Mo’ne Davis Takes the Mound and Center Stage
Photo By: AP
The undisputed feel good story that came out of the 2014 Little League World Series (LLWS) was none other than 13-year-old African-American female pitcher, Mo’ne Davis, of the Taney Dragons Little League Baseball Team from Philadelphia, Pa.
Davis made history as the first female pitcher to win a game in the LLWS when she struck out eight batters in a two-hitter en-route to a 4-0 victory against the South Nashville Little League team. The talented young superstar also made history as she was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated (SI) magazine during the week of August 25th, 2014.
Davis told SI writer Albert Chen, “To be honest, I never thought I’d be famous for baseball. I want to play basketball, and I could also do both basketball and baseball -- but I really want to play basketball.”
Davis, who also plays basketball in the point guard position, dreams of playing the sport for the University of Connecticut (UCONN). According to Davis, current UCONN women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma called her to congratulate her and said that she needed to get a few more hits.
Standing at 5-foot-four inches tall, Davis’ signature fastball pitch is clocked in at 70 mph from the LLWS mound to the batter’s box which is 46 feet away. Therefore, it is as if she's throwing out at 93 mph pitches to her opponents because in Major League Baseball (MLB), the pitcher’s mound is 60.5 away.
Davis' supportive family consist of her mother, Lakeisha McLean, father, Lamar Davis, step father, Mark Williams, brothers Quran Davis and Maurice Boykin and sister, Mahogany Williams.
Although Davis’ Taney Dragons eventually lost to Chicago's own Jackie Robinson West All-Stars in the LLWS semi-finals, she along with her little league teammates were honored with a city-wide parade in her home town of Philadelphia. Davis and her teammates were also asked to threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a recent Philadelphia Phillies home game. Davis threw her pitch – most likely a strike – to Phillies pitcher Jonathan Papelbon.
According to Nielsen, the 2014 LLWS was the highest rated on the ESPN networks (ABC, ESPN and ESPN 2) since 2002.
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