The end to months of fundraising, planning and practice ended with a press release and tears.
Mike DeLuca envisioned his youngest son, John, capping his baseball career the same way most 12-year-old All-Star squads from Monroeville, Pennsylvania, had for the last two decades: with a week spent playing teams from all over the country at Cooperstown Dreams Park in early August.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the United States and the shutdowns began. The sprawling complex near the Baseball Hall of Fame in central New York was no exception. Park officials announced in March they had canceled the entire 2020 summer tournament season.
When Mike DeLuca told his son, the boy cried.
"It's devastating," said DeLuca, who is also the team's coach.
"But it also is a hard lesson in life and unfortunately thousands upon thousands of 12-year-olds are learning this lesson right now. It's still a kids' game. They should always play like the cliche says: Play it like it's your last game, because you never know."
President Donald Trump tweeted he hopes youth baseball returns "soon."
"Couldn't do tournaments. Couldn't do any fun activities. We were actually starting a pretty robust fundraising effort. But we can't do clinics, can't pay beyond fields and equipment if we lose 15 percent to 20 percent of our sponsors."
"We've lost them to deck hockey, we've lost them to video games, we've lost them to soccer."
"When they get to 10, 11, the kids start to have choices, he said. "There might be the most at-risk age group. In our case, the 12 year-olds, they want to play their last season. They want to see it through."
The coach and the father has already made one rule, however. No one is allowed to talk about Cooperstown anymore. What's the point?