Q1. What is your favorite memory of being part of the 1992 team that you remember most?
Matt Wolski: Being part of a group of guys that will live forever and having my dad there the entire way.
Mike Braender: We played in the first night game ever in Williamsport.
Brandon Kivler: Playing great baseball with guys who we played with from the age of 8. How the community all came together to cheer for the team. All of the post game fun with teammates and families at their houses or lodging at states, regionals and World Series.
Matt Slaiciunas: The unbreakable bond and brotherhood that we all had. My fondest memory was when we first arrived at Williamsport and got off the bus. We all ran and slid down the hill. Also, playing the first game ever under the lights in Williamsport. I scored the first run ever under the lights.
Mark Fisher: There were many great moments; too many for me to remember. The entire experience is my favorite memory. The ups and downs (mostly ups), the hard work that made achieving the dream a possibility, and the reality that you need a little luck on your side, even if you're the best. We finished many close games on top and had an excessive number of thrilling come from behind wins. But the most thrilling game was the last one we played together; our 1-0 loss to Long Beach in the US Final, which was decided by a late game homerun that tucked just inside the right field foul pole. None of us will ever forget the name "Ryan Beaver." Nottingham was just as good as Long Beach, but luck was on their side that day, as it was when Little League discovered that the Philippines cheated, making Long Beach World Series champs.
Q2. Do you have any interesting stories that you would like to share from that summer?
Matt Wolski: I remember taking batting practice before our first game in Williamsport, which was the first night game ever. We had not been home in about 3 weeks, so we had no idea that people in Hamilton even knew what we were doing outside of our families. Then during batting practice, three buses of fans showed up from Hamilton with a caravan of cars following. Then, hearing later in life how Jim Maher took his two-year-old son and my future brother-in-law jumped in a car with three buddies just to come see us play is something you never imagine happening when you are 12.
Mike Braender: Our entire team played lacrosse in the hallway of our dorms during the state tournament. Goalies and all at the ends of the hall dressed up in pillows for pads.
Brandon Kivler: Leading up to districts, we had 2 a day practices. The lodging at eastern regionals consisted of cots in an elementary school and we had to be bussed somewhere else to shower.
Matt Slaiciunas: Sleeping on cots in a classroom of a school, next to the field for Regionals in Bristol, Connecticut.
Mark Fisher: I recited the Little League Pledge for the LLWS Championship Game. It's amusing to look back and realize that this was the most nerve-wracking moment of the journey for me. I had just come out of a dugout where I met Tom Selleck and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who was too tall to sit in the dugout without bending his neck), but that was just one celebrity talking to another (In Williamsport as well as back home in Hamilton, the players were the biggest stars). We were on the brink of defeat and down to our last out with our season on the line on several occasions, but we had been there before. Speaking into a camera that you know is being broadcast internationally was a new one for me, which occurred to me right when the "live" light on the camera went on. If curious enough to find the video online, you can see for yourselves.