Girl Phenom Mo'ne Davis delivering in major way and even wows Dodgers’

Clayton Kershaw 

With braids flapping and fastball snapping, Mo’ne Davis of Philadelphia has become, quite suddenly, the biggest pitching sensation in baseball, at least from the distance of 46 feet. Nobody knows this better than her catcher of five years, Scott Bandura, who says that anybody who regards Davis as some sort of girly gate-crasher or nubile novelty at the Little League World Series needs to take a closer look.

 

“I would just tell them to come watch her play,” the 5-3, 88-pound Bandura said. “If people come in with that mentality, they are in for a surprise. She can locate and has a lot of movement on her fastball. She is the No. 1 pitcher on our staff.”

Everybody from Diane Sawyer to Ellen DeGeneres to Inside Edition has reached out to Mo’ne Davis, not so much because of her 70-mph heater but because she is a 13-year-old groundbreaker, believed to be the first African-American girl to play in the Little League World Series, which commences Thursday in Williamsport, Pa.

It is one more achievement for Davis, an eighth-grade honor roll student at prestigious Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in northwest Philadelphia and standout pitcher for the Taney Dragons, having hurled a three-hit shutout to lead her team to the Mid-Atlantic Region title last weekend. No official announcement has been made, but Davis will likely be on the mound when Taney opens its tournament against Nashville on Friday.

 

Davis and Vancouver’s Emma March, who is also a pitcher, are the 17th and 18th girls to play in youth baseball’s most storied tournament, an experience that Davis seems completely ready for. Her trademark braids may bounce all over the place on the mound, but her inner compass seems pile-driven into the ground.

“I’m actually really excited because I want to go out there and have fun,” Davis said from her Williamsport room. You ask her what she focuses on when she takes the hill, even as the stakes ratchet upward.

“I just think about throwing strikes and hitting the spots I have to hit in order to win the game,” she said.

Coaches, educators, teammates — all of them offer nothing but raves about the skill and makeup of the 5-4, 111-pound Davis, who plays against boys not just in baseball, but also in soccer and basketball, which Steve Bandura, her basketball coach with the Anderson Monarchs, a club team in center-city Philadelphia, sees up close.

“I wouldn’t call her a great athlete,” Bandura, the father of Davis’ catcher, said. “I’d call her a good athlete, but her analytical skills and her mental skills are off the charts. She is playing chess against players who are playing checkers.”

Dr. Priscilla Sands is the president of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy and has known Davis since she was a third-grader. Davis has to get up at 5:45 every morning to make the one-hour, 20-minute bus trip from her south Philadelphia home, and apparently has never balked at doing so. “From the day she came here, there was something so lovely and special about her,” Sands said. “She brings the same intensity that she has in sports to her academic work. She’s going to go far. There are no limits for this child.”

Davis, who will likely play varsity basketball and soccer for Springside Chestnut Hill this year, agrees that basketball is her best sport. Her favorite players are Seth Curry and Maya Moore, and her goal is to be the point guard for UConn, and coach Geno Auriemma, a Philadelphian himself. “Is it in the realm of possibility? Absolutely,” Steve Bandura said. “She’s Steve Nash on the basketball floor. She sees everything. She always has a plan.”

After her shutout to get the Taney Dragons to Williamsport, Davis joked about wanting to challenge her favorite pitcher, Clayton Kershaw, to a pitch-off. Davis admires Kershaw’s command, and the nasty break of his curveball. On Wednesday, Kershaw, 14-2, 1.78 and seemingly on his way to his third Cy Young Award, responded.

“Hey Mo’ne, just wanted to say congratulations on making it to Williamsport,” Kershaw said in a video posted by ESPN-w. “That’s awesome, such a cool thing for you to get to do. Such a fun opportunity, and I heard you’re ready for a pitch-off. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I’m prepared. I’m ready for whenever you can make it out to L.A., just let me know.”

Davis, for her part, is ready to play some ball amid the rolling hills of north-central Pennsylvania. “Making it here has been a dream,” Mo’ne Davis said.