Last August, South Philly’s own Mo’Ne Davis became the country’s most famous kid when the then-13-year-old Taney Dragon pitched a shutout game in the Little League World Series, the first girl to earn a series win (at 70 mph, no less).
Mo’Ne, a “sneaker-head” with 100-plus pairs in her closet, is a natural ambassador for an namesake sneaker that gives back. M4D3 (Make a Difference Everyday) has developed a Mo’Ne-inspired collection. It features baseball-stitched sneakers with a “Throw Like a Girl heel tag in four color combos Mo’Ne helped choose (including one in Taney Dragons light blue and burgundy, below). $11 of the $75 price point benefits Because I am a Girl, an initiative to help impoverished girls in the developing world.
Despite her team’s eventual loss, the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy eighth-grader and triple-threat athlete (she also plays basketball and soccer) has made an indelible mark. In less than a year, Mo’Ne has landed the Sports Illustrated cover and been named SI Sports Kid of the Year . . . donated her Taney Dragons jersey to the Baseball Hall of Fame . . . published a memoir (Mo’Ne Davis: Remember My Name; click here to win it) . . . inspired an in-development Disney Channel movie (Throw Like Mo) . . . shot hoops with Kevin Hart . . . starred in the Spike Lee-
directed "I Throw Like a Girl" ad for Chevy . . . struck out Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show . . . showed her sportsmanship by tweeting forgiveness in the wake of an unkind social media comment . . . lent her name to a sneaker line that gives back to girls (see "The Mo'Ne Sneaker," right) . . . and granted countless interviews in a white-hot media spotlight usually focused on the A-lister likes of a LeBron or an ARod.
Before a recent practice for her 2015 baseball team, the Philadelphia Youth Organization’s Anderson Monarchs, Mo’Ne fielded our questions — and yours! — like both the young teen she is and the pro she’s bound to become.
MK: You’ve had quite the year. How have you kept your calm as the center of so much media attention?
MD: All the adults around me and all my friends, who’ve treated me the same; they help a lot.
MK: What’s the most unexpected thing you’ve been able to do this year?
MD: I got to read with Michelle Obama [Twas the Night Before Christmas at the National Christmas Tree lighting] and got to talk to Michelle Obama and Barack Obama — that was pretty cool.
MK: What do you do in your free time?
MD: I pretty much just hang with my friends a lot and I sleep half the time. [laughs]
MK: What are some of your favorite ways to spend time with your friends in Philly?
MD: In the summer we’ll ride our bikes down to the art museum. Or we just play at the [Marian Anderson] Rec Center, walk downtown and look at sneaker stores and all.
MK: What’s your favorite school subject?
MD: I like history. I just like learning about the past and everything that happened and hopefully not making the same mistakes.
MK: Having achieved so much already, what are your future athletic goals?
MD: From the World Series, I kind of achieved those goals. I mean it’s pretty hard to make it to regionals, and to make it to Williamsport [PA, site of the Little League World Series] is even harder. I kind of did something that happened in the past, like with Jackie Robinson, so I thought that was pretty cool. This year, I know my travel team’s going on a tour down South for civil rights, so that’s what I’m looking forward to. [The Monarchs are scheduled to go on a 21-city barnstorming bus tour to experience what life was like for Negro League players in the early 20th century.]
MK: What about college sports?
MD: I do want to play basketball in college. I mean, I don’t really care what college I go to, if it has a good basketball program and education I’ll be fine with that.
MK: Our readers have a few questions. How many hours a week do you practice?
MD: My school baseball team practices every day but Friday, and I also practice with my travel team on Mondays and Wednesdays, so it’s kind of a lot. But after a while, you get the hang of it and it all comes from muscle memory; then you don’t have to do as much.
MK: What’s your advice to a 10-year-old with dreams of the World Series?
MD: To keep working at it and just to keep going because everything’s possible. Even my team, we didn’t think we would make it that far but we just kept playing our game and every time we won a game we just got better and better.
MK: What’s the one question you’re asked most often?
MD: The one everyone asks is, “How did it feel to win the shutout?” I can’t really explain how it felt, because it just happened so fast.
MK: What do you say to kids who look up to you as a role model?
MD: Dream big, because everything’s possible to do even if people say it’s not. Just dream big, because even if you don’t achieve that dream, you can achieve dreams a little bit lower than that — and that’s still good!
Next page: Mo'Ne in her Chevy ad, with Jimmy Fallon and Kevin Hart
