said the league still is securing deals with retail outlets to sell the Waipi'o shirts.

The team is scheduled to participate in opening ceremonies on Saturday for Hawai'i Winter Baseball at Hans L'Orange Field in Waipahu. Paliku Winchester, the 5-year-old brother of third baseman Pikai Winchester, has been designated to throw out the first pitch.

Paliku Winchester is battling lymphoma.

The Waipi'o players will then watch the game between the North Shore Honu and the West O'ahu Canefires from the dugout, serving as bat boys.

Also, on Oct. 5, the Waipi'o team will be honored guests at a rally at the state Capitol. The festivities will include a presentation by Gov. Linda Lingle.

Yesterday, the team made an appearance at Times Supermarket in Royal Kunia and were guests on ESPN 1420's TURF radio sports talk show.

The Waipi'o Little League team beat Mexico 12-3 in Williamsport, Pa., to win the World Series championship. It became the second team from Hawai'i in four years to take the Little League title, following the feat by the West O'ahu Little League team in 2005.

Read his blog on high school sports at http://preptalk.honadvblogs.com.