Superstar athletes have a lot on their plates. Between time they set aside for practice, conditioning, rehabbing injuries, media obligations and then of course game time they’re stretched pretty thing. As one of the best pitchers in baseball, Paul Skenes is constantly being pulled in different directions when he’s not pitching for the Pirates. On Monday night Skenes was pulled not by a sponsor or a media outlet, but instead felt pulled by his love of baseball to crash a little league practice in Wexford, PA.
At Vestal Field, home of the Ingomar Franklin Park Little League teams, Skenes strolled into an ongoing practice after noticing that the lights above the field were still on. The unassuming All-Star was unnoticed only briefly before all eyes were on him, as little league players and parents quickly made their way to make his acquaintance. For roughly two hours the reigning NL Cy-Young Award winner was posing for photos, signing autographs and of course playing catch with the young players on the field.
Skenes recalled his love for the game at a young age and what it meant to him as a little league player.
“There’s a lot of things that make [baseball] a business and it’s work, it’s a job for us for sure, but on some days more than others, you got to remember you love the game and why you started playing it in the first place. So, it was good for me to go and visit them,” Skenes said.
Ingomar Franklin Park Little League president Chris Greco wasn’t present at the field but his three sons and wife got to meet Skenes. Greco commented later on what it meant to have Skenes show up at his league’s field and the connection the Pirates’ pitcher has with the community of Pittsburgh.
“To the kids here in Pittsburgh, he’s the biggest thing in baseball by far. He is baseball,” Greco said.
Eddie Dubis is an Ingomar coach who was at the practice on Monday said it was a great experience having Skenes there interacting with the families.
“Seeing the smiles on the boys’ faces was just unbelievable,” Dubis said. “They were totally starstruck, in awe of what happened.”
Dubis also mentioned Skenes’ known love for baseball and how much it means to him to be in the community.
“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.
From the time Skenes was drafted to Pittsburgh, he has ingrained himself in the community. He maintains that he wants to change the culture that surrounds the Pirates’ organization and turn them into a winning ball club, citing that the fans and the blue collar workers of Pittsburgh deserve to have a championship baseball team.
Skenes did all of this the night before he took the mound against the Los Angeles Dodgers. In that game, Skenes threw six innings, racked up seven strikeouts and held Shohei Ohtani hitless.
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