Little League Legend Mo'ne Davis Commits to Play Softball at Hampton University
Mo’ne Davis, who in the 2014 Little League World Series became the first girl to pitch a shutout, signed her letter-of-intent to play softball for the Pirates. She is currently a senior at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia, where she also plays basketball.
HU coach Angela Nicholson said she was unaware Davis wanted to play college softball until a few months ago when the player contacted her.
“I was like, ‘Is this the same Mo’ne Davis?’ ” Nicholson said. “To be honest, I assumed she was going to play basketball. But she sent me an email, and I invited her to camp (in September).
“She came to camp, and she was phenomenal. That’s how it all started.”
Three months later, Nicholson was at her daughter’s basketball game when Davis sent a text: “Can you call me? It will only take a minute.”
Since Davis had just returned from an official visit to Bethune-Cookman and hadn’t been returning her messages, Nicholson had a bad feeling.
“I’m thinking, ‘Oh, man, she’s going to tell me no,’ ” Nicholson said. “So I went to the hallway to call her and said, ‘Hey, what’s up?’
“She said, ‘I’m sorry this has taken me a while, but I want to commit to Hampton University.’ And I said, ‘Wait, what?’
Well it’s not necessarily the UConn basketball scholarship she hoped for when she was interviewed back in 2014, but the good news keeps on coming for the most famous 13-year-old Little League baseball player of all time. Notice that I said 13-year-old, not 30.
Sorry, Danny! But anyways, everyone remembers Mo’ne Davis’ electrifying run through the 2014 Little League World Series. Although she was the 4th American girl to ever play in the event, she was the 1st African American girl to participate, and she was the first female to earn a win on the mound. She did so while throwing a complete game, 8 strikeout, 2-hit performance against Tennessee. Mo’ne continued to take the tournament by storm, being the driving force behind the 3.4 overnight television rating in the semifinal game, which still stands as the all-time highest Little League rating on ESPN. It’s too bad they lost that game, since the championship would’ve been even better. Instead, we had those cheaters from Chicago win it until they were stripped of their title.
Sad! Mo’ne should’ve been allowed to keep playing. Because every time she came to the plate, people cheered. She did it the right way, too. The inspiring way. And the admiration people gave her didn’t stop when the tournament ended. Davis became a celebrity, appearing on the covers of Sports Illustrated and Time Magazine.
The magazine covers weren’t the end of the attention tour either, as Davis got to do continue to cross things off a bucket list of dreams for the rest of the year. For starters, the Philadelphia native got to throw out the first pitch at Dodger Stadium.
She then signed autographs for some fans.
She got to star in a car commercial, directed by none other than Spike Lee.
She played in the NBA All-Star Weekend Celebrity game, where she guarded little Kevin Hart.
Hart, and a man that allegedly does NOT have herpes, also tried to guard her, too.
And regardless of how big she got, she always took time out of her events to take photos with the fans.
And then when the year ended, she got every award you could think of, such as Sports Kid of the Year, Best Breakthrough Athlete at the ESPYs, and BET’s Young Stars Award.
Life completely changed for Mo’Ne, as she went from being the girl that played with the boys to being the coolest kid in school. And now she got to choose her new school, when she announced yesterday her decision to attend Hampton. It isn’t the big splash she is used to or probably hoped for, but she made the right business decision.
Davis was reportedly considering Bethune-Cookman, Coppin State University the University of Massachusetts, the University of Pennsylvania and Southern University. Her parents told the Tribune she chose Hampton because of its communications department.
I respect the move here. No, she’s not going to pitch in the MLB, despite what the over-reactive media said when she was 13. But she’s famous enough that she needs to continue to capitalize on her opportunities. Majoring in communications? There’s a 1000% chance that she ends up calling the World Series or the NBA Finals one day. Hey, she’s already been on MSNBC.
