One of my best memories of being a kid was my twelve year old year of little league baseball at Hamilton West Side Little League. That was the best summer of my life. Everyone thought we wouldn’t go very far, but we proved them wrong. We won districts, states, and almost went to the Little League World Series on ESPN.  Even though we didn’t go to the Little League World Series, it still will go down as one of the best summers of my life.

Our team had thirteen players. So little league rules says, that every player has to play two innings and have one at bat. I played third base, shortstop, second base, and catcher. We started in mid June to mid August. Every night we would practice from  7pm-10pm. The long sweat drenching practices sucked, but at the end I knew it would be worth it . Out of that whole time, we got one day off. That was the day after we won states.

We played almost every weekend in a tournament. One of the best tournaments was when we played down in South Lexington. We went go down there every 4th of July. And every year it is hot as crap every year. We would get there on a Friday, so we could watch the other teams in the tournament. These teams were really good. So the next day we would usually play a double header. It was so hot that day, I thought I was going to melt into a pool of sweat. We won both of those games so we would play in the Championship game the next day at noon.

The team we were playing has won the Cal Ripken World Series two years in a row. They had a kid that was about six foot two at the age of twelve. He looked like a giant. He could throw about 75 mph from 46 feet.The equivalent pitch speed for that from 60 feet in the MLB is about 99 mph. That’s like trying to hit off of Aroldis Chapman. We were the away team, so we batted first. There was a man on first and second with one out. I was stepping up to the plate, nervous as hell. All I was trying to do was make contact with the ball. The first pitch he threw went right past me for strike one. So I stepped out of the box and took a deep breath and stepped back in. The next pitch I started my swing before he threw the ball. The  the ball went to the right center gap. It was a 2 rbi single. Then the center fielder made a bad throw to home, so I went to second base. All of a sudden the catcher made a bad throw to try to get me out. The ball went to the wall, so I rounded third and went home and scored. A inside the park home run to gives us the led 3-0. Then it was downhill from there. They scored 12 runs the next inning and beat us by the score of 15-3. Even though we didn’t win, it was still a lot of fun.

So now we only had one week left to practice for the journey to the World Series. The Little League World Series was a double elimination tournament with 8 United States teams and 8 International teams. Kids from the ages of 11 to 13 year olds would play.  The winner of the United States bracket would play the winner of the International bracket to make it to the finals. The winner of the finals would be the world champions of Little League baseball. But there was many steps to get there.

The steps were to win districts, states, and regionals to make it the the LLWS. We won all the games to make it to the finals. Hamilton hasn’t lost districts in over 25 years. We were playing Hamilton-Fairfield again. It was the top of the 6th inning we were winning 3-1. There was a runner on first with one out. I was playing second base at the time. In my head I kept saying, “ Hit the ball to me.” That’s all I wanted to happen. The kid at the plate was their best hitter on the team. He has killed us all tournament. One the first pitch the kid hit it about 500 feet foul. It was about a foot away from being a homerun. Our whole team went to talk to the pitcher. We kept telling him, “Just throw strikes, you got a defence behind you.” We all went back to our positions. All I kept thinking was, “ Hit the ball to me.” I had so much adrenaline running through out my body. On the very next pitch the ball was hit up the middle. I thought it was a base hit for sure. But when I dove into the dirt, I found the ball in my glove. So I flipped it to second and then the shortstop threw it to first. A game ending double play! All I kept thinking after that was, “How the hell did I get that ball.” So we won districts, and now we were going to the state tournament.

The state tournament was a big deal to our team. We went 1-2 our 10 year old year and the year before our team lost the first game and came back and lost in the second game of the finals. We won the first three games by blowouts. Now we had to play North Canton,the team that beat us in the state finals last year. It was the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs. The score was 7-3 us. The bases were loaded, with the same batter that walked it off with a two run homer the year before.His name was Nathan Fox. I was out of the game because of little league rules. There was two more of our teammates with me. We had planned that if we win we were going to dump the water jug all over our coach.

We were all scared that Nathan would tie the game with a grand slam. The first pitch was high inside for ball one. All I was hoping for was that the kid would get out. The next pitch Nathan hit a high fly ball. I thought it was gone. But when  saw our left fielder under the ball, I knew that we won the game. Once the ball hit his glove our team and fans went crazy. Our whole team dog piled in the middle of the field. Then me and other teammate dumped the water onto our coach. The emotions going through threw my head was hard to explain. A chance to play on ESPN. The day after that we all had a pool party at our coach’s house. It felt great to finally have a day off and not worry about baseball.

Now was the next step on our checklist was to win the Great Lakes regionals. We got a police escort out of town, which was pretty cool. Once we got there we all had to go to the mess hall for the meeting. There was a rule that if you didn’t take your hat off at the table, you would have to do 10 push-ups. Our team learned the hard way. We ended up doing 10 push-up. Once the meeting was over we had to go up to the dorms and unpack our stuff. It looked like we were in boot camp.

We would play four games. We went 2-2. So we were the four seed playing the number one seed Indiana on ESPN. We wasn’t expected to win the game, but we showed them. We won that game 4-3. We actually made history. We were the first number four seed to beat the number one seed in that region. That felt great. Now we would play the number two seed Kentucky for the regional finals. That will be one of my favorite baseball moments. We were losing the game 1-0 in the top of the fifth. They had a man on first and second with one out . I was playing second base. The ball was hit to me. I fielded the ball, threw it to second, and then the ball was thrown to first. A inning ending double play on ESPN. I felt great at the time. But that all changed.

We lost that game. At the time I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I was so mad I could fight a UFC fighter. On the way home we went to Cracker Barrel. When we walked in, everyone was asking if I played for the all-star team. I took them yes, and they said that we good. That cheered me up a lot. So that reminded me that it wasn’t the end of the world and that I had a good time experience. That’s why it will go down as the best summer of my life.