I recently had the privilege to coach the Bradford Regional Little League 8-10 year-old All-Star baseball team. Being involved in an all-star baseball program brought back many great memories from when I played all-stars. In fact, this year marks 25 years from when I was fortunate enough to play on one of the greatest all-star teams to ever represent the Bradford area. A team that made a deep run in the tournament that went as far as the state championships.

It was the year 2000 and I can remember it being one of the hottest summers I had ever had to play ball in. My coach, Mike Manning Sr., was one of the best coaches I had ever gotten to know and learn from in all my years of playing baseball. He was a tough-minded coach and he demanded his players to show the same level of toughness. Even on the hottest of days, practices were never to be easy. In fact, I think the hotter it was the harder he worked us. Tough practices got us through so many challenges that we were to face during the games. Mental toughness was key. We focused on doing all the little things right vs. trying to make big plays. In baseball, if you can eliminate errors and play smart both defensively and offensively, you can win more times than not. 

Our team was the 13-14 year-old McKean Junior League All-Stars. The McKean League consisted of Otto-Eldred, Lewis Run, Custer City, Derrick City, West Branch and anywhere else on the outskirts of town that weren’t considered the city of Bradford.

Back in the early 2000’s, District 10 baseball was separated between the North and South Divisions. Teams like Warren, Kane and Cameron County were part of the North and Dubois, Punxsutawney and St. Mary’s represented the South with a handful of other teams.

My team blew right through the North Division, unblemished and really never challenged. We beat Cameron County in the District 10 North Championship, 11-0. Our ace pitcher, Shawn Manning, threw a two-hitter and pretty much the entire team put the bat on the ball. However, the South Division was always the biggest threat. It had been nine years since any team from the McKean League had won a District 10 title. That was something our coach, Mike Manning, would talk a lot about to us. He made us believe in ourselves, despite much here-say from outsiders saying we couldn’t do it. Our main goal was to break the ice and bring back the District 10 banner to McKean after nearly a 10-year drought. 

In the District 10 championship game, we faced Dubois, who by far was one of the toughest baseball teams we would face throughout the entire all-star tournament . It was a tremendous baseball game, to say the least. We were down 3-0 through the first two innings of the game until we exploded in the third inning with four runs to take the lead.

After scoring a couple more runs, we found ourselves up 6-3 going into the bottom of the last inning. Dubois refused to go out quietly, as they scored two runs in the last inning, closing the gap to 6-5. We had two outs and Dubois had a runner on second base, in scoring position. I can remember starting to feel some doubt as it seemed like Dubois was gaining momentum on us. A good shot in the outfield would tie the game and it would not have been a surprise to me if they put one over the fence for a win. I’ve forgotten a lot over the years, but I’ll never forget that final pitch being thrown and our shortstop (Shawn Manning) making a diving play on a hard-hit ground ball headed towards the gap in center field and then getting up and throwing a bullet to first base to seal the win and give us the title. That was one of the best defensive plays I had ever seen in such a big game.

The whole team was in awe when we were presented the District 10 championship banner. What seemed impossible to many, was now accomplished by a bunch of young, talented baseball players that believed they could do it. We were definitely supported by many fans, but you could tell most of the locals were shocked that we did what we did. It felt good to bring success to a town that doesn’t get a lot of credit in the sport of baseball.

As we went into the sectional tournament, we really had no clue what the competition would be like. Obviously, we knew this round would likely be harder than district play. The best teams from the western part of the state were what we were up against. 

Our first game we defeated Ford City, then went on to beat a tough Meadville team who had a kid named David Moyer, who was by far the best baseball player we had ever played against. I remember playing third base and Moyer hit a line drive over my head that ended up clearing the fence. To this day, I’ve never seen a ball that low to the ground make it out of the park. Nevertheless, our win against Meadville put us in the solo spot in the winner’s bracket. We then faced Meadville again and got beat 8-1, and the last two teams standing in the sectional tournament were us and Meadville, playing for the sectional championship.

Just like our district championship game against Dubois, this one was another battle. We’d get a handful of runs one inning and then Meadville would come storming back. I felt we caught our stride in the sixth inning when Jim Butler nailed and RBI single and I contributed with a rare, run scoring suicide squeeze play. We gave up a couple runs in the last inning, yet when it was all said and done, the final score ended up being 10-7 in favor of McKean. We were then state championship bound where we were one of five other teams left standing in the state of Pennsylvania. “In the moment we all felt like we were on top of the world and with each victory became more proud of the team we had become and the representation of talent from our little towns making waves across the state of Pennsylvania,” said Luke Breese, who was one of 12 players on the McKean squad. “But at the end of the day, when the sectional tournament ended with a state bid in Williamsport, looking back and on those amazing days and seemingly endless practices and games, we were just a bunch of boys playing baseball with our buddies, for no reason other than the love of the game. Baseball was life, and we took that to heart, and we let that take us as far as we could go.”

We then traveled to Williamsport very proud, yet extremely concerned because both of our ace pitchers had wounded arms. Our pitchers, Jake Wells and Shawn Manning were the backbone of our team. We might not have had the greatest depth in the bullpen, but with those guys on the mound, we knew we could play with anyone in the Keystone State. Neither Manning or Wells were able to pitch for us in the state championships and there was no doubt that was going to be a problem for us.

Unfortunately, we were defeated by Somerset and Lehigh in the state tournament. We hit the ball well, but without our star pitchers, we didn’t have the pitching depth to keep the score from getting out of hand. To this day, I still believe if our pitchers were healthy, we would have won the state championship and went on to represent the state of Pennsylvania in the regionals tournament to compete for a national title.

I’m not sure any team from this area has ever went that far in the all-star tournament. I hope they do though. As we speak, Bradford all-star teams are still battling it out in the District 10 tournament. Maybe this year will be the year when Bradford can bring home another District 10 title.

Players from the 2000 McKean Junior team were Luke Breese, Cory Sudbrook, Jake Pessia, Lance Baker, Joe Rinehart, Jacoby Spittler, Steve Sherk, Shawn Manning, Jake Wells, Nate Westlake, Jon Hannon and Jim Butler. Coaches were Mike Manning and Steve Kornacki.