1 year later, Jazz and Little League 'brother' still close

NEW YORK -- One year ago, Jazz Chisholm Jr. took an empty seat by the right-side windows of a shuttle bus on the tarmac at Williamsport Regional Airport in Pennsylvania, striking up a conversation with the bright-eyed youngster next to him.

“You’re my favorite player,” said Russell McGee, then an 11-year-old infielder/pitcher on the Mountain Region club from Henderson, Nev. Chisholm’s heart leapt. As the pair chatted on the winding ride to the Little League Classic, the Yankees infielder began to feel like he’d just met a little brother.

Chisholm promised to keep in touch. A year later, McGee -- now 12 -- says that promise has been kept.

“He said he’s always going to have my back,” McGee said. “He wants to make me the best possible baseball player I can be. He wants me to go far one day.”

McGee reminded Chisholm of himself as a kid; at one point, McGee eyed Chisholm’s flashy diamond chain and asked: “How much does that cost?” Before the bus reached Howard J. Lamade Stadium, they had swapped cell phone numbers and followed each other on Instagram.

“He was just asking me questions about how it is being traded to the Yankees, how was Miami -- normal questions,” Chisholm said. “Then he started getting super shy and red in the face. I told him, ‘Anything you need, all you’ve got to do is ask, bro. Hitting, fielding, baserunning. Anything. I’ve got you.’ From there, we kind of locked in.”

Over the next several months, Chisholm said he sent McGee a couple of boxes of baseball equipment -- gloves, bats, sliding mitts, cleats. After the World Series, Chisholm and McGee attended the Las Vegas Grand Prix together, watching Formula 1 cars roar down The Strip from VIP seats.

McGee said he’d expected a quick photo with Chisholm outside the Cosmopolitan Hotel; instead, they spent the entire evening hanging out, with Chisholm telling McGee’s father: “No, you’re coming with us!”

“That was pretty cool,” McGee said. “I play [NBA] 2K a lot with him. I coached with him once at a baseball event where my brother played in it; we didn’t win, but it was still a great experience, being with top high school players across the country.”

Chisholm was on the injured list during last year’s Little League Classic, rehabbing a sprained left elbow, which freed him to sit behind home plate with McGee and his teammates. He even sparked a second “roll call” from the stands, coaxing Anthony Volpe to wave from shortstop.

“When I was in Little League, having a big leaguer talking to me and hanging out with my friends would’ve been sick,” Chisholm said. “I just enjoyed being with a kid that reminded me of myself.”

As a Minor Leaguer, Chisholm had his own mentors -- CC Sabathia, Gary Sheffield, Dee Gordon, Tom Gordon -- and sees his bond with McGee as paying it forward.

“I like to give back to the future, especially to someone with high hopes,” Chisholm said. “He’s a great kid. Being around him makes me feel like a better person and a better player. It makes me feel like I can help the future in some way.”