Armed with a 70mph fastball and lovable personality, 13 year-old Mo’ne Davis has captured the attention and the hearts of sports fans on little league baseball’s biggest stage after pitching two consecutive shut outs. But surprisingly or not surprisingly, Davis was discovered on a different type of field that many feel isn’t fit for little girls.
“I actually started playing baseball at seven. I wasn’t really a big baseball fan but I had a strong arm, so then I knew I had to practice more,” Davis said.
“I was playing football and I was tackling the boys and I was throwing spirals, so coach Steve (Bandura) came up to me and said you have to play baseball. So I played baseball and I was an outfielder and that was kind of how it went.
“I started pitching at like the of age 8 or 9. I wasn’t the best, but I threw strikes so I would start a lot. And then my arm started getting stronger and stronger, so then I started throwing gas — like my fastball started speeding up. So that’s how I got started.”
Coach Bandura said he was intrigued when he saw Davis throwing perfect spirals.
“A lot of our kids were still hanging around, they were out in left field throwing a football around,” he said. “There was this little girl in the group with them, and I’m watching her throw perfect spirals every single time, and throwing them a good distance. I was like, ‘What is that?’”
“That” was 7-year-old Mo’ne Davis. Her cousin was then a member of the Monarchs, and she was spending the afternoon at Marian Anderson Recreational Center messing around with some neighborhood boys. But she was also chasing them, running them down and tackling them — fearlessly.
Bandura also says of all the baseball players he’s worked with, Mo’ne is the best at her age.
“At this age, she’s the best pitcher I’ve ever had,” Bandura told CSN Philly. “I’ve had pitchers that are now in the minor leagues, but at this age, no one’s had the control to go with the velocity that she has and the command.”
Davis, who says she has no plans on switching to softball, is not just a beast on the diamond, she also knows her way around the basketball court and hopes to one day play basketball in college.
Great story of an amazing young girl.