"There are players-only barracks where you stay, and we're all together for two weeks," Conforto recalled. "Its pretty much paradise for a bunch of kids."
Conforto remembers one of those kids particularly well: St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Randal Grichuk. Before mounting a National League Rookie of the Year Award-worthy campaign for baseball's best team, Grichuk spent his summers swatting home runs for Lamar National Little League (Richmond, Texas).
The 12-year-old Grichuk homered three times over Conforto's head on Aug. 21, 2004, when his Southwest Region team topped Conforto's Northwest squad, 18-7, in the pool-play opener in Williamsport.