Some fun Little Big League lore while I’m in the Pacific Northwest!
First Pitch: 3:10 PM CT
TV: Twins.TV
Radio: TIBN
Know Thine Enemy: Lookout Landing
Hello from the Pacific Northwest, Twinkie Town! If all has gone well, I will have crossed T-Mobile Park off my MLB stadium bucket list and am now headed to Hope, B.C. where First Blood was filmed…
While I venture north of the border, it seems a good time for a little check-in on every Minnesotan’s favorite baseball flick:
In Little Big League, Billy Heywood’s mother Jenny is played by Ashley Crow…
Besides featuring prominently in the cinema sensation of 1994, Crow appeared in The Good Son & Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report. She also had guest roles on popular TV series Dark Angel, Everyone Loves Raymond, Party of Five, Touched by an Angel, & Nip/Tuck.
In 2002—long after her days of reprimanding Billy for Night Nurses From Jersey—Ashley Crow had a son with husband Matthew John Armstrong.
In 2020, Pete Crow-Armstrong would be drafted by the New York Mets. Then, in 2021, traded to the Chicago Cubs for Javier Baez & Trevor Williams.
Photo by Stephen Green/MLB Photos via Getty Images
PCA didn’t reach rookie eligibility until the 2024 season—where he became a solid contributor for the Cubbies. He absolutely wore out Twins pitching when I was at Wrigley last summer.
This year? Pete has taken his game to a whole new level, putting up a campaign easily worthy of All-Star selection, if not a starting gig. His line as of last Thursday: 237 PA, 13 2B, 3 3B, 15 HR, 50 RBI, 16 SB, .275 BA, 142 OPS+, 3.2 bWAR.
Photo by Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images
So, the next time you dig out your Little Big League VHS, you can marvel that one of MLB’s rising stars came from the mom who once grounded the manager of the Minnesota Twins.
Enjoy today’s late-afternoon (well, for you folks back in the Central timezone—hahaha) finale with the Seattle Mariners as I explore the land of Justin Morneau, Corey Koskie, & Edouard Julien. Someone else will be putting in today’s lineup and taking you home with the recap!