Little League travel team, featuring Mo'Ne Davis, pays visit to Nationals

The Little League Anderson Monarchs, featuring 13-year-old Little League World Series pitcher Mo'Ne Davis, paid a visit to Nationals Park on Thursday for the Nationals game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Monarchs are a travel team, based out of Philadelphia, on a barnstorming tour across America as a tribute to Jackie Robinson, the Negro Leagues and the Civil Rights Movement.

Anderson manager Steve Bandura said that his team was so excited to visit the Nationals and the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy.

"This is great," Bandura said. "We're hoping to open our Academy this winter, and we're really looking forward to seeing the D.C. Academy and kind of learning from what they're doing. Getting to meet some new kids from the area. For the kids, that's the highlight. (Nationals shortstop) Ian Desmond has been really great. They were hoping to meet him again, and he's standing right over there with them."

The Monarchs usually play 60 or 70 games a year. They will play local teams in every city they play on the road during their 21-day 19-city tour.

Bandura said they travel on an authentic 1947 Flexible Clipper bus with all original interior and no air conditioning.

"It's really a time capsule," Bandura said. "It's the same year Jackie Robinson broke into the majors. I have pictures of three different Negro League teams with the exact model bus."

Tomorrow, the Monarchs will tour the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy at 10 a.m. They will play against the D.C. Knights, a local little league team made up of youth from the neighborhoods surrounding the YBA, at noon.

Desmond and Denard Span came over from the clubhouse before the game and signed autographs for all the Monarchs players, taking pictures with and talking to the players.

"This is what they really look forward to," Bandura said. "These are the guys they see on TV. These kids are huge baseball fans. They know the league, they know the players and they know the stats. It's amazing for them and something they will never forget."

Thirteen-year-old outfielder Zion Spearman, who has hit five homers, guided the Monarchs to a 15-6 record before they started this month's tour. He said it was a thrill to meet Span and Desmond.

"It's a big deal. I never thought this would happen," he said. "I get to meet some of the top MLB players, and probably they can give me some advice on the future and how I can make it."

Spearman says Davis is a very good pitcher, and he enjoys playing alongside her with the Monarchs.

"She's a good player," Spearman said. "She hustles. She gives it all that she's got no matter what happens, if we win or lose. And she's a tremendous person, too."

What makes baseball so much fun to play?

"Home runs," Spearman said.