Juan Soto called 'overrated' by Little League World Series player in hilarious internet-breaking moment

MLB held its annual Little League Classic on Sunday as Juan Soto's Mets hosted Cal Raleigh's Mariners at Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The event, first held in 2017, has been a regular fixture on the calendar as MLB pushes to get more children interested in the sport.

In an interesting and humorous turn of events, a couple of Little Leaguers were interviewed about the player that they wanted to meet the most. Australia's Issei Hamano said he wanted to meet Juan Soto.

Canada's Misha Lee, on the other hand, proclaimed that Soto was "kinda overrated" and instead selected Mariners star Cal Raleigh. This interaction broke the internet as MLB fans were left in stitches.

Fortunately for Juan Soto and his Mets, they easily overcame the Mariners 7-3.

Juan Soto's Mets come up big despite Cal Raleigh's league-leading 47th home run in Little League Classic

Cal Raleigh's 47th home run of the season proved to be all for naught as his Mariners fell to Juan Soto's Mets in this year's MLB Little League Classic. The slugging backstop went 2-for-5 in the contest with a two-run blast, two RBIs, and one run scored.

The Mets outpaced the slow-starting visitors. Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, and Mark Vientos combined for the first three runs heading into the fourth frame.

In the fourth inning, Jorge Polanco opened the scoring for the visitors as he plated Julio Rodriguez. However, the Mets answered with four runs of their own in the succeeding frame as Vientos smashed a three-run bomb to right field to further widen the gap. Francisco Lindor then made his presence known after an RBI-double in the same inning brought Cedric Mullins home.

With the Mariners trailing 7-1, Raleigh smashed his 47th home run, this time of the two-run variety, cutting the Mets' lead to four. However, that was all Seattle managed in the contest as the Mets won the Little League Classic for the second time in as many tries. As for Soto, he drew three walks and went 0-for-2 in the game.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Daniel Santiago