EASTON - If there's a dream come true for 12-year-old boys, Sam Kemp is about to find out how it goes.
It has him at the All-Star game, not as a spectator, but playing on the same field with all of Major League Baseball's greats. It has him shagging flies during the Home Run Derby that annually includes rocket shots off the bats of guys named McGwire, Bonds, A-Rod, Delgado and Ramirez.
Maybe he gets to talk to some of the stars or get a few autographs. Maybe he gets to meet Cal Ripken. Maybe he'll stand next to Ken Griffey Jr.
And maybe, just maybe, the whole thing is topped with Sam being named the best 11- to 12- year-old player in the country.
A small-town Little League hero with a reputation for pitching perfect games and slugging 230-foot homers in his Eastern Shore hometown, Sam is taking his game to a bigger stage next week.
He's one of 16 players in four age groups who beat out 400,000 youngsters in the Toys `R' Us Major League Baseball Diamond Skills competition to win a free trip to the All-Star game and a spot in the finals July 9 in Seattle. He'll go up against players from Oregon, Rhode Island and Chicago.
"I want to get as far as I can get, but it's not about winning," says the 5-foot-4-inch, 115-pounder with size 11 shoes. "It's really to have fun. Maybe I can meet Willie Mays, a real all-time great player like that. Just getting to Seattle is going to be fun."
Sam's biggest worry? Hitting for distance? Fielding a grounder and throwing for accuracy? Running from second to home against a ticking stopwatch? How about performing in front of thousands of fans in mammoth Safeco Field amid the three-day hoopla surrounding the All-Star game?
Nope. Sam's biggest concern is that he might be late for the first game of the district playoffs in Easton, where he'll be playing for his league's All-Star team.
`Team-oriented'
Dick Kemp, who has managed every team his son has played on since T-ball, says Sam's first thought was to compete in the Diamond Skills event, then skip the All-Star game and fly home early to join his teammates.
"I convinced him it wouldn't make sense to miss this opportunity, but it's good that he is team-oriented; he's always been that kind of player," says Dick Kemp, who played tennis and ran cross country in his youth.
Kemp, like all the managers in the competitive 50-year-old Easton Little League, keeps meticulous track of his players' statistics. Sam's numbers this year are staggering.
