Young Omaha CWS fan's epic stare-down goes viral
By Malorie Maddox |
Posted: Mon 9:15 PM, Jun 27, 2016 | Updated: Tue 7:44 AM, Jun 28, 2016
He has 18 million views...and counting. That is how many people have watched 10-year-old Sammy DiDonato's video from the College World Series.
It was during Coastal Carolina's game with TCU. It's Coastal Carolina's first trip to the CWS, but it's one of their fans-seated right behind their dugout-that's stealing the show. That kid is Sammy DiDonato from Omaha. The 10-year-old was shocked when his mom got him seats right behind Coastal Carolina's dugout...and there was a camera right there.
Sammy says, "Earlier in the game before it started it was like looking at us a little bit. I thought maybe it would look at us again so I was just waiting for it."
And boy was he ready! He gave a little shoulder "shimmy" and one strong eyebrow game!
The announcers erupted in laughter.
Sammy's mom, Trish, admits she missed most of it.
"I really wasn't looking at him, I was watching the game," Trish said.
But as the game went on, the camera couldn't resist going back to Sammy.
"I just tried to start dancing a little bit because it kept looking at me," Sammy said.
"That's just his personality and it's all him," his mom laughed.
Trish says as the game went on-and Sammy's moves kept airing on ESPN, her phone started blowing up.
"You were just on ESPN. And I was like, OK. Then all of a sudden it was one right after another," she said.
At that point, she put her phone down. After all, she was there to watch the game. But it was only the beginning.
"I saw something on Twitter and it said 7-thousand something likes and I thought that was pretty cool," Sammy said.
By now, his video has been seen by more than 6 million people. Sammy is still oblivious to all the attention.
"My friend said you're on TV. That's like the only person who noticed," he said.
"And six million others," WOWT's Malorie Maddox said.
Sammy laughs, "Yeah!"
Because as Sammy proved, the action just isn't on the field. For a moment, he made us all forget what we were supposed to be watching. He made us laugh.
"I was kind of paying attention in case it did go around again and it did, so I just decided to be funny," Sammy said.
Trish says each year the family picks one team, only if Nebraska isn't in it, to root for. It just happened to be Coastal Carolina, a team in the finals.
Sammy's video is now up to more than 18-million views. He says one day he wouldn't mind playing baseball in the College World Series.
