This year’s Little League Classic was overshadowed by the Field of Dreams game, so let’s hope the 2022 edition featuring the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles will receive lots of TLC from MLB and ESPN.
The game is set for Sunday, August 21 and serve as a home game for Baltimore. It will air nationally exclusively on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. It’s part of the Little League World Series events aired on ESPN. ESPN Radio, the ESPN App and ESPN Deportes.
The Red Sox and Orioles were originally slated for the 2020 Little League Classic, but that event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Major Leaguers on the Orioles and Red Sox will attend Little League World Series games earlier in the day, demonstrating their commitment to helping grow the game at the youth level and engage with young fans. Later that evening, Little League World Series players and their families will fill Historic Bowman Field for the Little League Classic game. The Little League Classic was launched at the renovated Historic Bowman Field in August 2017. Bowman Field, which opened in 1926, is certainly an archetypal small-town minor-league ballpark–even though the Williamsport Crosscutters didn’t survive MiLB contraction and now play in the summer-collegiate MLB Draft League–but ESPN tends to treat Little League Classic games more as remembrances of the major leaguers who in the past competed in the Little League World Series rather than a more nostalgic look at the game. Let’s face it: the Field of Dreams game succeeded because it was such an unabashed celebration of nostalgia.
“We are thrilled to have been selected to participate in the Little League Classic next year,” said Mike Elias, Orioles Executive Vice President and General Manager via press release. “Our players and staff were very much looking forward to spending time with the next generation of players and fans at the 2020 event prior to its cancellation, so to have the opportunity to compete against the Red Sox next season at Historic Bowman Field while supporting the Commissioner’s efforts to grow the game is a tremendous honor for our Club.”
“We are excited to take part in one of MLB’s latest traditions that directly connects Major League players with the game’s next generation of potential stars,” said Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner via press release. “Playing the Orioles at Historic Bowman Field is an honor and we are looking forward to deepening the connection between today’s youth and America’s pastime.”
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