A team of 12-year old Martha’s Vineyard Little Leaguers and four coaches traveled to Cooperstown, N.Y., home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, to take in the sights, bond together, and play a little baseball.
The team arrived on August 18 for a one-week stay at the Cooperstown All-Star Village, living in a 20- by 20-foot bunkhouse, and started playing the next day. The Vineyard team, comprised of Axel Abrams, Jack DeBettencourt, Josh Lake, Cole Lambert, Wyatt Nicholson, Charlie Porterfield, Eamon Savard, Micah Simmons, Bryan Sornas, Silas Stanek-Streed, Nate Story, and Sam Zach, and coached by Mike DeBettencourt, Chris Porterfield, Gary Simmons, and Chip Story, played nine games against teams from New York State and Michigan.
In the “regular season” round, MV defeated Lindenhurst, N.Y., and Zappen, Mich., and lost to New York teams Bethpage, Levittown, Ozone Howard, and Syracuse. The Vineyard side rebounded in the playoff round, with victories over Huntington, N.Y., and Zappen, before losing to Richmond, N.Y.
“The kids and coaches are forever bonded, having lived and played together,” Gary Simmons wrote in an email to the Times. “The coaches have had the pleasure of coaching these kids since they were 8. They are a very close group, and not just because they lived three feet from each other for a whole week!”
