Latest news with #LittleLeaguers
3 days ago
- Sport
In latest bat flip flap, big league players side with Little Leaguer
NEW YORK -- Jazz Chisholm Jr., known for playing with flair, noticed when a Little Leaguer was suspended in baseball's latest bat flip flap. 'I thought that was ridiculous. You're going suspend a kid for having fun?" the New York Yankees All-Star infielder said Friday. 'Crazy.' Marco Rocco, a 12-year-old from Haddonfield, New Jersey, tossed his bat in the air on July 16 after his sixth-inning, two-run homer in the final of the sectional tournament for Haddonfield's under-12 team against Harrison Township on July 16. His father went to court and got the suspension eliminated. 'If it's a game-changing homer, it's fine. Even when I'm on the mound, it doesn't irk me. It's a human reaction and it's good for the game, just like a pitcher doing a fist pump after a big strikeout," said Toronto pitcher Max Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner. "I side-eye someone if they hit a solo shot and their team is down 5-0. That doesn't jive with me. I don't like it when opponents or teammates do that. I feel the same way about Little Leaguers.' Rocco was ejected for what his family was told were actions deemed 'unsportsmanlike' and 'horseplay,' and an ejection results in an automatic one-game suspension. His father, Joe, is a lawyer and his dad filed suit. Judge Robert G. Malestein of New Jersey Superior Court ruled in favor of the Roccos, and Marco played for Haddonfield against Elmora Little League in a 10-0 loss Thursday in the opener of a four-team, double-elimination tournament at the Deptford Township Little League complex. Marco went 0 for 2 with two strikeouts. 'I wish nobody would do a bat flip. I'm kind of traditional,' Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson said before adding, 'But let him play.' A staid sport for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, baseball has embraced emotion in recent years. José Bautista's bat flip against Texas in a 2015 AL Division Series was featured in the video game MLB The Show 16. 'It's a kid's game, Whether you're a kid or a major leaguer, we're in a have-fun era," Detroit catcher Jake Rogers said. "If you earn that moment, you earn that moment.'
Hamilton Spectator
4 days ago
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
In latest bat flip flap, big league players side with Little Leaguer
NEW YORK (AP) — Jazz Chisholm Jr., known for playing with flair, noticed when a Little Leaguer was suspended in baseball's latest bat flip flap. 'I thought that was ridiculous. You're going suspend a kid for having fun?' the New York Yankees All-Star infielder said Friday. 'Crazy.' Marco Rocco, a 12-year-old from Haddonfield, New Jersey, tossed his bat in the air on July 16 after his sixth-inning, two-run homer in the final of the sectional tournament for Haddonfield's under-12 team against Harrison Township on July 16. His father went to court and got the suspension eliminated. 'If it's a game-changing homer, it's fine. Even when I'm on the mound, it doesn't irk me. It's a human reaction and it's good for the game, just like a pitcher doing a fist pump after a big strikeout,' said Toronto pitcher Max Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner. 'I side-eye someone if they hit a solo shot and their team is down 5-0. That doesn't jive with me. I don't like it when opponents or teammates do that. I feel the same way about Little Leaguers.' Rocco was ejected for what his family was told were actions deemed 'unsportsmanlike' and 'horseplay,' and an ejection results in an automatic one-game suspension. His father, Joe, is a lawyer and his dad filed suit. Judge Robert G. Malestein of New Jersey Superior Court ruled in favor of the Roccos, and Marco played for Haddonfield against Elmora Little League in a 10-0 loss Thursday in the opener of a four-team, double-elimination tournament at the Deptford Township Little League complex. Marco went 0 for 2 with two strikeouts. 'I wish nobody would do a bat flip. I'm kind of traditional,' Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson said before adding, 'But let him play.' A staid sport for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, baseball has embraced emotion in recent years. José Bautista's bat flip against Texas in a 2015 AL Division Series was featured in the video game MLB The Show 16. 'It's a kid's game, Whether you're a kid or a major leaguer, we're in a have-fun era,' Detroit catcher Jake Rogers said. 'If you earn that moment, you earn that moment.' ___ AP Sports Writer Larry Lage contributed to this report.
New York Times
16-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Rosenthal: Historic All-Star swing-off proved impossible to resist for players, fans
ATLANTA – I'll admit, I was skeptical. Highly skeptical. Thinking what I'm sure a lot of fans were thinking, and still might be thinking. A swing-off to end an All-Star Game? Just another silly Major League Baseball gimmick. But then I turned around as I prepared to interview Kyle Schwarber on Fox as he prepared for Round 2 of Tuesday night's swing-off. A good number of his National League teammates were standing behind him outside the dugout, loudly urging him on. Advertisement Baseball is a serious, $12 billion business. The daily competition is intense. But fans want players to remember they're playing a kid's game, and often grow frustrated when they don't. The first tie-breaking swing-off had players on both teams reacting as giddily as Little Leaguers. They spilled onto the field as the mini-Home Run Derby built to a crescendo, jumping, shouting, rejoicing. 'The AL side, I was looking at it like, they've got more guys on the line than we do. We've got to step it up a little bit,' Milwaukee Brewers reliever Trevor Megill said. Impressive that the All-Stars reacted so strongly, considering many of them had no idea what a swing-off even was until late in Tuesday night's game. The concept was adopted in the 2022 collective-bargaining agreement to guard against teams in the All-Star Game running out of pitchers. The 2002 game famously ended in such fashion, with former commissioner Bud Selig looking helpless as the teams left the field with the score tied 7-7 after 11 innings. Page 83 of the CBA details how the tiebreaker works in an All-Star Game tied after nine innings, not that any of the players read it. San Francisco Giants pitchers Logan Webb and Robbie Ray said they learned about the swing-off around the ninth, and they weren't the only ones. At least one NL player detected an immediate benefit – 'I saw (Houston Astros closer Josh) Hader getting loose, and I thought, this is better than facing Hader,' Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll said. New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz, who allowed the tying run in the ninth on a 53.9 mph infield single by the Cleveland Guardians' Steven Kwan, took solace in his own reprieve. 'That was crazy. That was great. I think that was the best thing that happened in an All-Star Game,' Díaz said. 'I blew the game, but I was happy after I heard there was going to be a Home Run Derby.' By the end, the vast majority of players seemed on board with a format Schwarber likened to an NHL shootout, or a soccer game decided by penalty kicks. Advertisement Webb checked his phone afterward and opened a group text he maintains with other players around the league. Their consensus: We should never play an extra-inning game again. We should always end games just like that. New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. said the same thing, seemingly willing to banish the automatic runner on second base forever. The players were joking. We think. In the bottom of the ninth, NL manager Dave Roberts approached the Miami Marlins' Kyle Stowers about being part of the swing-off. To Stowers, Roberts might as well have been speaking a foreign language. 'He goes, 'Hey, just a heads-up, if we tie this game, there's going to be a Home Run Derby and you're in it,'' Stowers recalled. 'I thought they were messing with me the whole time.' Nope! The managers were required before the game to declare their three participants for the swing-off. Both Roberts and the Yankees' Aaron Boone focused on players they knew would be playing toward the end of the game, and approached them the day before. In grand All-Star tradition, the sport's two most famous sluggers, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, were long gone by the late innings. The current home-run leader, the Seattle Mariners' Cal Raleigh, also had been removed from the game. Stowers wasn't part of the original NL trio. Roberts wanted Eugenio Suárez, explaining that when the Arizona Diamondbacks slugger merely touches balls in batting practice, they go 400 feet. He also wanted Schwarber, a 2022 Home Run Derby participant, and Pete Alonso, a two-time Derby champ. The plan derailed when the Chicago White Sox's Shane Smith hit Suárez in the left pinky in the eighth inning. Suárez stayed in the game. X-rays would prove negative. But he wasn't about to risk further damage in the swing-off, a decision that surely was a relief to the Diamondbacks, not to mention fans who can't wait for their favorite team to take a run at Suárez at the trade deadline. Roberts has known Stowers, a fellow San Diego-area resident, since the outfielder was a teenager. Butch Smith, Roberts' coach at Rancho Buena Vista (Ca.) H.S., owns a batting cage that Stowers has worked out at for about 10 years. Roberts considers Smith a second father, and also is fond of Stowers. Advertisement So, Stowers it was to replace Suárez. Afterward, Roberts would take pride in his new nickname for Stowers, labeling his favorite Marlin, 'starfish.' He could laugh then. As Stowers prepared to hit, he did not even know the swing-off rules. 'They said three swings,' Stowers said. 'At first I thought it was three outs. Then I saw (Brent) Rooker and he took literally three swings.' Rooker, the leadoff man for the AL, proved an inspired choice by Boone. Raleigh knocked Rooker out of the Home Run Derby the previous night only on a ridiculous, possibly fictitious technicality. And it was Rooker who started the AL's comeback from a 6-0 deficit, hitting a three-run shot off the Giants' Randy Rodriguez. The Mariners' Randy Arozarena, whose postseason heroics in 2020 earned him the nickname, 'October Randy,' made sense as the second AL hitter. But Boone's selection of the Tampa Bay Rays' Jonathan Aranda as his anchor might earn him further ridicule from fire-breathing Yankees fans. Aranda has hit only 11 homers all season, and only 21 for his career. Rooker began the swing-off with two homers. Stowers, who admitted to being nervous, followed with one. Arozarena then popped one of his own to give the AL a 3-1 lead. Next came Schwarber. As Schwarber waited to hit, he grumbled to me that the last time he was in a Home Run Derby, he lost a first-round matchup to Albert Pujols. The year was 2022. Schwarber, on his way to leading the NL with 46 homers, was the top seed. Pujols, then 42, was in his final season. By Derby standards, it was a stunning upset. Self-deprecation, though, is one of Schwarber's many endearing qualities. Talking to him, you would never know he is one of the game's most feared sluggers, with more home runs since 2021 than anyone but Judge and Ohtani. Schwarber batted in the ninth inning against the Boston Red Sox's Aroldis Chapman, and broke his bat on a 99-mph sinker. For the swing-off, he needed a new bat. But fortunately, he was familiar with the NL's pitcher, Dodgers third-base coach Dino Ebel, from their time together during the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Ebel, in Schwarber's estimation, throws, 'great BP.' Advertisement 'Where do you want it?' Ebel asked Schwarber. 'Middle,' Schwarber replied. 'Gotcha,' Ebel said. Still Schwarber's goal was modest: Hit two home runs to tie the score and then have Alonso finish it off. Alonso, who skipped this year's Home Run Derby, eagerly awaited his chance. 'No doubt I was ready,' Alonso said. 'I was down in (the batting cage), whacking balls, getting hot. Now I know what it feels like to be a closer, to be potentially ready to come into a game.' As it turned out, Alonso's services weren't needed. Schwarber gave the NL the lead, homering on each of his three swings. Kyle Schwarber couldn't get the job done in the 9th inning Then came the swing-off 💪 — MLB (@MLB) July 16, 2025 'That was electric, absolutely electric,' Alonso said. 'That's money. That's big time.' 'I told Schwarber afterwards, 'Dude, you're just cool,'' Webb said. 'Every time we face him, 'I'm like, 'you're just a cool dude.'' Aranda, needing one home run to tie the score and two to win, failed to hit any. The National League side erupted, with Alonso hoisting the 229-pound Schwarber into the air as the rest of the NL All-Stars shouted, 'MVP! MVP!' Sure enough, Schwarber earned that honor, even though he went 0-for-2 with a walk in the actual game. Recalling the celebration, Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker, an NL coach, marveled at what he witnessed. Snitker, a baseball lifer who turns 70 in October, was not necessarily inclined to like the swing-off. But he, too, couldn't help but revel in it. 'I looked over and I thought, 'Look at all these grown men acting like kids,'' Snitker said. 'I loved it. The fans loved it. The guys had a ball with it.' The Giants' Ray, who upon learning of the concept late in the game thought it was 'weird,' also came around. Advertisement 'Standing on the sidelines like that and watching home runs go out of the park,' Ray said, 'It's a lot of fun.' Any skepticism he had, any skepticism many of us had, pretty much evaporated on a hot Atlanta night. A swing-off to end every extra-inning game would be too much. But a swing-off to decide an All-Star exhibition? 'That was a good idea,' the Brewers' Megill said. 'Whoever did that, good for them.' I can't believe I'm about to say this. Amen. (Top photo of Schwarber celebrating with his NL teammates: Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
New York Times
15-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Ken Griffey Jr. recounts Ichiro's ASG inside-the-park homer: ‘It ain't my fault, coach'
Ken Griffey Jr. didn't want to talk about the only inside-the-park home run in All-Star history. 'It ain't my fault, coach,' Griffey said recently by phone before chuckling. 'Go back and watch it,' he demanded. Gladly. The highlight of the 2007 All-Star Game in San Francisco is infinitely rewatchable, a confluence of unique talent, fateful coincidence and blind luck. At the plate was Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most electric and beloved players in baseball history. He hit the ball into right field, where Griffey — Ichiro's longtime friend, eventual teammate, and fellow Seattle Mariners icon — happened to be playing in his last Midsummer Classic. The ball ricocheted at an unexpected angle, got away from Griffey, and left Ichiro free to run. Advertisement Inside-the-park home runs are almost always quirky. The first and only in All-Star history could have been hit by Vince Coleman or Brett Butler or Scott Podsednik or any other speedster who made an All-Star Game or two before descending into relative obscurity. But no, it was Ichiro, who might have hit his historic fly ball toward Shawn Green or Preston Wilson or Jason Bay or any other National League right fielder of the era with whom he would have shared little connection or history. Instead, it was Griffey who was left scrambling after the ball took an unusual carom off a bit of one-night-only signage at then-AT&T Park. 'There were signs there!' Griffey said. 'There are no signs there normally.' Major League Baseball is about to play its 95th All-Star Game, and if we're lucky, it will have one of those moments. The ones we talk about with friends and rewatch on YouTube. Cal Ripken moving to shortstop and then going deep. Torii Hunter robbing Barry Bonds, then getting hauled off like a sack of potatoes. Pedro Martinez mowing through Hall of Famers like they were Little Leaguers. And, of course, Ichiro lifting a fly ball to right center field, then circling the bases as Griffey — then in his 13th and final All-Star appearance — chased it hopelessly into the outfield grass. 'I played in that stadium since the year it opened,' Griffey said. 'The first thing you do as a new guy coming into a stadium is check the wall. Especially if it has something funky in it. Your outfield coach would hit balls up against that wall and just see, because you can't really just throw a ball. And 98 percent, 99 percent of the balls hit there either die or go towards center.' Of course, Ichiro had a tendency to do the impossible. By 2007, he was already an All-Star regular, having been invited to the Midsummer Classic in each of his first seven major-league seasons. (He went on to become an All-Star in the next three seasons as well.) He'd never been particularly great in the All-Star Game to that point, and he'd never hit an inside-the-park home run in the majors, but all of that changed on July 10, 2007. Advertisement Facing Padres starter Chris Young — pitching in his only All-Star Game — Ichiro came to the plate in the fifth inning with one out, Brian Roberts on first base and Derek Jeter on deck. The first pitch of the at-bat was lifted to the angled wall in right-center — a wall that seemed sure to send the ball ricocheting into center field. That's the way Griffey played it, but the ball hit off the signage and rebounded into right, meaning Griffey had to retreat. All the while, Ichiro was sprinting. 'Coming around third, I was getting the wave,' Roberts said on a call Monday. 'And I think that's when I finally took a peek and saw the ball was not where I thought it would be. And at that point, you're just hoping Ichi doesn't catch you coming home. That was probably the first thought I had: Don't get passed!' Roberts was not the only one surprised by the outcome of that at-bat. 'So, a screwy carom, and Junior is caught off guard,' Tim McCarver said on the broadcast. 'And that allowed Ichiro to round the bases. A rare, rare inside-the-park home run in an All-Star Game.' 'We're checking how rare that is,' Joe Buck added. It was indeed the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history. 'I thought it was going over the fence,' Ichiro said postgame. 'When it didn't, I was bummed out.' Finishing 3-for-3 as All-Star Game MVP surely eased Ichiro's disappointment. The rest of us got a highlight-reel reminder of the right fielder's remarkable ability to hit and run, as well as a lesson in the unpredictability of baseball. 'A lot of angles on that wall,' said then-Phillies outfielder Aaron Rowand, who made the lone All-Star appearance of his career in 2007 before later playing four years for the Giants. 'If you haven't played there a lot, you can play it wrong. You have to be ready for the ball to bound in any direction.' Advertisement With Ichiro's speed, Griffey — who had thrown out Alex Rodriguez at the plate an inning before — had no chance to get him at home. Ichiro scored without a play, sprinting into a dugout celebration of superstars and eventual Hall of Famers. At one point, Manny Ramírez began to fan Ichiro with a towel while Ichiro sat on the bench and laughed. 'As soon as the ball bounced the other way, he could have walked home,' David Wright told the New York Times after the game. Other players expressed similar in-the-moment awe. Even among the greatest players of the era, Ichiro was a singular talent, with a style all his own. 'The things he did, we had never really seen people do,' Roberts said. 'He was a quirky guy, but he was so fun to be around, and honestly, one of the greatest teammates I ever had. But when it comes to something like that, it does seem very fitting. … To have that kind of moment fits him. Nobody was cooler than Ichiro.' That 2007 All-Star Game was stacked with now-legends and could have been an ideal curtain call for Bonds, who was playing in his home ballpark, but Ichiro stole the show. 'It's one that I'll never forget,' Ichiro said at the time. 'The past six years, I never had an All-Star that I really thought I gave it my all or was able to give it my all. So, I'm really happy. It was a fun All-Star Game.' Later this month, Ichiro will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where his bronze likeness will join Griffey's in the plaque gallery. Griffey and Ichiro first met in 1995 during Ichiro's first tour of America, and they first played together in 1999 when Ichiro attended spring training (a year before his big-league debut). They were officially teammates in 2009 and 2010, Griffey's last two seasons with the Mariners. Despite their friendship, Griffey said Suzuki has never brought up that homer. 'He's not that way,' Griffey said. (Photo of Ichiro hitting an inside-the-park home run in the 2007 All-Star Game: Jeff Gross / Getty Images)
Hamilton Spectator
05-06-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Diamondbacks savor the ‘magical moment' of their 7-run rally in the 9th to stun Braves
ATLANTA (AP) — Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo's thoughts drifted to a different level of baseball as he watched Arizona put together a shocking, seven-run rally in the ninth inning to beat the Atlanta Braves 11-10 on Thursday. 'I was like a proud dad, right? Just watching a bunch of Little Leaguers go out there and have some fun and get the job done,' he said. 'That's what I can honestly say I felt in the dugout.' Third baseman Eugenio Suárez completed the D-backs' comeback, lacing a two-out, two-run double to left field against struggling Braves closer Raisel Iglesias that made it 11-10. Arizona entered the inning trailing 10-4, and when the Braves went ahead by that score in the eighth, ESPN put Atlanta's win probability at 99.9%. The Diamondbacks swept the three-game series and won their fourth straight overall. 'You have 27 outs, you have to play 27 outs hard,' Suárez said. 'I mean, that ninth inning tells how we play this game today. We're never gonna give up.' Suárez began the inning by striking out against Scott Blewett. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. followed with a homer, Tim Tawa walked and Alek Thomas also homered to cut the lead to 10-7. When Jose Herrera also walked — prompting Braves manager Brian Snitker to yank Blewett and bring in Iglesias — Suárez felt like he might get another opportunity. 'That was when I say, 'OK, we might have a chance over here,'' he said. 'Because we got Corbin (Carroll), we got (Ketel) Martin and (Geraldo) Perdomo behind him. And I know they've had really good at-bats. ... And I was right.' Carroll doubled off Iglesias, who has given up a run in eight of his last 11 appearances, and Marte followed with a run-scoring infield single. Perdomo popped up for the second out, but Ildemaro Vargas extended the game with an RBI single that cut the lead to 10-9, bringing up Suárez. 'All of a sudden, you've got Geno, one of our top run producers, in the box with with tying run on base, and he comes through,' Lovullo said. 'So it was a magical moment for this team.' After losing 9 of 10 in late May, the Diamondbacks entered June with a 27-31 record. Thursday's rally put them back at .500 — still disappointing for a team with playoff aspirations. But Arizona has reason for optimism. 'It's really cool, just to see how much work and time we put in, in the cage and on the on the field, and for it to show up when it matters is really special,' Thomas said. 'And it just shows how much we care and how much we want to win.' ___ AP MLB:
