Local resident Scott Bandura was called up to Major League Baseball on Sept. 13 by the San Francisco Giants, going 1-for-3 with a walk and scoring a run in his first game. It’s been quite a trip since playing baseball, basketball and soccer for Springside Chestnut Hill Academy before graduating and going on to Princeton University for college.
In Bandura’s debut week, playing in San Francisco’s Oracle Park, the outfielder cracked his first major league hit with his parents in the stands to cheer him on.
“It was truly a dream come true,” said Robin Bandura, Scott’s mother, …
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Local resident Scott Bandura was called up to Major League Baseball on Sept. 13 by the San Francisco Giants, going 1-for-3 with a walk and scoring a run in his first game. It’s been quite a trip since playing baseball, basketball and soccer for Springside Chestnut Hill Academy before graduating and going on to Princeton University for college.
In Bandura’s debut week, playing in San Francisco’s Oracle Park, the outfielder cracked his first major league hit with his parents in the stands to cheer him on.
“It was truly a dream come true,” said Robin Bandura, Scott’s mother, owner of OnPointe Physical Therapy, at Balance Life in Chestnut Hill. “It was so surreal, the reality of it didn’t set in until we were watching his next game at home on our television.”
They weren’t the only ones there to support him, with Bandura’s longtime Little League friend and Los Angeles Queens player Mo’ne Davis attending his big game as well.
“She was thrilled to be able to make it, and it meant a lot for her to come down,” Robin Bandura said. “She is like a daughter to us and has been with Scott through it all.”
Davis and Bandura met through Bandura’s father’s youth program in 2008. The Anderson Monarchs, created by Steve Bandura, has been bringing baseball opportunities to underserved youth in South Philadelphia since 1995. Steve Bandura met Davis when she was just 7 years old after one of the Monarchs’ baseball games. It was there that he noticed her athletic ability and asked her to join his youth basketball team. Ever since then, the families have been close friends. Scott Bandura and Davis would go on to play baseball together for Philadelphia’s Taney Dragons in the 2014 Little League World Series semifinals, with Davis becoming the first girl to earn a win, and throw a shutout, in the history of the series. Bandura was her catcher. Davis would go on to live with the Bandura family while also going to Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.
Scott Bandura has always been a standout athlete, and was featured in the Chestnut Hill Local during his high school sports career.
“Watching him play,” Robin Bandura said, “has been one of the highlights of my life.”
