Sunday Morning Coffee — October 26, 2025 — Little League Big Shots
By Roy Berger, Summerlin, NV.
The World Series takes a strategic break today on a NFL Sunday resuming tomorrow in Los Angeles. The Dodgers and Blue Jays are tied at one game apiece heading West. At stake is over $500,000 for each winning player, a diamond studded ring, contract incentives, endorsements and notoriety around the world. Who knows, maybe even a few lucky ones will be tabbed to host a mob infused poker game. Don’t feel too bad for the losers either; each will pocket about $400,000 for making it to late October but falling short.
On the other hand, while all this is going on in LA and Toronto, 11-year-old Luke D’Ambrosio is in the sixth grade at Las Vegas’ Doral Red Rock Academy while his dad, Tony, spends his professional hours as a VP of Player Development at Caesars Palace. As the Dodgers and Jays play for baseball supremacy, the D’Ambrosios have already accomplished, and in fact exceeded, their baseball goals for 2025.
Oh sure Luke gets asked to sign autographs, is a celebrity among his classmates and also wears a ring, sans diamonds, fitting of his accomplishments. Luke and 11 teammates have become local Las Vegas baseball legends. In late August they won the United States championship in this year’s Little League World Series. None of the kids have any idea who Wayne Newton is, or who Liberace was, but they have been celebrated in Vegas like stars of the past, which they are presently.
Every spring when snow and winter jackets disappear, baseball gloves come out of the closet and ball fields come alive, over 180,000 teams around the world start their Little League seasons. In the U.S. some 6,500 communities support tens of thousands of teams of boys 11 and 12-years-old and all throw out the first pitch with one goal: being one of the 20 teams that ends their season in August with a trip to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Winning Powerball may be more realistic, but don’t tell the kids that.
Tony D’Ambrosio has been coaching baseball since son Luke first put a ball on a tee and swung and missed. He juggles his time between work, 14-year-old daughter Ella’s activities and Luke’s baseball. D’Ambrosio coached on manager TJ Fechser’s team in the Summerlin South Little League this season. Summerlin, where we live, is a master planned community within Las Vegas city limits of about 125,000 residents and two Little Leagues—Summerlin North and Summerlin South. At the end of every season the team managers vote their all-star team, 12 players who stood out during league play and an individual to manage the team. Then the fun really starts as these all-stars launch into local postseason competition that ultimately will take the best of the best to Williamsport.
Fechser, red hair ablaze protruding out from all sides of his baseball cap, was the choice of his colleagues to manage the Summerlin South all-star team. In turn, like in the big leagues when the All-Star Game team managers select their coaching staffs, Fechser too handpicked his coaches to join him in tournament play. D’Ambrosio and Americo Miranda got the nods. D’Ambrosio became the third base coach. “I was honored,” D’Ambrosio said. “You never know how far the team will go but the better job you do, the better the kids play, the longer the commitment. You better buy in; it can be a lot of time.”
D’Ambrosio is a baseball guy. His son Luke gets it honest. Tony, 51, played D2 ball at Northwood University in Midland, Michigan, in the mid-90s. He won all-conference and all-region accolades as an outfielder and then in his senior year became a pretty good left-handed pitcher as well. He went to a couple of big league tryout camps before settling into business and coaching.
Beginning with District play on June 28 the local Summerlin South kids went 5-0 and moved on to the state championship tournament joining the winners of the other three in-state districts. Summerlin made short work of that, winning the Nevada championship in three straight games to run their postseason record to 8-0.
Then things got really serious. A trip to San Bernardino, California, for Regional play against like all-star teams from Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah. Regional play was double elimination, but Summerlin didn’t need it. Despite being down 11-3 in the third inning of the six-inning game against the stars from Utah on August 8, the good guys came back and won 22-12 cementing one of the 10 United States berths in the Little League World Series. They were joined by 10 international teams. Summerlin finished their pre-Williamsport play at 11-0. Can’t do any better than that. Better go buy those Powerball tickets.
With really no time to savor the win, the boys were on an airplane the next day, August 9, joined in flight with the winners of the Hawaii and Washington regions. Meanwhile the coaches and parents scrambled to get to Williamsport and plead with their employers for more time away from the office. In fact, one local mom even resigned from her job to be with her family at the LL World Series.
Williamsport is in the north-central region of Pennsylvania on the Susquehanna River in the Allegheny Mountains. It’s about 180 miles from Pittsburgh and a little less from Philly. Little League baseball was founded there in 1939 and the Little League World Series hosted every year since 1947. Visit in late August and the excitement of the World Series is palpable with hotel bookings impossible. I actually played in Williamsport for parts of two summers, 1963-64, when I attended Little League baseball camp during my 11 and 12-year-old eligibility years. My parents sent me for the two week session driving 200 miles each way on I-80 from Long Island to help make me a better baseball player. It didn’t work.
The Summerlin kids were rightfully ecstatic to be in Williamsport. Housing, in old style military barracks was provided for the players and coaches but not for any of the families who had to dig deep for rooms. I asked D’Ambrosio who funds the cost of postseason play? “The parents do,” he said. “As we got deeper and deeper into the playoffs we started putting on fundraisers to help defray the costs. Our local community was wonderful helping all they could. It certainly made a difference, but we couldn’t cover all of it. Some of the families spent over $10,000 out of pocket. It easily, for the whole group, cost over $100,000 for what turned out to be almost two months of travel baseball.”
D’Ambrosio was fortunate and received plenty of moral support from Caesars Palace, his employer, during the better part of the eight weeks he was away from the Strip. Caesars knew the more national attention Las Vegas received in the Series was good for the entire city.
Was D’Ambrosio surprised the team made the elite field of finalists? “I don’t mean this to sound cocky, but we felt we were really good,” my fellow Life Time Fitness member said and added, “I’ve watched these kids grow up and play at a high level. We felt we had the right team to beat anyone in front of us. We knew our competition, knew their deficiencies and our strengths. That’s not to say all of that translates to the field but we felt good about our chances. Our team was a fun group, and they played the game the right way.”
And good they were. TV cameras from ESPN and ABC broadcast every game, millions watched, and local civic pride was busting. The worldwide audience saw the Summerlin kids win four of the five preliminary round Williamsport games with their first postseason loss coming at the hands of a team from Connecticut 5-1 breaking a 14 game winning streak. The double elimination format produced that same match-up one more time for the United States championship on August 23. This time the locals put up a convincing 8-2 win and the trophy, the first ever for a team from Nevada. A crowd of 35,000 was on hand, an attendance number that made Miami Marlins officials salivate.
Ultimately who cares more about winning, the parents or the kids? Do the kids feel any pressure? “That’s a good question,” D’Ambrosio chuckled. “I think the players care more about winning but don’t feel the nerves the parents do. The parents spend a lot of time screaming. If anything I think the coaches were more uptight than anyone. The longer we stayed alive and all the social media and television coverage, the kids realized they were at the pinnacle of every kid’s baseball dream. They will remember and talk about this forever.”
Coaching his son in such a high profile setting wasn’t easy for D’Ambrosio or was it?
“You know sometimes my expectations of Luke are really high but that’s just being a parent and we both understand the relationship,” Tony said. “I might get on him when I think he is getting a little bit lazy but that is rare. He is a really great kid and a great teammate and that makes me really proud.” It also didn’t hurt that Luke hit over .400 in Williamsport, pitched in six of the seven World Series games and played a rock steady shortstop, which dad said is probably his natural position.
After the United States championship was secure, there was one more item of business and that was playing the International division winner for all the marbles. That happened on ABC, Sunday August 24 against a team from Taipei, Taiwan, who advanced with an 1-0 win over Aruba. In reality Summerlin or any of the US teams didn’t have much of a chance.
“Honestly,” Tony said, “They are really good. A well-oiled machine. Taipei grooms their all-stars for this. They go into baseball academies when they are about eight years old to get ready for the Little League World Series three or four years later. It’s a lot like training for the Olympics. We hung in, had a couple of chances but they were much better.” Taipei won 7-0.
“The kids weren’t upset at all,” D’Ambrosio said. “It passed real quick. We set out to be the best in our country and that’s what we did. That can never be taken away from these dozen kids and their families.”
When the team got back to Las Vegas, the city celebrated. The local Las Vegas Review-Journal covered the postseason journey in depth and now front page headlines awaited. Then a parade through a fashionable outdoors local mall in Summerlin followed by the highest of sports honors in town—lighting the torch at Allegiant Stadium for a Raiders game and sounding the siren for the start of a Golden Knights hockey game. And the accolades continue this afternoon with the team being honored at the new Hall of Excellence at the Fontainebleau Hotel on the Strip. The players will be awarded custom Hall of Excellence medals by Tom Brady, who knows a thing or two about excellence and winning.
“The outpouring of love is unbelievable,” D’Ambrosio said. “The parade was awesome, there was a huge turnout, and the kids had a great time. They are really proud of what they accomplished.”
There’s an entire Southern Nevada community that feels the same way about them, too.
I’m proud that Medjet is sponsoring Sunday Morning Coffee. I spent 20 wonderful years with Medjet in Birmingham, Alabama, and can tell you unequivocally they are the standard-bearer for medical assistance membership programs. A talented staff, who cares about its members, is at the forefront of the company’s success. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, domestic or international, a Medjet membership should be an important part of your travel portfolio before you leave home. Check out the Medjet website at medjet.com or just tap on the Medjet logo and you’ll be able to get a look at Medjet’s services, rules and regulations, pricing, and an overview of the organization. And remember, any opinions expressed in Sunday Morning Coffee content or comments belong to the author and not the sponsor. Safe travels with your Medjet membership! — Roy Berger
Fun article that I think any parent can relate to... I never knew you went to Little League camp, no wonder were doing so well at stick ball
Great story. Well written as always.