MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Most of the kids at the highly competitive National Youth Baseball Championships are men on the field. Step outside the white lines, though, and the humility bursts out of them as profoundly as one of those fastballs when they toe the rubber. They beg their mothers for a dollar to buy a snow cone, plead with their fathers for five more minutes in the arcade and chase each other all over Gameday Baseball's First Tennessee Fields.

Sometimes, however, their maturity is noticeable even after games.

David Molino is one example.

But he has a good reason.

Molino, who plays almost every position for his Tomateros, but prefers center field, is growing his hair long because he can, and a lot of people who have cancer can't. Molino may not know what having cancer can be like, but he has a pretty good idea. On Dec. 12, 2005, his cousin died at the too-young age of 14 after a long bout with leukemia.

At that time, his sister Alanah, 10 months younger than David, had her hair grown down to her waist and cut off 11 inches to donate it to a charity called "Locks of Love," which uses human hair to make wigs for 18-and-under patients that lose theirs, mostly during chemotherapy.

Once he saw what his sister did, Molino wanted to play a part, too.

"He just came up to me one day and said, 'I want to grow my hair long and donate it for cancer,'" his father, David Sr., said. "You can't say no to that. I think it's awesome."

But in an age of pranksters and in a macho sport like baseball, Molino's selfless act has been the target of ridicule -- classmates flick his hair, teammates tease him and others even confuse him for a girl.

"It's pretty funny," David Sr. said. "One time, he was warming up there on the side, and a couple of guys walked by and were like, 'Man, that girl throws hard.'"

Even his own coaches were getting on him about his long hair before they knew any background. Molino, not the most talkative of kids, never gave them a reason for why he was doing it, and his coaches only found out because his father let them know.

"We were pressuring him to cut it so much before we knew what it was for," Tomateros assistant coach Raul Duenas said. "We gave him so much beef about it. ... Actually, we still do, but now we're just kidding."

Molino, who had sported short hair before his new shaggy look, has been growing it for more than two years and said he's only got a couple of inches left before he can cut it off and go back to his original style.

For the moment, Molino is willing to deal with the scrutiny that comes with the long hair so that others can hopefully have the confidence to face the world. Over time he's learned to deal with the criticism.

"Now I just ignore them, or I tell them I don't care [if they make fun of me]," said Molino, whose favorite baseball player is Rays third baseman Evan Longoria.

Molino was never able to get as close to his cousin, Marcus, as he wanted because leukemia forced him to go to the hospital at age 7. After the illness was discovered, Marcus underwent the typical chemotherapy treatment, and it seemed like they had gotten rid of the cancer.

In fact, Marcus went through remission -- meaning his bloodstream was completely free of cancer cells -- for four years. Doctors say if patients are in remission for five years, they'll live the rest of their lives cancer-free.

But entering that fifth year, the cancer was rediscovered in Marcus' body, and he went through chemotherapy again for another couple of years. At that point, his immune system was very weak, so when he had a bone marrow transplant on Oct. 6, he never fully recovered and died less than two months later.

"It was tragic," David Sr. said. "And Marcus was the best kid, too. He'd be in the hospital bed with IVs all over him, and he'd always be so nice, as if nothing was going on."

Added Molino: "I felt really sad [when Marcus died]. It's like I couldn't believe it."

But even though the hurt was so bad for Molino, he was able to look past himself and use the experience as a way to make a difference -- a kind of maturity level that goes way beyond his years.

"That's a great thing he's doing," said Tomateros head coach Joe Ruiz, whose team will play in the championship game of the tournament on Saturday at 6 p.m. CT and went into the NYBC as the No. 2 10-and-under team in the nation, according to the latest Travel Ball Select rankings. "It was something he felt was important, and he's helping someone -- that's what we're all about.

"A lot of the kids are men on the field, but for him to be doing that off of it, that shows a lot of maturity."