Butler-area’s Liam Kiddle selected to Cal Ripken Futures Games: ‘Never done anything like this’
The baseball season never ends for Liam Kiddle.
The Butler-area native is just in middle school, but he plays nearly year-round. And in December he’s going to compete in the Cal Ripken All-Ripken Futures Games.
“Extremely (proud),” his father, Clint, said. “We both make Facebook posts all the time, it comes off as sappy.”
Liam Kiddle was nominated for the event, which will be held Dec. 19-22 in Panama City, Fla., when a Cal Ripken scout saw him. He was playing in a tournament in Trafford, then later accepted the nomination at another tournament in New Jersey, his dad said.
“I've never done anything like this,” Liam said. “Just knowing that somebody saw and was like, 'This kid is pretty good.'”
Liam, 13, is a 6-foot-1, 270-pound first baseman. His favorite player is New York Yankees star Aaron Judge, and Liam wears Judge’s No. 99. He competes for multiple youth teams, including Fennell Bros. Express, and has played in tournaments in Cooperstown, Ohio and New Jersey.
He’s won a handful of home run derbies, as well, and gets to compete in another during the Futures Games, which he’s excited about.
Clint is impressed by his son’s power — he remembers a tournament in Ohio when Liam hit a home run “maybe 320 feet” that nearly hit another player in the next field — and how he worked out of a hitting slump last year.
“He understands how huge it is what he's accomplishing, what he has accomplished, but he's very, very overly humble,” Clint said.
Liam grew up playing baseball, starting around 5 years old, his father said. Clint is the president of the Center Township Athletic Association. Liam, who sometimes plays third base and pitches in relief, is all baseball. His younger brother, Collin, is also a baseball player but also plays basketball.
Liam is in the Butler Area School District and hopes to one day play for the Golden Tornado.
The only other activities that take him away at times from baseball are his drums and seeing metal concerts with his family, his dad said.
The All-Ripken Futures Games are a showcase event featuring some of the top youth baseball players in the country from ages 8-and-under to 14U, according to its website. Teams will play in three days of games, starting with pool play and proceeding to bracket elimination and a championship game. The home run derby is Dec. 21.
