Throughout its long 115-year history, Major League Baseball’s World Series has produced many memorable moments that have been etched in the annals of the game. Included was that moment in 1988, the last time the Los Angeles Dodgers won a World Series when a limping Kirk Gibson hit a game-winning pinch-hit home run in Game 1.

Legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully described the blast by stating, “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.”

While its ranking in baseball lore is not comparable thirty years later, this year’s recipient of the Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player Award, the Boston Red Sox’s first baseman Steve Pearce, has his own memorable ties to Williamsport — the place where his professional baseball career had its beginning.

Taken out of South Carolina University by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 8th round of the 2005 MLB Draft, Pearce found himself in a Williamsport Crosscutters uniform playing at Bowman Field that summer. Pearce’s performance helped two local teams that year, the Crosscutters and the Lycoming County United Way via their Home Run Team charity promotion.

From 1994-2017 the United Way and the Crosscutters worked together to help raise funds to help local human service programs supported by United Way. In 2005 Pearce hit .301 and was the Lycoming County United Way Player of the Year by belting seven home runs enabling United Way to raise $8,320 in Home Run Team contributions. During the 23 years, the Home Run Team existed, nearly $160,000 was raised with Pearce’s efforts leading to the third most money raised by the Home Run Team in a single season.

The World Series MVP honor capped Pearce’s 12-year Major League career, which has included stops with eight Major League teams. He joined the Red Sox, the team he had rooted for as a youngster, in June following a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays.

While Pearce’s baseball season was successfully completed with a World Series championship the memories he has made since playing his first game in Williamsport will last a lifetime.

But the team he initially helped in 2005, the Lycoming County United Way, is extending an invitation to join their current 2018 campaign team by contributing to their efforts to support vitally important human service programs right here at home. If you have not yet made a contribution, you can do so by calling the United Way office 570-323-9448 or viewing their website lcuw.org.