He hit 47 home runs in 18 games and then vanished from history.
Since Little League Baseball was founded in 1939, about 40 million kids have played the sport. The list includes future Hall of Famers like Carl Yastrzemski, Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan, and hundreds of other future Major Leaguers. But of all the kids who ever played Little League, the best of the best was a boy you’ve probably never heard of: Art “Pinky” Deras. In the summer of 1959, he led the team from Hamtramck, Mich., to the Little League World Series title, and in the process, he put together a Little League season the likes of which we might never see again. His amazing story comes to life in “The Legend of Pinky Deras: The Greatest Little-Leaguer There Ever Was,” a new film from Blue Hammer Films. Pinky received a ton of national publicity back in 1959, but then he fell off the map. In the half-century since he lit the Little League world on fire, there have been no films about him, no magazine stories, not even a single newspaper article.
Production
Rescued 1959 footage that sat untouched for 50 years.
Writing
Narrator Oliver Darrow's gravelly reverence for the unknown.
Director
Brian Kruger
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Brian Kruger found Pinky working as a security guard in Arizona, completely unaware anyone still cared about 1959.
Little League banned metal bats partly because of Pinky's 47 homers—his record stood untouched until composite bats changed the game entirely.
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