WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — Carlos Mendoza was thrilled to learn the Little League World Series had a team this summer that represented his Venezuelan hometown. The Mets manager struck up a conversation with some kids from Barquisimeto on his trip to the stadium where the traditional youth tournament is held — only to find the ballplayers a bit distracted by the big leaguers around them.
“I'm talking to one kid and Juan Soto walks by,” Mendoza said Sunday with a laugh. “Francisco Lindor. It was hard
to maintain that conversation.”
Already hard to miss as one of the most recognizable players in baseball, Soto was set to have kids marveling at his cleats. Soto's spikes were ripped straight from a comic book.
“SOTO SMASH!” and “SOTO BLAST!' along with superheroes such as Spider-Man and Iron Man were painted onto his cleats with the caption ”The Incredible Juan No. 22" to complete the comic theme.
Turned out, rain was his kryptonite.
Severe weather delayed the start of Sunday night's game between the New York Mets and Seattle — hey, the Mariners' home run trident might come in handy — in the annual Major League Baseball Little League Classic at Historic Bowman Field.
The field is just a 6-mile trip from the complex where the Little League World Series is underway with kids full of big league dreams, many of whom attended Sunday's game after they mingled with today’s stars and — perhaps like Mariners manager Dan Wilson did — could find their way from one of youth baseball’s biggest summer stages to MLB.
Wilson was just 12 years old in 1981 when his team from the Chicago suburb of Barrington advanced to South Williamsport and played in the Little League World Series. Wilson pitched in the World Series opener and helped his team advance to the United States championship game. His team lost to one representing Florida.
“We were down 11-4, we came storming back with two outs,” Wilson said. “The tying run got thrown out at the plate. A heartbreaking loss. There were a lot of tears. That meant the end of the tournament. We did come back and play a consolation game. We took third.”
Wilson's team was feted with a parade when they returned home.
“So much fun, so much joy,” Wilson said. “You just don't expect that to happen when you start this experience. When you start going to tournaments, playing tournaments and start winning, pretty soon you find yourself in Williamsport.”
Wilson took the mound again Sunday, only this time to throw the first pitch ahead of the Panama and Mexico game.
Mets and Mariners were kids again for most of a full day that included everything from cardboard sledding at Lamade Stadium to pin trading to wiffle ball games.
Mets pitcher Sean Manaea pulled a plastic baggie full of pins out of his locker that he obtained from Little Leaguers that he mostly got for Soto pins.
Manaea didn't pitch in the pick-up game against the wide-eyed Little Leaguers.
“I was playing second-and-a-half base,” he quipped.
“I did get a hit,” he added.
Off an 11-year-old pitcher?
“I almost hit a home run,” he said.
Leave that to the real sluggers in the lineup.
Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh leads baseball with 46 home run entering Sunday night and Soto has 30. Mets star first baseman Pete Alonso has 28 homers.
Soto had a WWE championship belt displayed over his locker. A few Mets and Mariners had oversized heads or cardboard cutouts of themselves from their Little League days at their locker.
Raleigh, nicknamed “The Big Dumper” breezed through the clubhouse in a “Little Dumper” T-shirt gifted by some of the Little Leaguers and he also signed a toilet seat for his No. 1 fan. Raleigh's chest protector featured a baseball card design of Mariners players and coaches from when they were kids.
Both teams handed out hats and other gifts to the Little Leaguers that all but exclusively attended Sunday's game.
“Something as simple as a hat for those kids, those coaches, it means so much,” Mendoza said.
The Classic and games like it — such as this season's Speedway Classic — are part of MLB’s outreach efforts to draw more younger fans and grow the game across the globe. The game Sunday night even featured a Kidcast on ESPN2.
The St. Louis Cardinals played the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2017 in the first Little League Classic.
Just like the super-sized words on Soto's cleats, the game is widely considered a smash hit.
“It doesn’t matter who you’ve got a big league jersey on and it’s kind of like, I want be like him,” Manaea said. “I feel like I can represent that. It’s a cool way to give back to the game.”
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