One of the greatest players in Little League history announced his retirement from professional sports today.
But Chris Drury, the one-time ace of the 1989 Trumbull, CT Little League team that beat Chinese Taipei to win the 1989 Little League World Series, never grew up to be the Major League Baseball player that some thought he might be when he was 12 years old.
No, instead Drury went on to a solid if unspectacular 12 year NHL career with four NHL teams, winning the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001.
History will remember Drury more for his hockey exploits than for anything he did on the baseball field. But there’s a generation of baseball fans who will always remember him for that summer of 1989 as we crowded around the television sets in our parents’ living rooms, watching Drury and his mates live out our childhood dreams.
The city of Trumbull has a rather detailed account of that team’s run on their website. The United States entered that tournament having lost the last five finals in a row.
Drury wasn’t about to let that number grow to six.
For the tournament, he played out of his mind, going 4-for-7 with 3 RBI. Of course he saved the best for his biggest moment, the championship game. At bat, he had two hits and drove in the go ahead runs late in the game. On the mound, he was able to use a variety of offspeed pitches to keep the Chinese Taipei hitters off balance, throwing a complete game to top off an unbelievable week in Williamsport.
It was a performance that enthralled the nation and captivated a number of aspiring Little Leaguers who hoped to grow up to have a week like that. None of us ever would though, after all some people are meant to live the dream while the rest of us are simply destined to write about them. But for a few hours on a summer afternoon, all of us, regardless of where you lived, were die-hard fans of Trumbull’s Little League squad.
According to this story in Sports Illustrated chronicling the fifth anniversary of the team, while Drury had “the talent to play Division I baseball, he says the decision to stick with hockey was made for him after he broke his wrist in high school” prior to his junior year.
It was a wise decision. Drury went on to a stellar career, scoring 255 goals in 892 NHL games for four teams, making millions of dollars and endearing himself to thousands of hockey fans in the process. But to some of us, he’ll always be the image you see at the top of this post, the author of one of the most memorable performances in Little League World Series history. Godspeed, sir.
