For every Little League baseball player, their 12-year-old Majors year is the big one.
This is when they play for every boy’s dream — the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
But for the 11 and 12-year-old North Langley Canadians, their shot at this dream was shattered their very first practice of the season.
A lack of volunteer coaches and the league’s decision to not tier the Langley teams meant that North Langley would not be playing competitive ball, and therefore wouldn’t even have a chance to qualify for Williamsport.
“Part way through the season a lot of the kids wanted to quit baseball. It just wasn’t fun for them anymore,” said Brenna Gillespie, team manager.
This is the complete opposite from the boys last year. They were enjoying baseball so much, they didn’t want to stop at the end of summer. Gillespie ended up contacting every baseball organization in the Lower Mainland to see if they were interested in fall ball. The result was 25 extra games for the boys to hone their skills for their next year.
So when spring 2011 came around and the team found out there would be no tiering, their spirits were crushed.
“These guys didn’t even want to go to practice anymore,” Gillespie said.
She knew she had to do something to re-spark these kids love for the game.
That’s when she contacted Cooperstown Dream Park in New York.
Every summer the famous ball park, located in America’s birthplace of baseball, holds a massive tournament with 1,274 teams competing from across North America. Only about 15 of these teams are chosen from Canada. They are then divided into groups of 98 for smaller tournaments held each week.
It was a whim that North Langley would be accepted into the mix, and Gillespie was shocked when she found out they had been.
“How we got in is beyond me,” she said. “Right now they are taking applications for the 2014 (tournament). I didn’t think there was a chance for us to get in.”
“When I got the response back, the way it read it was almost like they were building me up for a letdown. And then at the very last line it said, ‘but we will get you into the last tournament.’”
The North Langley Canadians are one of only two Canadian teams playing in the Cooperstown Classic from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2, and they are the only team from Western Canada.
When the boys found out the news they were ecstatic.
“For most of them it’s living a dream. They get to go to Cooperstown, the birthplace of baseball,” Gillespie said. “They get to have their little claim to fame too.”
Liam McKinnon, one of 12 players on the team heading to New York, says he is most excited for “the experience of playing there.”
“I’m excited for the time in New York, going around and seeing everything,” he said.
Aside from playing competitive ball in a renowned tournament, the boys also get to take in everything the baseball town has to offer.
Visits to Double-Day Field, the Baseball Hall of Fame, and even tickets to a Jay’s versus Yankees game will make this trip an incredible experience for the boys.
“I’m excited for the kids because it’s a once in a lifetime type of thing,” Gillespie said. “It’s a bucket list item that these kids can cross off later in life.”
Many of the boys on the team, including Gillespie’s son, had gone to baseball camp with players on the Langley All-Stars team that just competed at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, and were very engaged in the event.
“They are very happy for the other team but at the same time there’s a bit of ‘too bad it wasn’t us’ in there,” Gillespie said.
“One player I thought it was pretty dynamic what he said. He goes, ‘but we get to go to Cooperstown.’ At the end of the day it’s a pretty fantastic opportunity.”
Now instead of wasting their season mulling over what could have been, the team has spent their summer preparing for the American competition.
The rules of the game are slightly different there. The boys have been practising playing on a larger field, pitching from 4 ft. further than they are used to, running 10 ft. longer base paths, and learning how to pick off a runner and steal bases.
“This isn’t about finishing up a season. This is about preparation for next season, because next season everything changes and these are all added into the game,” Gillespie said.
The team has managed to raise nearly $20,000 for the trip — $7000 of it from bottle drives alone.
Gillespie says the support from the community has been overwhelming.
Near sold-out pub nights, raffle gifts from local businesses and even a Brett Lawrie signed baseball, given to the team from his parents, have helped the team raise the funds they need for the trip.
They too see the opportunity of a lifetime that these kids have.
“My concern always is you don’t want kids to give up on something they love because of unfortunate circumstances,” Gillespie said.
“This whole thing was about finding something to motivate, and inspire and give them a passion for the game again.”
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The tournament began earlier this week, with North Langley winning its opening game, 4-0 over the North Port (New York) Ravens.
Some of the games have been rescheduled as a result of Hurricane Irene hitting the East Coast.
