WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — The Mets were greeted at the airport in Williamsport on Sunday by plenty of enthusiastic young fans and connected with teams from all over the world that were playing at the Little League World Series.
But no one had a bigger connection to the players he met than Carlos Mendoza, who found out when the Mets were taking off from New York on Sunday morning that the team representing Venezuela was from his home city of Barquisimeto.
“I talked to the coaches and the kids about what part of town they were from and told them, ‘I used to play on that Little League field,’ ” the manager said before the Mets faced the Mariners at the Little League Classic at Bowman Field. “It brings back so many memories.”
While Mendoza said he didn’t know any of the people affiliated with the team, he had connections with some of the coaches.
But as impressed as the Venezuelan players were with Mendoza, he was no match for his players.
“There was so much going on, and you’re talking to a kid and Juan Soto walks by,” Mendoza said with a laugh of how the conversations ended.
The Mets spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the Little League complex before heading to Bowman Field for their game.
Edwin Díaz was greeted by his “Narcos” warmup song at the airport, and Francisco Lindor spent time with the team from Puerto Rico.
Brett Baty and Sean Manaea were among the players who took part in the long tradition of sliding down the hill on a piece of cardboard at the complex.
Neither came close to playing in the LLWS themselves — Baty noting that he didn’t play traditional Little League baseball at all — but both grew up paying attention to the tournament.
“I always loved watching it this time of year,” Baty said. “It would be August, and I would just park myself on the couch and see them play.”
And slide down the hill.
“It was a lot steeper than I thought,” Baty said of the experience. “It was kind of sketchy.”
He said he had some second thoughts, “but then I went down and it was fine.”
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Manaea said he never came close to getting to Williamsport as a player.
“I always wanted to come here, so I’m soaking up everything this place has to offer,” Manaea said.
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That included trading pins that were given out around the tournament, as others signed autographs.
“It was cool to see the energy as soon as we got off the bus,’’ Baty said of the greeting the team got at the airport Sunday morning. “I didn’t know what to expect, and it’s such a cool energy. You see the joy in their faces.”
And sometimes, more than that, since Baty was among the players who was there when some of the teams were about to be introduced prior to their games at the complex.
“Then you see the nerves and what they’re going through,” Baty said. “This is their World Series, so that’s how they’re going to be.”
