Young baseball players dream about it. Few actually get the chance to live it. And even fewer gain the national attention that the Phenix City All-Stars did in 1999.
More than 7,400 teams begin the journey every year. Twelve boys from Phenix City began practicing June 15, 1999, dreaming they would make the “big stage” of Williamsport, Penn. And now, 10 years later, those grueling practices still stick out as a lasting memory.
“One of my best memories had to have been those six-hour days of practicing,” Heath Owens said. “Before we began the tournaments, we were practically living together on the baseball field.”
They ended up “living together” for more than three months. Phenix City’s 11- and 12-year-old team won the United States Little League Championship on Aug. 27, 1999, against the “Beast from the East,” Toms River, N.J.
“The whole experience was just movie stuff,” head coach Tony Rasmus said just days after returning from the whirlwind trip. “It just didn’t seem real. There wasn’t a time we didn’t get back to the room that the coaches would go, ‘Can you believe this? Did you ever dream this place was like this, and that we could be a part of something like this?’”
That movie didn’t have a storybook ending, as Phenix City lost to Japan in the World Championship game 5-0. The story of their lives, however, continues.
Ten years later, they still resemble their old headshots.
Still in baseball
For some of the players, the summer of ’99 was just the beginning of traveling across the country for the sport they love.
Colby Rasmus played first base and pitched for the All-Stars. Rasmus was the No. 28 overall draft pick in the 2005 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Now an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, Rasmus said the experience was something he could never forget.
“Dealing with thousands of people and interviews,” Rasmus said, “that really made the experience eye-opening. We really got after it that summer.”
At 12, Rasmus was the boy who goofed around to keep things fun and loose. Now, after turning 23 and winding down his rookie season, things are a bit different with Albert Pujols as a teammate.
“I’m playing as hard as I can and trying to stay healthy,” said Rasmus, who is recovering from a heel injury he suffered in late July.
Colby’s younger brother, Cory, played catcher on the championship team. He’s now a pitcher in the Atlanta Braves farm system.
Cory Rasmus was the No. 38 overall pick by the Braves in 2006. He had surgery last year to tighten his shoulder capsule.
“I’m mostly throwing out of the bullpen right now to build some strength and get use to everyday stress,” said Cory Rasmus, who pitched a seven inning no-hitter for the Danville Braves just last week. “But the goal is to get back into the pitching rotation.”
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