12-year-old boy from Chicago competes at Baseball World Cup in Taiwan

Head launches a whiffle ball during a game with other kids during a block party on Humboldt Park street to celebrate his selection to the US national baseball team. Photos: Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Paris Head admits he wasn’t very good when he started playing baseball at five years old for the Garfield Park Little League in Chicago, the United States.

But Head said he put in the work to get competitive. He practised fielding and hitting with his little brother. He studied hours of training programmes on YouTube. And he enjoyed watching his favourite professional teams – the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles – on television.