A Summer to Remember: Nate Saleski Looks Back at the 2023 Little League World Series
It takes a rare 13-year-old to grasp nostalgia, the wistful art of looking back.
Nate Saleski somehow fits the category, using this summer to recall an epic 2023 journey. Unfurling on the Avalon beaches was the flashback of playing baseball before 20,000 fans, marching in parades, meeting Bryce Harper, and gaining national attention on ESPN.
Nate’s tale centered around the Little League World Series, the worldwide baseball summit for 10-to-12-year-olds. Its captivating pursuit took him away from here for all but one day last summer. The catcher’s team from Media, Pa., won 18 straight high-pressure games, many in eliminators, to reach the championship rounds in Williamsport, Pa.
For one year, it was goodbye Avalon, where he spends most summers, hello Williamsport.
The nostalgia gained more focus as the 2024 Series surged down the homestretch in late August and he was here.
Yes, this was the summer that brought him back to the boogie boards. Back to the Spikeball, the waves, the sand, and the endless beach games he’s played here his whole life. Back to the arcades, to Avalon Freeze, and to being a kid along with his buddies, some of whom appeared with him in the Little League World Series.
Now it’s story time, recounting a tale that some in the Cooler by a Mile crowd consider the coolest.
For this youngster from Newtown Square, Pa., the Little League World Series was indeed special. Like many Avalon residents, including his grandparents (former Flyer Don Saleski and his wife Mary Ann), Nate was interested in these games.
Unlike most of America, he was also actually in the games.
Imagine being 13, watching the Little League World Series and saying, “Back when I played in it…”
Nate’s Avalon hiatus
“It’s a lot of fun to watch it now, having seen that view,” he says, grown-up sounding at an early age. “Now if I see someone getting tired or one of the kids getting stressed, I know what that is, I saw it.”
He also lived it. Nate’s team answered countless must-win demands in qualifying games throughout the Eastern United States. As an all-star team, they were 19-2, raising excitement throughout the Keystone State in their quest for Little League’s Holy Grail.
Nate’s Avalon pilgrimage waited as his team cleared various hurdles to win the Mid-Atlantic Region.
What a ride. Amid the hundreds of leagues forming the region in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, and amid the thousands of kids clutching their dream of Williamsport, Nate got to realize his.
All told, Nate probably caught about 60 games last year, including his regular Little League season and the tournament run. He sometimes caught both ends of a doubleheader. Nate batted somewhere above .400 as a leadoff hitter and gained stature as a clutch performer.
“This is surreal,” says Adam Saleski, Nate’s father and assistant coach for the team. “I have coached most of these boys since they were in T-ball, when they were maybe four or five years old. Watching them improve on and off the field and to see what they were able to achieve at age 12 is absolutely rewarding.”
“It’s unbelievable to watch them grow and to see what they are learning,” adds Mary Ann Saleski. “What a great experience for them to be living in dorms, talking to other kids from around the world, and enjoying baseball. They kept winning tournaments, so they didn’t get to Avalon,” she laughs. “Many of us ended up going out there to watch them play.”
It was a beautiful setting.
Twenty teams, representing a baseball version of the U.N. Flags from Australia, Cuba, Panama, and Japan joined the banners of American teams.
Media’s team had drawn high fanfare, with everyone from state politicians to the Philly Phanatic joining them before the series.
Once the team was there, the experience was better than Nate imagined. Technology gave him the biggest breakthrough in his young life.
“We used Google Translate to talk to players from other countries who did not speak English,” he recalls. “It was great to learn about their traditions and stuff.
“You can type something in English and it gets translated to their language, so I spoke that way to a lot of kids from Japan and Curacao. A lot of the kids I talked to spoke Spanish very well. It definitely helped me develop socially.”
Nate believes his coaches and tournament officials struck an important balance between winning and letting kids be kids.
“We were focused when we needed to be, but we were also allowed to have fun,” he remembers. “We had to stay in the dorms, but inside that area we had a pool, a Wiffle ball field, an arcade, pingpong, and a TV. We had a nice lounge area. You have your own bed.”
Mary Ann said many of the mothers made sandwiches for the kids, augmenting dorm food with a touch of home. That included Nate’s mom, Courtney, who was tireless in that pursuit.
The scene around the games was captivating. Text messaging threads became prevalent between Avalon neighbors and the Saleski family in Williamsport. People all over Seven Mile Beach were wired in, real time.
As for the games, Nate said coaches called the pitches by signaling to him. Nate then passed instructions on to the pitcher. Hurlers usually hit in the 70-mph range with their fastball, he estimates. (The pitching distance is 46 feet, compared to the standard 60 feet, 6 inches for older players.)
There was one more bit of providence for the Media kids.
The Phillies played the Washington Nationals in the MLB Little League Classic Game there. When Media was eliminated after three games in Williamsport, Harper came to their dressing room to give an uplifting talk.
“He told us to hold our heads high, that we all had bright futures,” Nate recalls. “That meant a lot coming from him. He’s one of the best in the league.”
Nate adores Harper and Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto, whom he loves to watch frame pitches. Nate and his teammates were guests of the Phillies after the Series.
Although he’s formed his path in baseball, Nate does share a link with his legendary lineage.
He plays organized hockey back home and is a defenseman. Adam says Nate may even like hockey even more than baseball.
One thing he surely likes was a precious pinch-yourself memory with his father and grandfather.
Three generations of Saleskis honored by the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association at their 2024 annual banquet in Cherry Hill. From left: Don, Nate and Adam
In January, the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association honored three generations of Saleskis at its annual banquet. Don was recognized for the 50th anniversary of the Flyers’ first Stanley Cup. Nate was honored for representing the Media team and Adam for being a coach.
All three posed for an illuminating picture. Three separate paths, three generations, all tied to one legacy.
“To be honored with something that happened 50 years ago, alongside Adam being the assistant coach and Nate playing for that wonderful team, is such an unbelievable gift,” says Don Saleski. “It was like winning the Cup all over again.”
Don has an enduring reflection of Nate’s success. From June 1 until mid-August, with the exception of July 4, the team practiced every day last summer, he says. That type of commitment breeds excellent habits.
The Saleski-Avalon Story
The boys indirectly know about their history.
Adam was too young to watch his dad hoist the first two (and only) Stanley Cups for the Flyers in 1973-74 and ’74-75. Saleski and his Broad Street Bullies teammates remain the most beloved Flyers of all time.
Nate has asked his grandfather about those days and learned much.
Nate’s Grandfather Don (11) playing softball in Avalon in 1974 with Bobby Clarke (16).
Don Saleski is joined by fellow former Flyers like Bernie Parent, Tim Kerr, Brian Boucher, Ed Hospodar, and Paul Holmgren as Avalon homeowners. Local fans remember Saleski, dubbed “Big Bird,” joining Bobby Clarke to organize charity softball games with local communities. Avalon was one of the earliest, right after the Flyers won their first Cup.
“All we wanted was a case of beer and a charity to help,” Don remembers. “Friends of Bobby Clarke got us connected in Avalon. It was so much fun. We had thousands of people come out most of the places we went to.
“I also remember we played the Islanders once in a softball game at Vet Stadium and there were 26,000 people. I’ll never forget it for another reason,” he laughs. “I hit five home runs.”
Mary Ann, meanwhile, has a philanthropic Ph.D. She founded the highly regarded Flyers Wives Fight for Lives foundation, which staged annual charity events in Philadelphia starting in 1977. At last count, several years back, the charities she launched had raised $25 million and climbing. In this realm, she is in a league of her own.
On Nate’s one day off during the summer of 2023 he spent it in Avalon.
The Saleskis became Avalon homeowners in 1998 and were married 51 years in July. They enjoy their long summer reunions with extended family.
They are also united in one key aspect of this story: Don’t make us the focus, they urged.
Let Nate have his day.
Don shared an anecdote to help that cause.
He was in West Chester, helping the Flyers promote the season last fall, when a young boy approached him.
“Hey,” the boy said. “Are you Nate Saleski’s grandfather?”
Yes indeed.
This one is all about Nate, who has the best of at least two worlds right now. He’s young enough to visit his grandparents in Avalon, and seasoned enough to look back at a gem.
Nostalgia indeed.
