Matthew Whittemore, 13, had the chance to live out every young New England baseball player’s dream.
Whittemore placed second in his age group in the Major League Baseball Pitch Hit & Run competition at Fenway Park in Boston on Aug. 30.
Antrim Recreation hosted a preliminary skills contest at Shea field on July 29, and, as local champion, Whittemore was picked to move on to compete in Boston.
“We had to get up at like 3:30 in the morning and we left at like four,” he said.
“We got to walk out by the Green Monster and touch it,” said Whittemore. “It was super cool, and you could see like all the dents from the years past.”
The contestants played catch to warm up their throwing arms in center field, then pitched by the third base dugout, ran by the green monster and took at-bats at home plate.
Whittemore said he was only “a little bit nervous” and that overall “it went wicked good. I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do.”
Whittemore’s mother, Michelle Whittemore, said she had taken him to a game at Fenway earlier in August, braving the logjammed game-day traffic. “I was joking with Matthew. I said, ‘the next time I come down here it’ll be to watch you play.’” And, it was.
Whittemore said he tried soccer when he was younger but “didn’t really like it that much,” and now focuses on baseball, which he plays year-round.
“This year I did school ball, then a Babe Ruth team, then a little bit of a summer team,” he said. He also plays for the Grizzlies Baseball Club, a travel team of Prospects Athletics, which allows him to practice through the winter in indoor facilities.
He plays first base and third base but considers himself primarily a pitcher. He has a fastball, a curveball and a changeup in his pitch arsenal.
“I want to get to the MLB,” said Whittemore. “I hope I do. It’s wicked hard, but I’m gonna keep striving for that goal.”
Whittemore said having a lot of good coaches over the years has helped him get to the point where he can think about striving for such a goal.
“The fact that there are so many people in this community that are willing to volunteer their time to support these kids in sports is huge,” his mother added.
When he’s not spending time on the baseball diamond, or in school, Whittemore said he likes to spend his days outdoors. On summer days, he and a buddy like to pack fishing gear onto their bicycles and ride around to Antrim’s fishing spots.
“He’s an avid hunter and fisherman,” his mother said. “He brought in a 218-pound buck and last year he harvested a bear and a deer.
“If you haven’t tried bear meat before,” she added, “you should. It’s delicious.”