Enter the Dragon(s)
The Taney Dragons snuck up on me.
One week before Mo’ne Davis and the Taney Dragons became household names, I had never heard of her, or their Little League Tournament Team from South Philadelphia.
On Saturday morning, August 9, 2014, I read in the Philadelphia Inquirer that a center-city Philadelphia team would play the next night in Connecticut with a trip to the Little League World Series on the line. A prior commitment was the only thing that kept me from heading north.
Taney/MidAtlantic manager Alex Rice addresses the team after a practice in Williamsport.
Taney won that game with a dominant pitching performance by a thirteen year-old girl. Mo’ne Davis mowed down a team of boys from Newark, DE, and Monday morning there were rumblings on TV about this young female ballplayer. Mentioned on Sports Center and the morning news shows, the trickle of comments was but a foreshadowing of the tsunami of publicity yet to come. I was aware that, while there were mentions of Mo’ne, the story wasn’t exploding; it was still a local story.
Part of me felt I had missed the story. SI prefers leading into events, not covering them after the fact. Pictures of the Sunday game would have been a perfect Leading Off opportunity (SI’s six page picture section at the front of the magazine) to preview the upcoming Little League World Series. But the subtlety of the mentions that Monday left the door open for the story to re-emerge again on a bigger stage if she pitched well Friday in their Little League World Series opener.
I pulled up the LLWS schedule and tried to figure out how this was still a viable story for SI. I assumed the Mo’ne story would explode if she even just started a game in Williamsport, but how could it be relevant for SI the following week?
The answer was right there in the double elimination bracket.
If they lost Friday they would play an elimination game Saturday, and assuming they won that game, another elimination game Monday night -- after SI closed; two chances to be out of the tournament before SI published.
However, if Taney won their first two games, scheduled for Friday and Sunday, they would not play again until Wednesday, assured of playing at least two games after SI published on Tuesday.
I created an Excel schedule and wrote out the scenario for SI’s Managing Editor Chris Stone. Simply put, if Mo’ne Davis pitched Friday, and won, the sports world would be all over her story, and if they won Sunday night, we would be positioned to run a story as a lead-in to her next appearance on Wednesday. The chance that she would pitch again Sunday was minute, because Little League has strict pitch count rules that, if she had any success on Friday (a critical detail in this plan), her pitch count would preclude her from pitching Sunday, and set her up for a second start on Wednesday. This particular timing played out perfectly for SI, and shortly after I sent the note I got a call from SI assigning me to the Series.
There was still much that could go wrong. A loss Friday, especially if Davis did not pitch well, would take the sheen off this story. I also could not make the Saturday game as my son’s graduation party was scheduled for that afternoon. In the unlikely scenario that Davis got shelled and pulled from the game Friday, having thrown less than 20 pitches, it was possible she pitch again Saturday. Regardless, it still set up another elimination game Monday even if they won Saturday. SI left the Saturday game uncovered.
My proposal had two very simple needs: Mo’ne Davis needed to pitch well and win Friday, and Taney, now known as the Mid Atlantic Team, would need to win again Sunday night.
I first visited Williamsport in 1986. I’d just returned from a Sports Illustrated workshop in Houston, Texas, where I realized my dream of shooting for Sports Illustrated was not so imminent.
I left a job as a studio manager in New York City just prior to the workshop, intending to move back in with my parents and start freelancing. The studio job was a seminal time in my life, because I learned valuable lessons about lighting, production and business.
The workshop, however, exposed my achilles heel. I simply had not shot enough, and after the first week, I was mentally drained. I was out of ideas, and more ominously, running out of money. I stopped processing the film I shot and simply sat in on the slide shows absorbing what I could from the working professionals. They seemed to create pictures effortlessly, and I was getting very depressed.
I salvaged my self-esteem by convincing former Olympic cyclist Nelson Vails to pose for a portrait. This caught the SI staff’s attention. It wasn’t the images as much as my proposing and executing it on my own. On the final day I was voted Most Obsessed to Succeed, got in my Dodge Omni (no AC and a gaping hole where the radio had been stolen) and drove home to Pennsylvania knowing I needed to spend more time shooting. That started the next week in Williamsport.
I’d secured a credential to the 1986 Little League World Series through Tempo, a Northeast Pennsylvania lifestyle magazine where I’d interned as a student at the University of Scranton.
In 1986 the LLWS was nothing like it is today. It was a sleepy, one-week affair with only the Championship game televised. The games were all played during the day and were sparsely attended. Photographing the games and practices was much like shooting a local Little League game.
By 2014 there had been a seismic shift in Williamsport. ESPN televised the entire tounament, with many games played at night. A second stadium was built, the tournament expanded to two weeks and the weekday crowds grew. Quaint reminders of the past remain –all the games are still free – but the LLWS is now a major TV event.
The first time I laid eyes on Mo'ne Davis was during the pre-tournament parade. It was one of those personal re-boot moments when you realize how young these players are! Kids were jumping in line taking selfies with her and she reacted to like any kid would...but when adults did the same, she seemed uncomfortable, and even commented on TV that it was creepy...which it was!
The buzz was starting to build around Taney and their "girl pitcher", but even I was surprised at the calm exhibited by the media. They really did restrain themselves leading into the game, allowing what actually happened to lead the story.
Pro and college athletes are often victims of concocted expectations by sports pundits needing to fill up air-time prior to game day. But it just wasn’t happening; media reported the fact of Mo’ne’s scheduled appearance and left it at that. My assistant Tom Lovelund and I went to Taney’s practice Thursday evening, and the entire media presence consisted of us and two Philadelphia Inquirer staffers.
Friday afternoon was cloudy, but scheduled rain held off as Mo’ne Davis and the Powder Blue and Burgundy uniformed Mid Atlantic team faced off against the Southeast region.
I had no idea how long Mo’ne would pitch. I understood pitch count management from my days as a Little League coach, so that created possible scenarios too: If Taney got a big lead, would they pull Mo’ne and pitch her again on Sunday? If she got behind early, would they pull her to pitch again Saturday?
Jared Sprague-Lott is mobbed after his first inning homerun.
No need to rehash the details of that day. Jared Sprague-Lott homered early, Mo’ne pitched brilliantly, and the crush began. She was featured on the ESPN set after the game, but it was Friday night, and the weekend was just the calm before the storm. There was building interest, but the real hurdle was Sunday’s game. This would define Taney’s profile heading into the second week. The Monday morning talk shows would be the real springboard to crossing this story from a sports story to mainstream attention.
Taney’s Sunday night game against a team from Texas was as good as baseball can get. Drama, lead changes, kids crying (in LL there is a lot of crying in baseball) and a throwing error at the end allowing Taney to win the game in walk-off fashion…all of this on prime time TV.
Our plan had played out perfectly for the magazine. Taney would not play again until Wednesday, and could not be eliminated until Thursday. It gave SI plenty of time to capitalize on a beautifully played, perfectly scheduled baseball drama.
This is the Leading Off spread and cover that ran in the 8.24.14 Issue of SI.
All images ©2014 Sports Illustrated/Al Tielemans