WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Aaron Judge heard steady cries of “Judge!” from kids who flocked to the New York Yankees slugger from the moment he stepped off the team plane to his appearance at the Little League World Series.
One of the biggest stars in baseball, Judge was certainly the biggest attraction around Williamsport.
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Jazz Chisholm Jr. tossed souvenirs to pleading kids and captured the commotion on an old-school handheld video camera. Wearing his Yankees uniform top, Giancarlo Stanton showed Little Leaguers a proper grip of a baseball on a bus ride.
Through it all, the best Little League baseball players in America were awestruck by the sight of real-life big leaguers.
“They were blown away by how big G and Judge were on the bus,” Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe said.
Yankees and Detroit Tigers players grabbed their hunks of flattened cardboard and took flight for the traditional slide down the outfield hill outside the Little League World Series stadium. Judge handed out collectible pins to the players. Tigers played video games and table tennis with kids in the game room.
It was hard to tell who had more fun.
“Just to get a chance to share that moment with them, talk to them, sign a couple of autographs, I think if you ask both teams, we all enjoyed that experience,” Judge said.
On a rainy Sunday afternoon that delayed Little League World Series games, the Yankees and Tigers acted like kids again as they mingled with elite 12-year-olds from around the globe at the site of the pinnacle of youth baseball.
The Tigers then went out and rallied in the ninth and 10th innings to beat the Yankees 3-2.
“I had dreams of playing in the Little League World Series,” New York manager Aaron Boone said.
Boone had to settle for a role in the Major League Baseball Little League Classic on Sunday night at 2,366-seat Historic Bowman Field.
The Yankees and Tigers played two games in Detroit over the weekend and took a quick flight to Williamsport to finish the series Sunday. They were mobbed in the morning at the airport by smiling Little Leaguers. Both teams rode the bus with the youth players to try and watch the Series at Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport, though rain thwarted those plans. New York and Detroit later made a short ride to Bowman Field, which opened in 1926.
“I just couldn’t imagine at that age being able to hang out with big leaguers at that time,” Stanton said.
Kids had questions for the major league stars. What is it like in The Show? Who is the hardest pitcher you've faced? How do you get to the majors?
“They're pointing at your muscles and asking how you get big and strong,” Judge said, laughing. “It's pretty cool stuff.”
Some of the kids were celebrities already to the Yankees and Tigers who followed along with the Little League World Series bracket.
“The cool thing is I recognized some of the kids from watching them play this week,” Stanton said.
The Little League Classic is one of MLB’s experiments to try and attract new fans — and re-ignite the passion of lapsed ones — through offbeat settings, such as games this year like the Phillies-Mets series in London. The St. Louis Cardinals played the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2017 in the first Little League Classic.
Dillon Phelan of the Great Lakes region (out of Hinsdale, Illinois) mingled in full uniform with teammates near the Tigers dugout ahead of Sunday's night's game. Dillon catches for his baseball team, which lost both games it played in the World Series, but he found his mitt handy as he hoped to catch some baseballs from the Tigers. He already knew how to snag an autograph. Dillon removed his cap and flashed scores of autographs under the bill he already got earlier in the day from the Yankees and Tigers.
Stanton and Volpe signed the hat. So did Yankees slugger Juan Soto. Detroit outfielders Kerry Carpenter and Riley Greene added their signatures to the souvenir to savor for Dillon.
“It's been cool,” Dillon said. “It's been a good memory that I won't forget for a long time.”
Little Leaguers were treated like MLB All-Stars for most of their time in Williamsport. They were celebrated by thousands at a downtown parade. ESPN spent 2 1/2 hours interviewing kids and collecting fun facts from each one as part of its TV coverage.
Great Lakes coach Damon Phelan, Dillon's father, said the team spent eight days in town before it even played a game.
“There's so much prep that goes into the games, everything from the boys getting new uniforms, cleats, all new batting gear, catcher's gear,” he said. “It's like Christmas in August.”
The best gift of them all just might have been making friends with the Yankees and Tigers.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb