All local, all stars

For more about the All-Stars, including a Little League recap, photos and comments by the players,

see the Missourian's Sunday eMprint edition of Sept. 3.

Audio slideshow

Boone County Little League All-Star team coach Dan Clapp speaks about the team's experience at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

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Essay by Drew Bruno

My family’s minivan made it hundreds of miles throughout my youth. Nights were filled with trips to ballparks with shiny new grandstands and ones with decrepit wooden seats, to fields with finely manicured infields and weed-infested ones that lacked outfield fences.

I didn’t reach Williamsport, Pa., during my years of playing both in Hannibal and with Daniel Boone National Little League in Columbia.

So it was with a hearty interest and a side of envy that I followed the national broadcasts of our hometown Little Leaguers the last couple of weeks. Watching those games on that field took me back to my playing days.

When my family was moving from Hannibal to Columbia and I was on a baseball team in both towns, our summer plans were coordinated by my Little League schedules, bouncing back and forth, traveling like a real ballplayer.

I couldn’t miss a game.

That season of leather, aluminum and baseballs was a farewell to old friends and the dawn of new relationships.

The Little League’s mission statement touts character, courage and loyalty.

And ultimately, I loved to play. I dreamed of the stage this year’s team from Columbia ascended to, and more so of a professional career in athletics. Long ago, I realized that those were unreachable goals.

A more surprising realization, however, came while watching this year’s competition and noticing the group of friends I was surrounded by: half a dozen former Little League players, including four of which I played on the same team with.

My college roommates were now all guys I had played baseball with. And more than any one game or season, what we remembered was goofing off in practice, hanging out after games and immature oddities such as the time a buddy threw a ball at a mutual friend — an act far less violent than it sounds, as he was no Ryan Phillips. His noodle of an arm allowed ample time for the batter to escape injury.

Whether it takes them a decade to identify it or not, the ballplayers of this year’s Columbia team will always have the memories of fun on and around the diamond, and the buddies that came with it.

That basic tenet of Little League baseball is stronger than any pain of defeat.

For more about the All-Stars, see the Missourian's Sunday eMprint edition.