The Oakland 12u Braves are bound for Cooperstown, NY to play in a 93 team week long tournament at Dreams Park Fields. Dreams Park is made up of 29 Ball fields, some with the ability to web cast the game. The Dreams Park website has the Oakland Braves scheduled for three web casted games. The links below each scheduled game should open a Windows player on your computer; if not, please use the primary link. (When using the primary link, you will need to register. They ask for personal information like phone numbers, addresses, but they don’t verify anything so feel free to enter whatever you want.)
After a bruising loss in their initial game, The Braves have gone undefeated in Cooperstown. There is still one game scheduled to be broadcast on Wed.
Wednesday at 10am they play the Camarillo Pirates (CA) on field 5. Watch it Live
California Bruins 16 Oakland Braves 0
Oakland Braves 11 Rome Jr. Indians 3
Oakland Braves 8 Bethlehem Bombers 5
Oakland Braves 9 Yarmouth Sharks 6
Oakland Braves 16 Smithtown Bulls 11
The banner the team will carry
The kids have been raising money for this trip for over two years through various fundraisers. Players and coaches stay in barracks inside the park, and family and fans find accommodations in the area. Dream Park Fields is a major baseball event which draws teams from all over the country, and from other countries as evident from one of the videos embeded here. It was created by a young Canadian participant and simply entitled, “The Best Week of My Life.”
The organizers of the tournament also realize that there would be no teams,no tournaments, no baseball for kids without the coaches who volunteer their time. A documentary following a California team through their Dream Park Fields experience is available by clicking here. It’s about 9 minutes long, but gives a great overview of the experience for the kids, and also captures what the event means for the coaches.
This is a major event for the kids, and as mentioned in the documentary video, the Youth Baseball Hall of Fame offers the opportunity for the players to possibly return one day with their own children and relive those memories. The video below is a humorous reminder of what those memories should not be.