WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Hours before kids from Tokyo to Cuba and Sydney to Staten Island filled the stands at Bowman Field to watch the Yankees lose to the Tigers, 3-2 in 10 innings, the major leaguers returned the favor at the Little League World Series complex.
Juan Soto and Aaron Judge were mobbed wherever they walked around Lamade Stadium while teams from Illinois and Pennsylvania were squaring off.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked around with a camcorder in hand to document the experience.
Gleyber Torres, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza sat with players from their native Venezuela.
Pitching coach Matt Blake took a seat in the section filled by the team from his home state of New Hampshire.
Relievers Clay Holmes and Jake Cousins mingled with the team from Tokyo.
Holmes even took out his phone to use as a translator so he could better communicate with the players who wanted to know all about the grips on his sinker and sweeper.
In a flash of youthful innocence, one player walked up to Rookie of the Year candidate Luis Gil to ask him if he knew where Anthony Volpe — the Yankee closest in age to them before Jasson Dominguez was added as the 27th man — was so that he could get the shortstop’s autograph.
“Just to be able to interact with so many fans and so many players and seeing their excitement to watch us — but I think a lot of guys are equally as excited to just be there and see the field and the whole experience,” Volpe said.
The trip through the place where every 12-year-old baseball player wants to end up was brief, but the Yankees almost certainly made a few memories of a lifetime for those playing in the Little League World Series.
And being there also brought the Yankees back to their own Little League days.
“Around eight [years old], I started trying to wear a big league hat of whatever team I was on,” Giancarlo Stanton said. “You start copying what the players do. I just couldn’t imagine, at that age, being able to hang out with big leaguers at the time.”
Of course, there was a certain awe factor for the Little Leaguers when they met some of the Yankees in person.
“They were blown away by how big Big G and Judge were,” Volpe said.
The day began when teams from Venezuela and Nevada met the Yankees at the airport and greeted them as they walked onto the tarmac, with plenty of autographs being signed.
They then got on the buses with the Yankees to head over to the Little League complex, where the rest of the 20 teams (who were not playing in either of the two stadiums) got to hang out with the big leaguers, ask them any and all questions they could, take more selfies with them and fill up their baseballs with signatures.
“They had loads of questions for us and just the curiosity of what this means for us, what it’s like playing in the big leagues, the steps that it takes,” Stanton said. “Just picking our brains. The cool thing is I recognized some of the kids from watching them play [on TV] this past week. So that was pretty cool.”
“I thought it was very organic and a lot of fun,” added Volpe, who joined Austin Wells in the tradition of sliding down the hill in the outfield of Volunteer Stadium on a slab of cardboard.
The team from Tokyo, who knew some English and filled in the gaps with the help of Holmes’ phone, wanted the scoop on how he threw his pitches.
“It seemed like the whole sweeper thing, it’s catching on over there because they were lighting up about the sweeper,” Holmes said. “They were asking me how I held the sinker and sweeper. They were great. Super respectful, super intrigued, very curious. It was fun to just hang with them.”
Judge’s parents were in attendance, a long way from Linden Little League.
Later at Bowman Field, the dignitaries included Hal Steinbrenner and Joe Torre.
Then, of course, there was a rubber game to be played between the Yankees and Tigers.
But the pageantry beforehand at the Little League World Series may have taken the day.
“When I first walked out through the stands and got to see the field and the games going on, it’s like, ‘This is pretty awesome,’ ” manager Aaron Boone said. “Just a really special place.”
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