HAMTRAMCK, Mich. – The Little League World Championship trophy returned to Michigan for the first time in three generations.
The Taylor North Little League team defeated a squad from Ohio to take home the Little League World Series title. The team won Michigan’s first little league title in more than 60 years. The final score was 5-2.
The last time Michigan held the title was in 1959 when the Hamtramck Little League All-Stars won the national title. A handful of the players are still around Metro Detroit.
Bill Heald is one of those players. He lives in Clarkston now.
“I was a decent ballplayer. My stick wasn’t real good, but I was a good fielder and I had a great arm,” Heald said.
He still has some old memorabilia including a commemorative trophy for the world series and a bat that is now broken.
“The excitement was, like, overwhelming to a 12-year-old kid, you know what I mean? They, the City of Hamtramck rolled out the carpet for us. We had a ticker-tape parade,” Heald said.
He said he watched and cheered for the Taylor kids over the weekend. He shared some advice with them.
“Always keep inside you that you were World Champions, that you excelled at something at a young age,” he said.
Read: Taylor North returns home as Little League World Series champions