Twelve years have passed since Mo’ne Davis captivated the sports world.
She was a hard-throwing pitcher from Philadelphia who became the first girl to throw a shutout at the Little League World Series. Then she became the first Little Leaguer to appear on the national cover of Sports Illustrated and was besieged at the 2014 LLWS in Williamsport, Penn.
"At that time, lots of adults (were) just kind of crashing down wanting to get an autograph from a teenager," Davis, 25, told USA TODAY Sports. "They don't really think, they don't really care.
"Honestly, the fans are a lot nicer now."
Davis faded from the limelight after making history at 13, but now she has resurfaced
and is part of history again.
As the LLWS has gotten underway,, Davis is playing for the Women’s Pro Baseball League in its inaugural season. It is the first such league in more than 70 years, dating back to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that was immortalized by the 1992 movie, "A League of Their Own."
Davis plays center field for the Los Angeles Queens. She's no longer pitching.
“I've been asked so many times, am I going to pitch?’’ she said. “And I always tell them no, and they're always questioning why.
“Knowing how social media is, knowing how we're so competitive within ourselves, I don't want to put that pressure on myself to keep up with what I did when I was younger.’’
No regrets for Mo'ne Davis
Last summer, Davis got the phone call from Justine Siegal, co-founder and commissioner of the Women’s Pro Baseball League.
"I was in a Walmart parking lot back home," Davis said. "My phone was overheating, but we were able to make it work and then I just kind of thought about it and decided if I wanted to join the league or not."
After 2014, life threw Davis curveballs.
It turned out her dream was to play basketball at the University of Connecticut, the perennial powerhouse.
"And then I stopped growing," said Davis, who is 5-5.
She joined her high school softball team and emailed college coaches to see who would give her a shot. Pretty quickly, Davis said, she heard back from Hampton University in Virginia.
That’s where she enrolled in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and short-circuited her college softball career. She played only one full season.
But she did an internship with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2023, the same year she got a bachelor’s degree in journalism at Hampton. In 2024, she got a Master’s degree in Sports Management from Columbia University.
"I always wanted multiple degrees," she said.
Then, in the summer of 2025, she got the call from Siegal. At the time, Davis said, she was coaching softball in Philadelphia. She listened to Siegal's pitch to join a four-team league that would be based in Springfield, Illinois for its first season.
The league's inaugural draft was in November. With the 10th pick, the Los Angeles Queens selected Davis.
"Just wanted to get out there and just play and just kind of feel that freedom that you have as a kid when you're able to go out there and just kind of express yourselves between the lines and just wanting that to come back," Davis said. "And like I said before, not wanting to have any regrets in life."
Removing the rust
In April, Davis joined the Indianapolis Clowns, once a predominantly Black barnstorming team. Revived last year, the Indianapolis Clowns are associated with baseball’s quintessential clowns, the Savannah Bananas.
"Playing with them helped me so much for getting ready for this season (with the Women’s Pro Baseball League)," said Davis, who hadn’t played competitive baseball in years. "Just working on mechanics in the batter's box, working on tracking down fly balls and seeing how the pitchers are pitching."
The Clowns play in the Banana Ball League against the likes of the Party Animals, Firefighters, Texas Tailgaters and Loco Beach Coconuts. So Davis got a little loco while catching fly balls before the game and working on non-traditional skills.
“I try to do some behind the backs, which is really hard," she said. "But I've been learning."
Now, in the Women’s Pro Baseball League that started its season Aug. 1, the behind-the-back catches and exhibitions are over.
After six games and 21 at-bats through Thursday, Davis is batting .238 with two RBIs and five runs scored. Eric Young Sr., manager of the Los Angeles Queens, said Davis' batting average belies her contributions.
"She's my leadoff hitter," said Young, a retired major leaguer who coached in the majors between 2010 and 2025. "She takes pitches and usually when she gets on, it jumpstarts our offense. She's been hitting the ball hard at people. She's been having good at-bats
"Her knowledge of the game is what propels her as well of being a better player than the average player out here. She's aware of what's going on, what's needed. So her struggle at the plate has not been a struggle for me as a manager. I know the hits will fall."
Young also said Davis has fit in with her teammates.
“When she's hanging out with her girls, you'll see that laugh, that soft smile and everything,’’ he said. “But she's focused when she gets between those lines and steps on that baseball field, which is just good to see.
“I'm enjoying managing her and having her on my team, and the girls really love her.’’
'Just throw strikes'
While waiting for the hits to fall, Davis is still attracting fans. Some sit behind the Queens' dugout and Davis said she and her teammates have shared a laugh with them at the cozy Robin Roberts Stadium.
Also, Siegal said she met a young girl wearing No. 3, Davis' jersey number, and accompanied by her father who had traveled of miles to watch Davis play. It's a testament to the legacy Davis carved out 12 years ago.
"There were other girls like Mo'ne who had been striking out boys in their own local leagues," Siegal said. "But additionally, the larger question is of baseball being accessible to all girls, whether that's subtle discrimination or complete discrimination with rules from school saying girls can't play. And that's a battle we still face, but it's definitely better in 2026 than it was when Mo'ne was on the mound.''
When Davis pitched 8 1/3 innings and recorded 14 strikeouts for the Mid-Atlantic Region team, she was 13. At the time, LLWS rules allowed players to be 13 depending on their birth date. Now the age for players is capped at 12.
Davis said Little Leaguers seek her out for advice.
"Whenever they come ask (questions), most of the time it's just like, what's your best advice you'd give to someone who's starting to pitch? Or how do you throw your curveball? Or how do you do this? How do you do that?
"I just tell them to just throw strikes. That's the best thing you can do as a pitcher because if you don't throw strikes, your fielders won't be able to make plays and the other team will score. So just throw strikes."
'She's straight dominating'
Since 2014, Davis said, she hasn’t watched much of the LLWS.
"I try to see some highlights here and there," she said. "But with life just being life, you don't really have time to just sit down and just watch Little League throughout the day."
Yet Davis did mention one player.
"I've been seeing a lot of things on social media about Kinley," she said.
That’s Kinley Rasmus, the 12-year-old girl who plays for the Phenix City team from Alabama. In the team’s opening game, Ramus struck out eight batters, tying Davis’ record for most strikeouts recorded by a girl in six innings.
Rasmus also threw six shutout innings but her team lost 2-0 in extra innings.
"I've seen what she's done and she's just straight dominating," Davis said. "So I'm really impressed by what she's doing, but I haven't really been watching too much other than that.
"Right now my focus is on the next few days us playing three games in a row, making sure I'm taking care of my body, making sure our team is in the right mindset to go out and hopefully go 3-0.''
But she's looking beyond the next three days, too.
"I probably won't be done playing in the next three years," she said. "My body feels great.
"But we'll see. Whatever doors open that I feel like I want to explore, I'm always going to go down and explore those things just because, like I said before, you never want to have any regrets in life."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The pressure of being Mo'ne Davis and the journey back to baseball
