Red Land Little League has support of alum and MLB vet Danny Sheaffer

(Undated) — Danny Sheaffer remembers his start in baseball.

“I was the short, fat kid without a glove,” Sheaffer said about his start in Little League during the 1970s.

It’s not the glamorous start most would envision for a future big league player.

Sheaffer, who has spent almost 35 years in professional baseball as a player and manager/coach, currently manages the Tampa Bay Rays rookie-level affiliate — the Princeton (West Virginia) Rays — in the Appalachian League.

Mark him down as just another former Red Land athlete pulling for his former team when they begin the Little League World Series against the Midwest Region champions from Webb City, Missouri, at 8 p.m. Friday in South Williamsport at Howard J. Lamade Stadium, the larger of the two stadiums at the Little League International Complex.

“I hope they win,” Sheaffer said.

Sheaffer started playing Little League after most of his friends, joining, he believes, when he 10 years old. No travel baseball, no top-of-the-line gear. His father, Leroy, signed him up at the local fire station.

“I didn’t have a glove, and I didn’t have a position,” said Sheaffer, who lived in Fairview Township.

He quickly found himself pressed into action, out of necessity. During the first practice, his team’s third baseman took a ground ball to the chin. A coach asked if Sheaffer wanted to play. Borrowing a glove, he went out there.

Then the catcher got injured, and once again a coach asked if Sheaffer wanted to try a new position.

The 10-year-old boy wanted no part of it.

Too bad.

Sheaffer’s father immediately volunteered him for the job.

Oddly enough, that’s where Sheaffer, 55, stayed for the majority of an 18-year professional playing career. Drafted in the first round by the Boston Red Sox in 1981, he remained a catcher who would occasionally play a corner infield or outfield position until he switched over to the National League with Colorado in 1993.

Red Land — with Sheaffer on the roster — became the first York County team to win the Pennsylvania State Little League Tournament in 1974, advancing to the regional tournament before losing to eventual regional champion New Haven (Conn.) Pop Smith.

Only two other York County teams have done it since, but Red Land’s 2015 squad is the first to make it to the Little League World Series.

Expect a crowd

Parents, friends and family will flock to South Williamsport for the Little League World Series no matter what. It doesn’t matter if they are from Portland, Oregon or Bonita, Calif. A dugout coach for California’s Sweetwater Valley team told reporters his company informed him he would not have his job as a sales rep when he returned from the series. He still came.

So the support is just as avid as always.

But what puts the event over the top is when this happens: a local team crashes the party, like it did this year.

Make no mistake, Red Land is the darling.

Only three York County teams have even won Pennsylvania’s Little League state championship. This year’s Red Land squad follows the York team’s 1980 state championship and the Red Land team’s 1974 state title, both of which fell short in the regional tournament.

Red Land’s team of 13 teens and tweens from York and Cumberland County will pack the complex in Williamsport. They might just be a group of 12- and 13-year-olds from Crossroads Middle School, New Cumberland Middle School and Covenant Christian Academy. But everyone loves a winner. It’s no coincidence Red Land is scheduled for the late game in its opener.

Even if no Pennsylvania teams reach the tournament, fans pack the place.

For those new to the event, a blimp circles overhead. Fans head to the lawn to experience more laid-back viewing, where they can catch a home run ball or sled down the grass-covered hills beyond the outfield fences on flattened cardboard boxes.

The tournament draws about 400,000 fans each year, but that number has been known to increase if a Pennsylvania team is in the field.

Red Land’s presence means a caravan of cars and minivans will be northbound on U.S. Route 15 on Friday.

Local flavor

Consider last year’s tournament saw an uptick in attendance of more than 7,000 fans with the arrival of Mo’ne Davis and the rest of the Taney team from Philadelphia. The record for tournament attendance, however, remains when Clinton County arrived on the scene in 2011 — when 414,905 fans watched the series. Clinton County’s tournament opener drew a crowd of 41,848, a figure that remains a top-10 crowd in Little League World Series history and is the only game in the top 10 that’s not a championship.

Last year’s championship game drew 28,671.

But Pennsylvania teams have not been successful — at least not recently.

No Pennsylvania team has won the U.S. championship since Shippensburg lost to San-Hua from Chinese Taipei in the 1990 championship game. And you’d have to go back to 1960 to find the last Pennsylvania championship team. Back then, a 12-year-old Joe Mormello of Levittown tossed a six-inning no-hitter and struck out 16 against a club from Fort Worth, Texas, in the first nationally televised championship. Levittown, a post-war community built in Bucks County, hadn’t even existed eight years before. It became the fourth and final Pennsylvania team to win the tournament.

Little League World Series

Watch the opener: The Red Land Little League team opens the World Series at 8 p.m. today. Red Land, the Mid-Atlantic regional champion, will take on the Midwest champion team from Webb City in Missouri. The game will be televised on ESPN.

If Red Land wins: The team would stay alive in the unbeaten bracket of the double elimination tournament with a second-round game at 7 p.m. Sunday, televised on ESPN.

If Red Land loses: It would play an elimination game at 8 p.m. Saturday, televised on ESPN2.

Pennsylvania pride

Pennsylvania Little League teams that won the Mid-Atlantic Region championship.

2015: Red Land Little League (Lewisberry)

2014: Taney Youth Baseball Association Little League (Philadelphia)

2011: Keystone LL (Clinton County)

2005: Council Rock LL (Newtown)

2001: State College American LL*

1997: Railway Park LL (Pottsville)

1990: Shippensburg LL

1969: Williamsport LL

1967: Newtown Edgmont LL (Newtown Square)

1961: Levittown American LL

1960: Levittown American LL+

+ The last team from Pennsylvania to win the Little League World Series.

* Rolando Paulino LL from New York won the regional championship, but after the tournament it forfeited all tournament wins for a series of violations, including using 14-year-old pitcher Danny Almonte.

State champions

Only three Little League teams from York County have won the Pennsylvania state championship. The 2015 Red Land team is the first to advance to South Williamsport for the Little League World Series.

2015: Red Land

1980: York

1974: Red Land

Roster

Here is the roster of the 2015 Red Land Little League team, which became the first York County team to reach the Little League World Series in South Williamsport.

3 Camden Walter

4 Braden Kolmansberger

8 Dylan Rodenhaber

11 Adam Cramer

12 Jaden Henline

13 Chayton Krauss

16 Kaden Peifer

18 Cole Wagner

21 Zach Sooy

27 Jake Cubbler

33 Jarrett Wisman

34 Bailey Wirt

51 Ethan Phillips

Manager: Tom Peifer

This article comes to us through a partnership between the Lebanon Daily News and WITF.