Back home in Vancouver after his team competed for Canada in the Little League World Series, 12-year-old Daniel Huang is still on cloud nine. “It’s like a dream come true. It’s a baseball paradise, basically. You play on the best fields in the world, and you get interact with other countries,” said Huang, who plays for Vancouver’s Little Mountain Baseball. The games are televised, and the broadcast crew at ESPN wanted to learn a little bit about every player. “There’s a survey, they ask you about your favourite foods, your favourite actors and stuff like that. One of the questions was, what’s your dream job?” said Huang. During an at bat against South Korea, his answer appeared on screen. Daniel’s dream job? Retirement. “I did not know that is what he said on his answer, retirement,” said Daniel’s coach Brad Dorwart. “Someone sent that in our group chat, and I just rolled my eyes. Of course he did.” “He’s always the guy who makes jokes,” said Daniel’s mom Nicky. “He always comes up with the response that is very not typical. So, I wasn’t super shocked, but I also had a good laugh.” After Barstool Sports posted about Daniel saying “This Kid Gets It” to its nearly seven million X followers, Huang was internet famous. “My teammates are like, ‘How would you go viral for doing this? I did something better, I pitched awesome. You went viral just for a joke,’” Daniel said. “And still today, people are sending me links and news where Daniel’s name is mentioned. It’s actually pretty cool,” said his mom. The boys from Little Mountain notched three wins in Williamsport, the most for a Canadian team since 1998, before being eliminated by Japan. “It was pretty sad to have such an amazing season come to an end, but I think it was a really good game. They had pretty good sportsmanship and it showed that they worked hard to get here, so they deserved it,” Daniel said. “One of your jobs as a coach is to teach them the skills, but also let them understand that it’s OK, the sun will come up tomorrow. It’s a game. We all want to win the game, but it’s a game,” said Dorwart. For Daniel, it was the end of an era. This was his last season of little league. “He’s definitely retired from Little League, but not from work,” joked his coach. “You have to start before you retire.” And Daniel’s not planning on starting work anytime soon. “It’s just best if I don’t have to work these next couple of years,” he said. “Just enjoy and relax.”
