Philadelphia Phillies Using Little League Classic To Reset Their Mindset

Playing baseball at the major league level can feel like a fishbowl for many of those involved with the sport. Competing in front of large crowds every day, traveling to different cities and constantly under the microscope of criticism can turn even the most joyful player into a robot.

The Philadelphia Phillies are using their experience at the Little League Classic to regain perspective during their 162-game schedule.

"It was such a cool experience," Kyle Schwarber said about supporting the Little League team from Media, PA. "We were all in their shoes one day, so to be able to have the city repped on both the Little League side this afternoon and the big league side tonight, it's really cool."

Originally, the players were not scheduled to watch the game of the Media team, but officials pushed to alter the timeline because the big leaguers wanted to watch the little leaguers from 15 miles outside of Citizens Bank Park.

A viral moment was captured after Media tied up the game late in front of the Phillies players with Bryce Harper showing his teammates Schwarber and Trea Turner the goosebumps he got from that moment.

Philadelphia lost the game 4-3 against the Washington Nationals later that night to lose the weekend series against their divisional opponent.

Paul Casella of MLB.com writes, "The result aside, helping provide once-in-a-lifetime experiences for so many kids – and making some for themselves along the way – may have helped with the monotony of a 162-game season. It also provided some levity at the end of a road trip that saw the Phillies play five games over seven days in three cities – and two countries."

The Phillies now return home to start a pivotal series against the San Francisco Giants that has massive playoff implications.

They'll do so coming out of a unique experience that reminded many of the players the time when they played the game out of sheer joy and love.