The Little League World Series is going on right now. That's when the best teams of 12- and 13-year-olds compete for Little League supremacy. Last week we posted a piece from the
Bleacher Report where they ranked the 1959 Hamtramck Little League team as the fourth best all-time. Well, this week, in the
Detroit News is a profile on one of that teams players, Art "Pinky" Deras. Some have considered him the best 12-year-old to ever place baseball. In fact there is a documentary about Deras titled "The Legend of Pinky Deras: The Greatest Little-Leaguer There Ever Was" that depicts the amazing story of the young legend.
Excerpt from the
Detroit News:
Only two cities have ever won both the Little League and Pony League World Series.
Marietta, Ga., is one. Hamtramck is the other.
"A
lot of people are surprised to know that," said Stan Nalepa, a teammate
of Deras' on the Pony League team. "We're very proud of that fact. We
had a close-knit group and we remain that today."
To those players who were part of either, or both, of those teams, the success isn't startling.
Little
League baseball in Hamtramck was thriving. Kids were encouraged to
play, and more than the fundamentals were taught by a dedicated group of
elders.
"The dads, parents who gave up their time, the coaching,
it was tremendous," Paciorek said. "It was such a great, hard-working
community. We had the support of everyone. And the caliber of play was
excellent.
"It was just a special time in Hamtramck."
Read the entire article
here.
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