Jaxson Dart Needs More Preseason Snaps for the Giants

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
Let me bring in, from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the manager of the Bayonne Little League team. This is Justin Smith joining us today.
Justin, it's Craig Carton and the gang here at WFAA. How are you doing today, pal?

**Justin Smith** (0:13)
Living the dream.

**Craig Carton** (0:14)
I bet you are. Well, congratulations, obviously, on getting this far.
You went up against a buzzsaw this weekend. That kid was awesome. The kid that pitched against you and then hit the late home run, that kid was legitimately very, very good.

**Justin Smith** (0:29)
Yeah, it was not that we could do a lot that way.

**Craig Carton** (0:31)
Yeah. I mean, mixing pitches, a ball dropping out of the strike zone. I was shocked you got anybody on base. But let me go way back in time with you, Justin, because I didn't realize that this special group of kids had won some championships at 9U and 10U, 11U, etc.
How long has this core group of kids been together playing on the same team?

**Justin Smith** (0:54)
There's five of the kids on the team now, starting when they were eights.

**Craig Carton** (0:57)
Starting when they were eight, and that was regular Little League, and then obviously they advanced from there, right?

**Justin Smith** (1:02)
Yeah, that was the first year New Jersey had a state tournament. So we had the North Jersey State Championship with these kids.

**Craig Carton** (1:08)
OK.

**Justin Smith** (1:09)
And then with 10s, we got the states and lost. 11s, we got the states and lost. And then 12s, we finally got over the hump.

**Craig Carton** (1:15)
And how do you think you got over the hump? And for just full transparency, I started and coached the only travel baseball league in downtown Manhattan.
And I thought I had, like, the greatest team ever assembled. And we went to Staten Island, got our asses handed to us, and went to some other...

**Justin Smith** (1:31)
They had baseball in Manhattan?

**Craig Carton** (1:33)
No, I started a thing called the Tribeca Travel All-Stars.
And it's very hard to find a lot of kids in Manhattan that want to play, as opposed to the other four boroughs. When did you know these kids were going to be good enough to make this kind of run?

**Justin Smith** (1:48)
Look, I don't think you ever expect to make the run to Lakersport. You just hope.

**Craig Carton** (1:52)
Right.

**Justin Smith** (1:53)
Once we started playing, once we got in one states pretty, I wouldn't say easily, but we were pretty dominant in states. Right. I thought we had a good chance. And then we got to, we went up to Bristol and we were very competitive. And then I thought we lost it against Connecticut. We were down 4-0, but the kids battled back.

**Craig Carton** (2:12)
When people talk about this area for Little League, who's the big dog prior to you guys were coming this good and this magical run?
Who's been the team that you guys kind of emulated yourselves after? Or what kind of program?

**Justin Smith** (2:26)
I mean, Nottingham has always been like the really good league in New Jersey. They're kind of like the same size as us. They're the ones who kicked the crap out of us when we were 10s.
So it's really just about these kids buying in. Team first, 9-0. Not so much their staff. Everybody's doing their job, and everybody did their individual job, and we just put together a hell of a run.

**Craig Carton** (2:48)
And I'm going to take the leap of faith that you have a child on this team?

**Justin Smith** (2:51)
I do not.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:52)
You do not? I'm an idiot.

**Craig Carton** (2:56)
I was just saying, short, stop leading off, right? So this is...

**Justin Smith** (3:00)
He's on the 11U team.

**Craig Carton** (3:02)
So this is a labor of love for you. You love coaching kids and volunteering your time in Little League, huh?

**Justin Smith** (3:07)
Yeah. Well, we'll reassess that question another week.

**Craig Carton** (3:11)
Got it. Got it. And has there been any concern about the kids becoming local celebrities that it's got on their heads or has it been as awesome and it's looked from a far from our standpoint?

**Justin Smith** (3:24)
Listen, it's been crazy. They can't walk down to the stadium without being mobbed by people for autographs.

**Craig Carton** (3:29)
That's awesome.

**Justin Smith** (3:30)
And I think a lot of girls are giving their full numbers to a lot of these kids, so we got to kind of keep them in check a little bit.