New York Mets: The Little League Classic and Amazin’ Nicknames
By Dylan Smith
The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies are set to play in the second Little League Classic on Sunday Night. What festivities and nicknames are planned?
The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies will finish their long five-game series from Williamsport Pennsylvania on Sunday night. The two teams will join in on the fun at the Little League World Series as they are set to participate in the second Little League Classic.
Major League Baseball successfully rolled out the first Little League Classic as a part of the inaugural Player’s Weekend in 2017. Major League players had a chance to connect with the youngsters as the MLB and MLBPA continue their efforts to grow the game at the youth level.
While this year’s Little League Classic will occur a week earlier than Player’s Weekend, the spirit and excitement for the event still abound.
Per the New York Post, senior coordinating producer of MLB on ESPN, Phil Orlins, discussed the unique images that become possible from an event like the Little League Classic.
“I would probably say that’s the most unusual element of this and actually provides the most memorable images — Tommy Pham last year buying snow cones for 200 Little Leaguers, stuff like that.”
ESPN and Sunday Night Baseball will also have an opportunity to share some unique content as Mets’ players, Todd Fraizer and Michael Conforto, and Phillies’ infielder, Scott Kingery, were all youngsters that participated in the Little League World Series.
“When you’re looking at Todd Frazier or Conforto or those guys, you got all the video from them playing in Williamsport, you’ve got the cute little introductions when they say who their favorite player is, you’ve got all these tools to work with,” Orlins said.
Big leaguers from both teams are set to attend Little League World Series games throughout the day as a part of the festivities.
The Little League Classic and Player’s Weekend are a great step for Major League Baseball as the sport continues their efforts to spread the game and to market the personalities of their players and teams. Once again, all 30 teams will be sporting unique colorful uniforms inspired by youth-league designs.
Much to my satisfaction, the fun player chosen nicknames for the Player’s Weekend unis will be returning as well. To continue with the spirit of the Little League Classic, let’s examine the best of what the New York Mets will be wearing on the back of their Player’s Weekend Uniforms.