A Mariner’s Little League memory that will never fade

Twelve years ago, Mariners catcher Jeff Clement was in the same glorious place in his baseball life that the Mill Creek Little League team experienced this month.

Clement played for the team from Marshalltown, Iowa, that reached the 1996 Little League World Series, and the memory of that week in Williamsport, Pa., remains vivid.

“It was a blast,” he said. “My dad was one of the coaches and my best friend’s dad was one of the coaches. We’d stay up too late messing around and they’d have to keep getting up and yell at us to go to bed. I’m sure it wasn’t as much fun for them as it was for us.”

Marshalltown went 1-2 and didn’t advance to the elimination round, but did beat the team that advanced to the World Series championship game. Clement pitched two of the games, including the opener when he remembers being terribly nervous.

“I remember warming up under the stadium and all these people were line up watching me,” he said. “I wasn’t used to that and I think I threw a whole game’s worth of pitches in the bullpen. I didn’t quite have it when I went out there in the game and they hit me around pretty good.

“Still, it was a blast. It was cool to be able to do it with kids from my hometown because we were all best friends.”