Every Little Leaguer dreams of making it to the big leagues. A total of 45 players have reached both the Little League World Series and MLB, including these 11 current pros who first hit it big on the fields of Williamsport, Pennsylvania.Christian BethancourtSan Diego Padres catcher Christian Bethancourt began playing baseball at age 5. As a third baseman, Bethancourt had a tendency to stray from his position. Every time a batter hit a ball, even if it was toward right field, he would run after it. So his parents convinced him to move behind the plate but telling him that abandoning his post could lead to his team giving up a run.The younger Bethancourt became a catcher and star pitcher for the Panama City, Panama, squad that reached the 2004 Little League World Series -- but that experience exploring other positions would eventually come in handy. Although Bethancourts Panama team was eliminated in the quarterfinals, he didnt have to wait long to reach an even bigger stage. He was signed as a non-drafted international free agent by the Atlanta Braves in 2008 and began his minor league career at the age of 16. After two seasons in Atlanta, he was traded to San Diego in December. This year, in addition to serving as the Padres backup backstop, Bethancourt has pitched and logged plenty of time in the outfield.?Todd FrazierBefore he became a hometown Home Run Derby champ -- and the first Little League World Series alum to win the Derby -- Chicago White Sox?led his Toms River, New Jersey, team to the 1998 LLWS championship. As the leadoff hitter, the 13-year-old hit a grand slam in the third inning to put his team up 6-4 in Game 2 of the U.S. Central vs. U.S. East matchup. He also hit a homer and went 4-for-4 in the 12-9 victory over Kashima, Japan, in the championship game and was the winning pitcher.Adam LoewenAs a 12-year-old, Loewen tossed a three-hit shutout in the 1996 Canadian Little League championships to propel the Kennedy team from Surrey, British Columbia, past Toronto and on to the LLWS. The left-hander (above, in Williamsport) was the teams best pitcher as well as its top hitter. Kennedy lost two of three games it played in Williamsport, but the experience led Loewen to choose baseball over hockey. I always loved hockey more, he told The Morning Call. But I remember that summer [playing in the LLWS] being the most fun I ever had.Loewen -- who became the fourth Canadian selected in the first round of the draft when the Baltimore Orioles took him fourth overall in 2001 -- pitched for the Orioles from 2006-08 before becoming a position player and seeing time at all three outfield positions as well as first base for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2011. Loewen switched back to pitching for stints with the?Philadelphia Phillies. He earned his first win with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who called him up from Triple-A on July 30, on Aug. 6.Lance LynnOnly a dozen people in baseball history have played in both the Little League World Series and the actual World Series, and only five of those 12 have played multiple times in baseballs Fall Classic. Cardinals starter Lance Lynn is one of those five.Lynn helped lead Brownsburg, Indiana, Little League to the Little League World Series in 1999. In Williamsport, the 12-year-old, who was then 5-foot-9 and 169 pounds, threw eight innings, posting a record of 0-1 with an ERA of 4.09 -- and also saw time at first base. In seven LLWS at-bats, he had three hits and scored a run for a .429 batting average.Pitching against the U.S. South team from Alabama -- a squad that included Colby Rasmus, who would be his Cardinals teammate briefly in 2011 -- Lynn had a shutout through four innings, but allowed a run in the fifth and then gave up a game-ending grand slam in the sixth. Brownsburg lost 5-4 and finished the World Series tournament 0-3, but 12 years later Lynn made his way back to the grand stage. As an MLB rookie, Lynn won the 2011 World Series as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. He was a key contributor out of the bullpen for the NL champions, including a perfect eighth inning in the Game 7 victory over the Texas Rangers.Jurickson ProfarProfar played in the 2004 Little League World Series as an 11-year-old and helped Pabao Little League win the first championship for the island of Curacao. He was a force both on the mound and at the plate for Pabao, going 2-0 with a save over 12 1/3 innings and striking out 19 while also batting .313 (5-for-16) with a double and five RBIs. Profar returned to the LLWS in 2005, when his team reached the international title game. That year, he hit .389 (7-for-18) with seven hits, five runs scored, three walks and two RBIs. He also pitched 13 innings in three games, giving up seven hits and four runs, striking out 26 and walking eight, earning a 1-0 record and a 1.85 ERA.In his first game for the Rangers on Sept. 2, 2012, Profar homered in his initial major league at-bat. After missing two season because of a shoulder injury, Profar was called up to replace Rougned Odor in May and made the most of it, earning a regular roster spot as a utility player.Yusmeiro PetitThe Washington Nationals reliever is a winner. As a 10-year-old -- and backup second baseman -- Petit (No. 3, right-center, above) helped his team from Coquivacoa Little League in Maracaibo, Venezuela, win the 1994 Little League World Series title. It was the first time a Venezuelan team had won the championship and the first title for a Latin American team since Mexico won in 1958. When Petit and the San Francisco Giants?won a championship in 2014, he became the only player to win both the Little League World Series and the MLB World Series.Colby RasmusHouston Astros outfielder Colby Rasmus led the Phenix City, Alabama, National Little League to the 1999 Little League World Series. Phenix City battled back through the losers bracket and beat Toms River East American Little League (3-2) to win the U.S. title but lost the championship game 5-0 to Hirakata Little League from Osaka, Japan. Rasmus went 5-for-10 with a home run, three runs scored and three RBIs -- and also recorded seven strikeouts over the course of the tournament.Rasmus was also a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic baseball team and was selected 28th overall in the 2005 amateur draft by the Cardinals. He finished eighth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2009 and has since played for the Blue Jays and Astros, but was relegated to the 15-day DL on Aug. 7.Cory RasmusLos Angeles Angels pitcher Cory Rasmus took a back seat to his older brother during the 1999 LLWS. Nonetheless, he followed his sibling to the big leagues in 2013, where the two faced off in a rare fraternal matchup. Just 10 days into his rookie season, Cory (then with the Atlanta Braves) faced Colby, then with Toronto. It marked the first time one brother had pitched to another in MLB since June 13, 2010. Big bro had the upper hand once again, as Colby lined a double to left field.Michael SaundersSaunders grew up playing baseball in British Columbia and going to Seattle Mariners games at the Kingdome. Like many Canadian kids, he played hockey too, but a run to the Little League World Series in 1999 as a 12-year-old with the Gordon Head Little League convinced Saunders that baseball was the sport for him. I think playing in an international competition [at that age] and then getting a chance to play with the national team and travel the world really made me fall in love with the game, said Saunders, who was drafted by his favorite team in the 11th round of the 2004 draft and played for Seattle from 2009-14.The Mariners traded him to Toronto in December 2014, but missed the 2015 season after stepping on a sprinkler head during spring training. Saunders returned strong this year, becoming the first Canadian player to hit three homers in a game for a Canadian team and an first All-Star for the first time.Jonathan SchoopOrioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop made back-to-back trips to the LLWS, playing for the Pabao Little League from Curacao that represented the Caribbean Region in 2003 and 2004. He and his team lost in the semis in 2003 and won the whole thing the next year. Schoop, then 11 and all of 5-foot-3, went 10-for-19 with a .526 batting average, with three doubles, seven runs scored and four RBIs.Schoop, who batted third, and played shortstop and pitcher, shared his favorite memory of the LLWS with ESPN.coms Eddie Matz:?In the semifinals in 2004, we were losing to Chinese Taipei 8-4 in the last inning, and came back. I got a base hit to tie the game, said Schoop. Then I came on in extra innings to pitch. I struck out all three batters, and then the next inning I got another base hit to win the game. That was the best.Devon TravisLong before he homered in his major league debut (with the Blue Jays on April 6), Devon Travis went deep in the Little League World Series, propelling his Boynton Beach, Florida, team past Saugus, Massachussets, and on to the 2003 world championship game against Japan. And even after Travis and his team lost 10-1 in the LLWS finale against Tokyos Musashi-Fuchu All-Stars, they celebrated on the field with their opponents. We were just little boys playing the game we loved, Travis, Boyntons second baseman and catcher, told the Palm Beach Post in 2013.Travis led off his major league career with similar enthusiasm -- and success. He was named the AL rookie of the month for April after batting .325/.393/.625 with 6 home runs, 17 runs scored, and 19 RBIs for the month before shoulder injuries relegated him to the DL. 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Price, heading to the 2014 Olympics for Canada, was named the First Star after posting wins in three starts with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .971 save percentage. When JP Duminy first travelled to Australia in 2008 he was, by his own admission, just a kid. There were few expectations on him - he only had an outside chance of playing in the three-Test series - until he exceeded all of them. Thats when he began to understand how severely responsibility could rest on his shoulders. With that, came intense pressure to perform.The difference [from then] is that I was a young kid, playing my debut Test against guys like Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden. It was quite intimidating, Duminy said on the eve of South Africas first tour game under lights in Australia. Now I am more established than I was then. I am coming into a Test series with a little bit more confidence and a little more stability in my role in the team and how I play Test cricket.To say Duminy has under-performed in the eight years since his debut is neither cruel nor critical. The numbers back it up.To date, he has played only 36 Tests, added only three more centuries, and has an average of 32.44. He spent a period out of the side with injury - sustained when he returned to Australia in 2012 - but was also dropped twice. The current sentiment in South Africa is that he is a placeholder until someone more capable comes along.Australia could be the place for Duminy to prove he can fulfill the potential he once showed. In the absence of AB de Villiers, South Africa need senior batsmen to step up. In the context of Duminys own career, he needs to step up. He has gone 11 matches without a century since the Galle Test in July 2014, when he got an unbeaten 100 at No. 8.Though his opportunities are sometimes limited by a heavyweight top-order, he also went 11 innings in 2015 without passing 35 and was dumped for the Newlands Test against England last summer.Duminys response was to score a double-hundred in a franchise match and force a return, but it was only when he struck an unbeaten 88 against New Zealand in South Africas last Test that he was reconsidered. Faf du Plessis, South Africas stand-in captain because AB de Villiers is injureed, went as far as to say that Duminys best was yet to come.dddddddddddd Some remain skeptical because Duminy has often threatened without following through, and with an in-form Rilee Rossouw in the squad, an immediate replacement is available if Duminy bombs.Thats why, for Duminy, the lead-up to this series is more important than most and he said he could not have asked for better. Its the best preparation weve had on any tour, to be honest. I cant recall this amount of time before a Test match on any tour, he said. Weve got 10 to 14 days of training leading up to the first Test. South Africa arrived in Adelaide on Tuesday, 16 days before they take on Australia in Perth. They have two practice matches before the first Test - including a day-night game - and one between the second and third Tests. Their preparation is focused on the pink ball and playing under lights because this trip will be their first encounter with day-night Test cricket. Duminy said they will need some time to adapt to that difference in colour and in light, which will take a few training sessions.The concerns for South African fans may be that with all the emphasis on Test cricket under lights, the team could forget that the first two matches will be played in normal conditions and if they dont compete in those, the outcome of the day-night game could be redundant. Duminy allayed such fears, stressing South Africa were using the ample time they had to do as much as they can to win a third successive series in Australia.We are concentrating on staying in our bubble, he said. We are coming into this series with a bit of confidence on the back of our one-day series but we understand that its a clean slate. This is Test cricket. We are not looking at what the expectations are. We are looking to concentrate on our preparations. There might be a lot of banter being thrown around in the media but thats not something we want to focus on. Wholesale Hoodies NFL Shirts Outlet Jerseys NFL Wholesale Cheap NFL Jerseys Free Shipping Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '