Media Team Needs Just One More Win To Make It To Little League World Series

A local team is knocking on the door of making It To The Little League World Series. Some kids from Media have been putting on a show. They already had earned the right to represent Pennsylvania in the Mid-Atlantic Regional. But after beating Washington D.C. 16-3 Tuesday night, they are now just one win away from getting to the Little League World Series. They get that chance in the Mid-Atlantic Championship game on Friday night. This is the first time Media has represented Pennsylvania as the State Champion since 1957.

They fell behind 3-0 early in Tuesday's game vs D.C.. But then the kids from Media went off. They put up 10 runs in the 2nd inning and never looked back. You can check out some of the highlights from that win in the below video.

If you have not been following Media, you are missing out. Not only are they very good, evident from the fact they put up 16 runs, but they are just fun. Not only are they capable of hitting bombs, like Trevor Skowronek did before he strutted around the bases, but they can play small ball too. Charlie Haenn emulated his favorite player Bryson Stott when he got into a two-strike count, but just choked up on the bat and slapped a hit the other way. You know Phillies fans, who love to complain about the lack of small ball, will love to see more of that.

Our area has had teams make some noise at the Little League World Series in the past. Toms River represented the  Mid-Atlantic region in 2021. And who could forget when Mo'Ne Davis became one of the biggest sports stories in the world after she became the first girl to pitch a shutout at the Little League World Seris with the Taney Dragons? And now Media has a chance to make their own headlines. The Taney Dragons drew huge crowds to Williamsport in 2014. And Media might be doing the same very soon.

Just one more win on Friday, and they will be representing our area at the Little League World Series. But is the world ready to be introduced to Delco? Thankfully Mare of Easttown already did some preliminary work showing people who aren't from the Greater Philadelphia area what a Delco Accent is.

Trea Turner is thanking Philadelphia in a big way. New billboards have popped up in the Philadelphia area that feature a photo of shortstop Trea Turner with the text "Thank you, Philly."

This gesture is not small, nor is it meaningless. The message seen above popped up on a digital billboard at the base of the Walt Whitman Bridge, just a short distance from Citizens Bank Park.

Trea Turner, in case you didn't know, plays shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies. On December 8, 2022, Turner signed an 11-year contract worth $300 million with the Phillies. Prior to that, Turner played for the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers. His notable achievements from his time with those teams include Rookie of the Year Runner-Up, World Series Champion, and NL Stolen Bases Leader.

When Turner was signed to the Phillies, fans had hope that he was the secret sauce that would get us to the World Series again (and possibly win this time). After all, Trea had proven himself invaluable to the MLB and any team he found himself on.

At the beginning of the season, Trea represented the USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He hit a game-winning grand slam during a quarterfinal game against Venezuela.

But, when the regular season began, Trea didn't seem himself. And this wasn't just a few off-games. No. We, as a city, had to make a decision on how we would treat Trea, who was obviously struggling each and every game.

Turner is currently batting.238/.291/.377 with 11 homers and 39 RBI in 109 games. It's the lowest batting average of his career since 2015 when he was first called up by the Washington Nationals for 27 games. Not only that, but he has been struggling defensively as well. As you can see in the video above, that ball should have been in Trea's glove. Instead, he missed it entirely. And that was not the first time something like that happened this season.

When you sign a guy on a multi-million-dollar, multi-year contract, you want him to do well. You want him to win games. Unfortunately, Trea was not doing that. Trea has had an absolute nightmare of a season, and it was getting hard to sympathize.

This is just, straight-up, a hard watch. You don't ever want to see a person at their lowest like this. Phillies fans saw this and immediately felt that they needed to send some good energy to Trea. Him taking accountability in the way he did was admirable, but also so very sad. After this game, Trea even got moved down in the batting lineup. It was not looking good.

Fans really felt for the guy. They stood as Trea stepped up to bat in the bottom of the 2nd inning, cheering riotously for him. The Phillies went on to lose the game, but it was a win for Turner's morale (and ours, too).

It may have been because of fans sending good vibes. It may have been because Trea Turner was mad at himself and determined to do something about it. Whatever it was, it made magic. In game 2 against the Kansas City Royals Trea hit an absolute moonshot to deep left field, answering the call. The three-run home run helped push them over the edge for the win.

Trea Turner has had a really rough start in Philly. Instead of jeering and turning our backs on the struggling shortstop, we attempted to lift him up. In many ways, it worked. Trea went on to approve messaging that would pop up on billboards in the Philadelphia area, thanking fans for their support.

Philadelphia is known as a largely negative sports city. It seems we've turned over a new leaf, though. Maybe it's because our teams are pretty good right now. Maybe it's something in the water. Whatever it is, it's great that we've learned that positivity wins over anything else. Giving Trea a standing ovation was no small gesture. It gave him the drive to perform for us. He saw what we did for him and how it affected his game in a positive way. There's something to learn here about the power of positivity. If we extend grace to our fellow Philadelphians, things work out in our favor. Something to think about.