Williamsport, Pennsylvania – Once the Seattle and New York Mets Marine Air Plans In Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on Sunday for this year’s little league, the little league will surround the big league. What happens after that is not scripted, not structured and unpredictable. Because you never know what children could say.
One of the children will probably question Cal Raleigh on his nickname, the Big Dumper – and they will ask if Raleigh’s mother still does not like the nickname. Raleigh could show children the bat that he uses this weekend, which reads as follows: “Big Butt … Even bigger bombs.”
Someone will probably ask Pete Alonso to name Polar Bear because, well, children love animals. Someone will ask Randy Arozarena on the cross -installation of the arms he makes after great moments. Juan Soto did not do the Soto Shuffle in his first season with the food, but some children could try to show their imitations for him.
The part of these ball players, aged and young, is not scripted, not structured and unpredictable, and yet the result is inevitable.
“This is one of the funniest things I was a part,” said Terry Francona, director of the Reds of Cincinnati, who was in Williamsport in 2021 as a Cleveland manager when he played in the Little League Classic. “It was like a county fair, with baseball.”
Bowman Field, where the teams will play at 7 pm on “Sunday Night Baseball” of ESPN, will be filled almost entirely by the little leaguers, and each time someone lifts a ball in the air – a high fly ball towards a shallow central field – the response of the crowd will be a collective ooooohahahA reflection of fear of the height of a large fever can hit the ball.
Adults may tend to see MLB players through digital prisms such as the cache classification, the number of circuits, the basic era or percentage. But that’s not how small leaguers see it. When the big leaguers go to Williamsport, they are deposited in a world where all this is temporarily secondary in the eyes of their young baseball brothers, and what matters most is the pleasure.
The Copstrack Mets Francisco Lindor spends time before each game of the food lingered on the edge of the stands, signing autographs and chatting with children – and he is looking forward to the same experience in his first game in Williamsport. He says that many of them are interested in the accessories of the big league. “Many children want to exchange things,” he said, laughing. Bracelet strips. Shot gloves. A bat. Baseball. Some will ask him for gum.
“I love it,” said Lindor. “I remember being a child, and I am a kind of child of heart, and it is a reminder of the reason why you fell in love with baseball in the first place.”
Some children will ask Lindor what they should do to be a better striker or a better defensive player. Some children, in the presence of MLB stars, will not say much. When Aaron’s judge of 6 feet 7 inch and 282 pounds were seated among the little leaguers in the stands of the classic of Little League from last year, the cameras caught some of them who watched him, watching him – watching him watch a match. Another little feverman doing an interview in play with the Yankees launcher, Gerrit Cole, courageously asked the launcher an autograph, and when Cole said yes, the child ran to the place where Cole was seated.
This kind of thing is what Francona really liked the visit of Williamsport: “Even if the games were televised, the children left to be children.”
Detroit Tigers manager AJ Hinch has seen how special Williamsport can be when his team made the trip to the Little League Classic last year.
“I was blown away by the whole environment at the Little League World Series,” he wrote in a text, “and our game was a fun change for the calendar.
“The quantity of pride of children and their love for our players was incredible. The Cuban team seeing Andy Ibanez out of the plane was so cool. The children really kissed the pleasure with our players. On the hill” – where the children slide on pieces of cardboard – “and in the stadium, in the stades. I saw children of baseball and simply hang with them like teammates.”
Hinch said Tigers Day in Williamsport led some of his players to share stories and remember their own days from Little League. This is what the Little League Classic does – it can remind players where their passion and their love for the game started all these years ago.
“A little bring everyone back to their roots,” wrote Hinch. “The experience inspired the team and reminded them of why we love the game.”
