Imagine being a 12-year-old at your Little League team practice when, completely unannounced, you notice one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball sitting there watching you. For some players in the Ingomar Franklin Park Little League in Wexford, Pennsylvania, that fantasy became a reality.
According to MLB.com, just after seven o’clock on Monday night, Paul Skenes was traveling down Perry Highway in Wexford, a Pittsburgh suburb, when he noticed that the lights were still on at Vestal Field, home of the Ingomar Franklin Park Little League teams.
Despite having a start against the Dodgers at PNC Park coming up on Tuesday, Skenes decided to stop and watch the practice from a park bench. After players and parents noticed Skenes, he stuck around for a couple more hours, playing catch with several players, posing for photos, and signing autographs.
“Seeing the smiles on the boys’ faces was just unbelievable,” said Eddie Dubis, an Ingomar coach and member of the board of directors who was in attendance. “They were totally starstruck, in awe of what happened.”
Images of Paul Skenes with the Little League team have since spread like wildfire, drawing the attention of his famous girlfriend Olivia Dunne, who posted a video about it on her TikTok account.
“Remembering your MLB bf is just a boy bc wdym he saw a little league team practicing while driving home and pulled over to show me and play catch with them,” Dunne captioned the post.
Paul Skenes stopped because he was reminded of a memory from his youth
Paul Skenes said he was driving around bored when he noticed the baseball field. When he saw that the parking lot was full, he said he circled around, wondering if he should stop. But then he remembered meeting one of his favorite players, Angels outfielder Garret Anderson, when he was a kid.
“He just said he loves baseball, he’s a baseball nut, he loves everything about the game, and he remembers being that age, and how special Little League baseball was to him when he was that age,” Dubis said.
In 2024, a similar thing happened in Kansas City
On a Thursday in 2024, a day off for the Kansas City Royals, catcher Salvador Perez cemented his status as a legend in the city as he was driving through one of the town’s neighborhoods.
A group of young boys were playing wiffle ball in the backyard of one of the kids’ homes when, out of nowhere, Perez pulled up and got out of his car.
“Hey guys, can I play?” the Kansas City Star reported Perez asked the kids.
“Guys, that’s Salvy!” 9-year-old Cameron Lard shouted when the realization set in that it was a nine-time All-Star and World Series MVP asking to play with them.
Cameron then ran into his house shouting to anyone who would listen, “Salvy freaking Perez is in the backyard!”