Garrett Carr, Special to the Ledger-Enquirer
Members of the Phenix City Little League age 11-12 all-star team have been dreaming for years about making it to the Little League World Series. This year’s tournament hasn’t begun here in idyllic South Williamsport Pennsylvania, home of the iconic Lamade Stadium. But, for many of Phenix City’s players, their first impressions of this baseball heaven since they arrived Thursday have surpassed their lofty expectations of a place they previously could only fantasize about while watching it on TV.
“This is amazing,” said utility player Cedric Harrison Jr. “I really wasn’t expecting it to be like this. It was really cool when I got here.”
The players and coaches boarded a bus at 3:30 a.m. Thursday in Phenix City and took a flight from Atlanta to Newark, New Jersey. Then a three-hour bus ride brought them to South Williamsport, a hillside community of 6,200 that hosts this event during two magical weeks every summer. Across the Susquehanna River winding through the Appalachians, neighborhing Williamsport has a population of around 30,000.
While the team hasn’t yet practiced at Lamade, they did tour the stadium Thursday — and one of the cathedrals of baseball in America made quite an impact on them.
“Amazing,” said catcher Brooks Cameron. “It was just very big, very huge, and we’re small kids.”
Lamade holds 10,000 fans in stadium seating. According to Little League International, another 30,000 on Lamade Hill beyond the outfield fence can watch the LLWS in person as well, but locals will tell you that hill can hold plenty more than 30,000.
The Phenix City all-stars have begun to settle into a routine, helped by their two hosts. Two residents are assigned to each of the 20 teams at the LLWS to help with anything they need, day or night.
All teams stay in The Grove, a dormitory complex that overlooks Lamade Stadium and its counterpart, Volunteer Stadium, where the international teams play before the LLWS championship game. Little League provides the teams with meals and recreational opportunities in the dorms. Each team is assigned a roommate, so to speak, and Phenix City’s is the team from Tijuana, Mexico.
The Phenix City all-stars are getting plenty of bonding time before the LLWS starts Aug. 19.
“Right now, it’s hanging out with my team,” said outfielder Cooper Champion when asked about his favorite part of his Little League World Series so far. “When we play, it’s going to be awesome.”
Phenix City, which won the Southeast region, will open the United States Bracket with the first game this year at Lamade Stadium against the Northwest representative from Tacoma, Washington at 3 p.m. Aug. 19 on ESPN.
While just getting to the LLWS is a big accomplishment, a focused practice lasting well over two hours showed that Phenix City coaches Case Rasmus, Cory Rasmus and Gus Quintero intend to have their team ready to play when the time comes.
“We woke up (Friday), we did all the stuff with ESPN, everything this morning.” said assistant coach Cory Rasmus. “It’s been a lot of busy action the last couple of days, so they’re all a little bit tired. Their minds were a little bit wandering. It’s just part of being up here, a new environment, a new place, a lot of cool stuff. They got all kinds of gear. So that practice probably was just to say, ‘Hey, let’s go ahead and start honing it back in, get everything freshened back up, and get our mindset back on playing a little baseball.”
He was a star on the 1999 Phenix City team that won the U.S. title before losing to Japan in the world championship game.
This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
