WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Hours before kids from Tokyo to Cuba, Sydney to Staten Island filled the stands at Bowman Field to watch the Yankees lose 3-2 in the 10th inning to the Tigers, major leaguers returned the favor at the Little League World Series site.
During the matchup between Illinois and Penn State, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge were surrounded by crowds wherever they walked at Lamade Stadium.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked around with a video camera to document the experience.
Gleyber Torres, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswaldo Peraza sat with players from their native Venezuela.
Pitching coach Matt Blake sat in the seats reserved for his home state of New Hampshire.
Relief pitchers Clay Holmes and Jake Cousins interacted with the team in Tokyo.
Holmes even pulled out his cell phone as a translator to better communicate with players who wanted to know more about sinker and sweeper grips.
With the innocence of youth shining through, one player walked up to Rookie of the Year candidate Luis Gil and asked him where Anthony Volpe was, who was the closest person to them in age before Jason Dominguez joined the Yankees as the 27th player, and wanted the shortstop’s autograph.
“It’s been great just interacting with a lot of the fans and players and seeing how excited they are to come watch us play, but I think a lot of the players are just as excited to just be out there and see the field and see this whole experience,” Volpe said.
Though the journey to what is every 12-year-old baseball player’s dream was a short one, the Yankees will almost certainly have created some lifelong memories for the players playing in the Little League World Series.
And having the Yankees there took me back to my Little League days.
“Around 8 o’clock [years old]”I started trying to wear the major league hats of the teams I was playing for,” Giancarlo Stanton said, “and trying to look like the players. I never would have imagined I’d be hanging out with major leaguers at that age.”
Of course, there was a certain awe in the Little League players when they met the Yankees players in person.
“They were amazed at how big Big G was and how big Judge was,” Volpe said.
The day began with teams from Venezuela and Nevada greeting the Yankees at the airport, welcoming them onto the runway and signing numerous autographs.
Afterwards, we boarded a bus with the Yankees and headed to the Little League complex, where the 20 remaining teams (those not playing in either of the two stadiums) mingled with the major leaguers, asking them all the questions they could, taking selfies with them and stocking up on autographed balls.
“They asked us a lot of questions, just curious about what this means for us, what it’s like to play in the big leagues, what steps it takes to get there,” Stanton said, “just scratching our heads. The cool thing was, I was watching them play and I recognized some of the kids.” [on TV] “I had a lot of fun last week. It was really good.”
“It felt very natural and I thought it was a lot of fun,” added Volpe, who joined Austin Wells in the tradition of sliding down a hill in the outfield at Volunteer Stadium on a cardboard plank.
The Tokyo team, who understood some English and filled in some gaps with the help of Holmes’ cell phone, were eager to get the scoop on how Holmes pitched.
“Sweepers seem to be a thing over there, and everyone was crazy about them,” Holmes said. “They were asking me how to hold a sinker and a sweeper. They were great. They were very polite, very interested, very inquisitive. It was just fun to be around them.”
Judge’s parents were also in attendance, traveling all the way from Linden Little League.
Later, notables such as Hal Steinbrenner and Joe Torre attended Bowman Field.
And then, of course, there was the final game between the Yankees and Tigers.
But the Little League World Series preseason extravaganza may have sealed the win.
“When I first came out of the stands and saw the field and the game, I thought, ‘This is so cool,'” head coach Aaron Boone said. “It’s a really special place.”
