RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
Cassadie “Sadie” Armstrong is a 5-foot-10 pitcher/infielder who plays for the Central Mass Voodoo 14U team and is an incoming 8th grader (Class of 2023) from Portland, Maine.
An accomplished fastpitch player already, Sadie’s honors already have included being named a two-time All American by USA Softball, a member of USSSA Elite Select Futures and chosen as a Pre-Season Rookie by Under Armour Softball Factory thanks to a 62 mph screwball and a 61 mph dropball with consistent ball exit velocity speeds in the high 60s to low 70s.
But she’s also a fan of playing Little League softball and in her latest blog talks about why she did it and thinks it’s good for young players to learn to love the sport and grow the game.
In 2016, Sadie was named the Maine State Champion Pitcher for both Little League and USA Softball. She plays basketball for the 2017 AAU State Champion Firecrackers and off the field was her school’s French Student of the Year and is an honors violinist.
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One of my very best friends in the whole wide world is on my Little League team (we are called the Unicorns because we are magical!).
The other night, she confidently ran in on what she judged to be an outfield pop fly. The ball disagreed and it sailed over her head while she nearly bent over backwards watching that ball sail majestically over her head, giving the batter the gift of a two-base hit (standing up, because no one was covering second base) on what would have been an easy out in travel ball.
I laughed hysterically as it happened and my friend squealed like she saw a mouse while she ran through the soggy grass to retrieve the wet, slippery ball with slimy, freshly mowed grass blades sticking to it.
She blew on her cold, wet fingers to keep them thawed out in the chilly spring weather during the remainder of what seemed like a never-ending inning which included runs being walked in, a few overthrows, and a lot of laughs. The pitcher was not worried about WHIP.
On another play, the third baseman caught a pop fly and proceeded to try to turn two by steeping on third base to get the runner who was caught not tagging up. That did not work out so well as the third baseman actually leaped over third base in the process. She will never do that again, I bet.
And thank goodness that happened when we were in a Little League game so she could make her mistakes without a serious consequence.
My BFF is incredibly tiny. We look ridiculous standing next to each other, and although we are only a month apart in age, I am about a foot taller than her.
When she got up to bat the next inning, I screamed my lungs out, just like I used to do in 10U travel ball. I sang all the chants that drive parents nuts, telling her to “win the battle, win, win the battle” and when she had a full count and tried to bunt, I thought she was the coolest knowing that she would be out if she bunted foul, and impressed with her brave gamble.
She laid down the most perfect bunt you could imagine, slightly down the first base line, and ran like a lunatic to first base. The whole dugout chanted “Hey you, on one! Let me see you have some fun,” and my bestie responded with an obnoxious bootie-shaking dance that cracked us all up.
When I got in the box for my turn at bat, I could hear some of the parents in the stand. I loved hearing the coach shouting to back up to the fence. So flattering! These are some of the comments that I have overheard from spectators:
- Someone should check her birth certificate.
- Did she do steroids over the winter?
- Did she drive herself to the field today?
- If she is supposed to be so good, why does she even play Little League?
Well, the first three questions, I will not dignify with a response. I don’t care about proving anything to anyone else when I play Little League (but seriously, that is SO MEAN!).
And that is just the point: this is exactly why I love to play Little League. The middle-aged bully whose paunchy belly was jiggling as he laughed at his own jokes like he was actually clever enough to have invented them, does not deserve my attention (though I admit I gave it to him, or I would not be able to recall his mean-spirited remarks).
Clearly, he did not realize I would publicly immortalize his rude behavior in my blog.
Boom!
Honestly, I sort of pitied his bleacher neighbors who obligingly smiled as he spewed his venom about several kids, but I also think about how nice it would have been if one of these “gentleman” (edited by my mom) who claimed that, back in their day, they could catch every single ball that any of the kids missed, would have just said or at least thought this:
She’s having a good time with her friends. She’s not on her phone or causing trouble. She is playing as much ball as she can, just for the love of the game!
And that is just it: I LOVE this game.
I want this game to grow and it won’t survive the challenges of today’s world unless we keep kids involved and having a great time (and not letting adults ruin it).
Little League should be a cross-section of awesome players mentoring struggling players and middle of the road players getting experience where they might sit in favor of someone else in travel ball.
Little League is for EVERYONE and you can be a leader and a learner in the same instant. I love sharing something I love with my friends who are not as heavily involved in my sports world, too.
I hope that I can someday earn the mythical status of some of the kids my parents still reminisce about playing against. When you go up against someone who might be better than you, and maybe, just maybe, you pull off the impossible, you never forget it.
If you hit a homerun (over the fence, because you have to differentiate between that and a grounder that rolled between someone’s legs during a Little League game) off the supposedly unhittable pitcher, your epic homerun will be the stuff of legend.
Just imagine if you strike out that intimidating batter… you know, the kid who launches her misses into the next field during BP !
Little League is also a place to take chances in game situations without the nuclear fall-out of risking something precious to your team or yourself. Sometimes, things actually go right, too!
And when a less experienced or less skilled player pulls off a miraculous play, she starts playing confidently. She gets the bug and she dares to compete. You have to get rid of your inhibitions and take chances to be exceptional and sometimes in an environment where there is more on the line, it can be hard to do that.
So these games are a great place to figure out what your limits are so you take calculated risks in more serious situations.
Not everyone would agree with me.
There is validity in the idea that a dominant player could also either hurt someone, or discourage someone. It isn’t much fun to have someone whip a ball 60 mph at you from third to first if you are not confident catching it.
It also isn’t much fun to be a beginning pitcher and have someone with college-level ball exit velocity rip one back at you. Unless you make the play. And then, it gets really, really cool and you love the game a little more, if that is even possible.
When I see a skilled player give teammates grief in a Little League setting, though, I think to myself that they should probably move on to another venue.
You can have really high expectations for your own performance, but you cannot hold other players to travel ball standards in this setting. This is the perfect opportunity for travel players to develop a “game face” and to remain cool in a pressure situation.
It is also the perfect opportunity to turn to a player and reassure them and encourage them.
No one ever played better because their teammate was disgusted or disappointed in them. I have learned a lot about what I can control and what I cannot from Little League. I hope I have also learned to be an unselfish teammate.
Arguably, if the better levels of plays don’t appeal to you, then you really don’t love the game because when it is played well, that is when this game is its most beautiful.
Sometimes there is beauty in growth, too, and seeing how far you have come. Little League gives you balance because you can see your roots while travel ball gives you the chance to really achieve beyond your dreams.
I find it hard to balance the time it takes to develop my personal game with playing Little League because there is an especially intense schedule in the Northeast where we squeeze our games into one month.
But, I get the chance to pitch to live batters and that is the type of practice that cannot be simulated in a cage or in practice. Game situations are the type of practice that I need the most and so Little League gives me 12 games to practice that.
That’s it… it is only 12 games so when you compare that to travel ball, it is only two weekends worth of ball, and the time commitment seems less intense.
Little League is as close to playing in the Sandlot of our parents’ stories as we can get. Parents work long hours and families are often set up with a few households and it is hard to get a group to walk two miles to the local field for a game.
Little League is my Sandlot. In the next few months, I will be participating in some elite events. I cannot wait to do that, but I am so grateful that Little League gave me the venue to improve and grow and the opportunity to play as much softball as I can fit it.
Next year, I will be too old for traditional Little League. I cannot participate in the Juniors program effectively because the games are on the weekends and that interferes with my travel ball schedule.
So, this is the end of an era for me.
At Little League age 12, you are likely done. My all-star team went all the way to Eastern Regionals in 2016 and I have lifelong friendships and awesome memories from that experience.
I was so proud to represent my community and I was so proud that my community really rallied around my team and even fundraised for us and gave us some local press and publicity.
Little League eligibility is for such a short period in your life and I hope you will participate for your own benefit, the benefit of the game in your community and because Little League brings our communities together.
The end of my Little League participation coincides with an increase in the intensity and time commitment for my softball training and so this being my last season actually works out nicely, for me. It is time to move on, but it is bittersweet.
To the spectators or parents of players who might see a more physically developed or skilled player on the field, just remember that they have a lot to learn, too and it isn’t always physical, though of course there is that.
Be grateful that your Sandlot includes these kids because they love the game and want to be part of the same thing your kid does.
They are living a different childhood because of this opportunity: A childhood that more closely resembles the one you remember, I bet.
“Remember kid, there’s heroes and there’s legends. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart kid, and you’ll never go wrong!”—The Sandlot