Northbrook 12U Baseball Loses Final But Looks Forward to Cooperstown

The Northbrook Green 12-year-old baseball team came up short in the Lake Short Feeder Baseball League final, but the highlight of their year could still be ahead.

The team heads to Cooperstown, N.Y., for a tournament and a chance to see the National Baseball Hall of Fame next weekend. Coach Mike Nass said they came up with almost $10,000 from fundraising efforts to help make the trip possible.

The boys will stay on the Hall of Fame’s property with players and coaches from teams all around the country.

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Nass said having the Cooperstown trip around the corner made the 4-1 loss to Lake Forest in the final Sunday at Community Park West in Glenview easier to take for the kids.

“This was our third year in a row of making it to a final game and we had won it the previous two years,” Nass said.

Green finished 10-6 in the regular season and earned the third seed in the 12A bracket. They upset No. 2 seed Wilmette in the semifinals to get to Sunday’s final.

Nass called his team very superstitious. One player always leads the team through stretches before the game and as long as the team wins he leads stretches for the next game. They also stick with the same uniform combination if it’s working.

“They pay attention to it and when the routine doesn’t got he same they know about it,” Nass said. “They like to keep their traditions going.”