WILLIAMSPORT— 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.
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.
TIGERS PREVAIL
Parker Meadows set off fireworks with a 10th-inning single that brought hundreds of Little Leaguers to their feet and scored Zach McKinstry on a headfirst slide to give the Tigers the 3-2 victory.
The Little Leaguers who made Judge the star attraction — he finished 1 for 4 — had to wait until the ninth inning for the real excitement to start.
“Some memories I’ll never forget,” Judge said. “I just wish the game turned out a little different.”
Detroit rookie Jace Jung tied it at 1 when he ripped an RBI single against Clay Holmes with two outs in the ninth. That scored Colt Keith, who hit a one-out double off the All-Star closer to spark a rally that handed Holmes his 10th blown save this season.
DJ LeMahieu’s single in the top of the 10th brought home the automatic runner for a 2-1 Yankees lead, only for McKinstry to make it 2-all when his single scored Detroit’s automatic runner.
McKinstry stole second and dashed home on Meadows’ base hit to left field off Mark Leiter Jr. (3-5), as Yankees prospect Jasson Domínguez hesitated for a moment before throwing late to the plate.
Beau Brieske (2-3) worked one inning for the win.
Gleyber Torres scored on a wild pitch by Tigers ace Tarik Skubal in the sixth to give New York a 1-0 lead.
The crowd of mostly Little Leaguers and their coaches and families — oh, and injured Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. — were among the 2,532 fans at Historic Bowman Field who came to see Judge go deep. Or maybe Juan Soto.
What they got was a game that resembled so many Little League matchups each year across the globe. A run scored on a wild pitch. A batter who struck out reached first base on another wild pitch. A runner was out at the plate by a mile trying to make something happen.
The big leaguers were supposed to rub off on the kids playing in the Little League World Series.
Turned out the Tigers and Yankees made a few silly mistakes themselves.
The final score didn’t seem to matter much to most of the kids who cheered in their Little League uniforms and lined the first few rows of a stadium that opened in 1926.
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole joined the ESPN broadcast booth — well, make it a few stadium seats behind home plate — and chatted with one Little Leaguer. Chisholm, who used a handheld video camera to capture the action, said he made friends with a player named Russell McGee from Nevada and even followed the kid on Instagram.
“Now he’s like my little brother, ” Chisholm said.
Sure beats catching a foul ball.
With fans clamoring for Judge to add to his MLB-best 44 home runs, he instead grounded into a double play against Skubal in the sixth inning that did move Torres to third base. Rather than take advantage of getting Judge out of the way, Skubal threw a wild pitch with Giancarlo Stanton at the plate that sent Torres home.
“He’s the best player in the game,” Skubal said of getting the better of Judge. “It’s a ton of fun and I enjoy that matchup every time.”
Marcus Stroman struck out five over six shutout innings for New York.
The Classic certainly had the charm of a local Little League game. Kids sipped on drinks, waited in line for hot dogs, and buckets full of chips and bottled water were stationed behind every section.
Buy them some peanuts and Cracker Jack? Sure, why not, at these concession stand prices — just $3 each for a hot dog, water, and, yes, Cracker Jack — it sure beat the inflated cost found at most big league stadiums.
Australian players served as public address announcers when the Tigers hit in the third inning. About the only person — thing? — as popular as Judge was Paws, the Tigers mascot. Paws had a steady line waiting in the concourse for selfies, a perfect time for kids to tug at its tail.
Yankees and Tigers players hung on the dugout railing and applauded when the 20 regional championship teams were introduced in a pregame ceremony.
Maybe there’s a reason so many players related so well with the kids — most of them aren’t too far removed from their youth baseball days. The Tigers, who needed the Classic to make their first appearance on ESPN’s Sunday night telecast since 2017, had six players 24 or younger in the starting lineup.
“We believe in these guys; we believe in these guys from the beginning,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said.
SEE YA NEXT YEAR
The Seattle Mariners and New York Mets will play in next season’s Classic on Aug. 17, 2025. The Mets will make their second appearance in the Classic and will be the home team.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Domínguez was brought up from the minors as the 27th player on the Yankees roster for the game and batted fifth. The 21-year-old outfielder returned to the majors for the first time since having Tommy John surgery on his right elbow last year. He was sent back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after the game.
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