There were shades of deja vu all through the air in Florida last week. Todd Lillpop and Brad Wilkerson — Owensboro natives, standout athletes, and longtime friends — watched their sons carry on a rivalry and friendship on the diamond in the Cal Ripken World Series.
Lillpop and Wilkerson grew up in Owensboro and played a number of sports, constantly going at each other in competition.
“We grew up together,” Lillpop said. “Shoot, we’ve been friends basically through baseball… We grew up together playing Southern Little League forever and it was competing at everything really, not just baseball. We were at each other’s houses pretty much every day doing something. If it was nice outside or even if it was cold we were playing some sort of sport.”
As they got older they eventually played together for longtime Apollo coach Bob Mantooth in high school, before Brad took off in his baseball career.
Lillpop said they both pushed each other, but Wilkerson never stopped working and his intensity and passion was unmatched.
“His work ethic and his drive and determination was something that I’d never seen before,” Lillpop said. “We tried to push each other as much as we could as competitors, but it was a situation where he just kept it going. And when we played high school baseball together and we played in the state Final Four together, we all knew. I knew that the sky was the limit for him.”
Wilkerson proceeded to take the next step in his career by attending the University of Florida before achieving more success.
“The question was can he excel when he gets to the highest level of baseball in college and the answer was yes,” Lillpop said. “And when he got there it was could he make it all the way to Major League Baseball and have success and the answer was 100% yes. It was so impressive to watch him be able to excel at the highest level.”
Despite being states away, Lillpop and Wilkerson remained close. They were both the best man in their respective weddings — about two weeks apart — and then they both had kids soon after.
As Ty Lillpop and Max Wilkerson were growing up, Todd and Brad had always thought the idea of their kids playing together would be cool. Eventually they got their wish.
“My oldest and his youngest are about the same age and we always talked about when our kids to a certain age we’d love for them to be able to play together,” Lillpop said. “I coach a travel team called the Bluegrass Bombers and he’s played with us a couple times.”
Flash forward and then the familiar friends were set to become foes in the Cal Ripken World Series.
Todd and Brad were both excited for Ty and Max to have the opportunity to play each other in the championship and were truly shocked when it actually happened.
“I couldn’t believe it was even happening,” Lillpop said. “You really can’t. The way it’s happened with us being from the same area and the kids that they have and our kids. It was a great tournament for both teams.”
It was a little nerve wracking for Lillpop taking a seat back to watch rather than coaching like he normally would, but he enjoyed getting to see them on the field again.
“It almost brought me to tears,” Lillpop said. “I was excited, nervous. I want my son to do well but I also want Max and their team to do well. The situation for me was, I wanted it to be a close game and whoever played better at the end win the game.”
Before the game had even started, Todd and Brad had both reflected on how wild this journey was.
“What kind of storybook ending is this,” Wilkerson questioned. “Brad and I were talking about ‘we need to find a producer and we need to make a movie about this.’ Our talk was like, ‘is this really a movie?’ It was kind of a surreal feeling.”
As the game progressed, that storybook ending got even more interesting when the Cal Ripken World Series Championship was up for grabs late.
“We got to the top of the sixth inning, it’s a 2-1 game and our bottom three hitters get on base so there’s bases loaded,” Lillpop said. “Then they switched pitchers and he faced one batter and he walked a run in. Well my son was batting third in that inning and he brought Max in to pitch against him.”
That led to a first-pitch curveball being driven to the right center field gap by Ty for a triple to score three runs and put Owensboro up 6-1 one.
Then Ty returned to the mound the following inning and Max led off, allowing them to have faced off pitching and hitting once each.
“There were a lot of great moments,” Wilkerson said. “I think getting to watch my son get to pitch to Ty and then Ty pitch to my son and face him was pretty crazy, because I know they wanted to get each other out. It’s great to see them competing against each other, but after the game they’re loving each other and hyping each other up.”
While Eastern came away with the championship win over Palm Beach Garden and they made the trip home to Owensboro, Ty and Max still will easily manage to keep in touch despite being in separate states.
“Well now that they’re old enough to have phones I think they talk, they text each other back and forth and they get excited,” Lillpop said. “The crazy thing about it for the kids is they show up together and it’s like they’ve been together for their whole lives.”
Meanwhile, Todd and Brad will be looking forward to an annual trip they created together that they have now turned into a group trip.
“We’ve really stayed in touch and we actually started a golf trip,” Wilkerson said. “It’ll be our 21st year we’ve done a golf trip this year… Now we’re up to 16 guys that go on the trip. It’s kind of crazy that it’s been this long, and you know he’s one of my closest friends no doubt.”
After all these years, no matter where they’re at, they’ve never been different and continue to share a unique friendship.
“With his family I feel like nothing’s changed,” Lillpop said. “They’re just 14 hours away. It’s just a cool bond and relationship that we have and I hope it never changes.”
