It was there in the innocence and pure joy of a 12-year-old playing on the grandest stage in youth sports alongside his friends from the neighborhood.

And it was back again, in the child-like enthusiasm and intensity exhibited by a 31-year-old major league veteran competing for the highest profile sports franchise on the planet, surrounded by the greatest collection of young talent in the game.

"I actually think I love it even more than when I was a kid," Frazier explained this week. "I didn’t think I could until I was brought over to the Yankees. I’ve had fun playing baseball my whole career. But when I got brought to New York and they took me in as one of their own, it was amazing."

The uniforms have change over the years, but it seems little else has for Todd Frazier.

Whether it’s a maroon Toms River South jersey worn when he led the Indians to back-to-back NJSIAA Group III titles, the scarlet one he donned powering Rutgers to a Big East title, or the New York Yankees pinstripes he wore from mid-July through their Game 7 loss to Houston in the ALCS, he’s still the same guy who dog-piled with his Toms River East American teammates in Lamade Stadium in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, after winning the 1998 Little League World Series.

"He’s just a man playing the game he loves like he did when he was a kid," said legendary Toms River South coach Ken Frank, who sports a record 869 career wins and counting. "Over the last month-and-a-half, I’ve never seen so much enthusiasm on television. The cameras zoomed on him more than the batters sometimes it seemed. They would always go back to the dugout and pick up Todd cheering and jumping over the rail. It was great to watch."

When Frazier came to the Yankees from the Chicago White Sox as part of a trade on July 19, it energized him and turned his hometown into an epicenter of support for the Bronx Bombers, who went 20-8 in September to make the postseason, beat Minnesota in a wildcard game before coming back to win in Game 5 of the ALDS against Cleveland.

"Once he got in the flow and they started winning it became almost like back in the day, when he was in the Little League World Series in ’98, when everybody just rallied around him and everybody was having a blast," said Frazier’s older brother, Jeff, who made it to the big leagues with the Detroit Tigers in 2010, and played in the 1995 Little League World Series.

This was nothing new for a community that has hung on Frazier’s exploits for nearly two decades now.

Who can forget his All-Star weekend heroics in 2015, when the then-Cincinnati Reds slugger won the Home Run Derby in Cincinnati, with his older brother Charlie, who runs Frazier Baseball in Toms River, pitching to him.

And while Frazier’s baseball odyssey has taken him from one end of the country – he played rookie ball in Billings, Montana, after the Reds drafted him in the first round of the MLB Draft in 2007 – he chose to purchase a home in Toms River last year to serve as the primary residence for his family, including his wife, Jackie, and their son, Blake, and daughter, Kylie.

Edelson: To win World Series, Yankees need leaders like Todd Frazier

"We decided to come back home because this is a great place. A great place to live," Frazier said. "I tell everybody how much I love this place, how I’m going to call this place my home as long as I’m living.

"It’s rich in baseball, it’s rich in sports and that’s why I want my kids to grow up there. Because whether they play baseball, basketball or football, it’s an area where it’s fun to be around. It’s a family-based area where you can bring your kids anywhere and there’s a game being played, no matter where it is. That’s how I grew up, just playing games, no matter how cold or how warm it is, and that’s hopefully how my son grows up, too."

Frazier’s been a part of so many iconic moments, from his standing alongside Derek Jeter on the field at Yankee Stadium as a 12-year-old during the national anthem, holding his cap over his heart, to the "thumbs down" celebration that became a rallying point for the Yankees this season. Yet he’s very much the same Jersey Shore guy he’s always been.

"If you go to the Friday night football game and he’s there, you wouldn’t know he was a New York Yankee. He’s so down to earth, so real and just a genuinely fine young man," Frank said. "He’s a role model for not only the younger kids but for the guys he plays with on the Yankees. He’s a likeable young man, and he means a lot to the Toms River community.

"Everybody seemed to rally around the Yankees games. I’ve never seen so much enthusiasm for the Yankees, when you go into different stores, people asking questions about the game. It was pretty exciting."

Frazier's signature has always been the home run. Like the shot he blasted over the trees beyond the left field fence at Jackson Memorial, which some claim made it all the way to the football field, one of the 26 long balls he stroked in high school, falling one short of the then-Shore Conference record. Or the 500-foot moon shot during the 2007 Big East Tournament at KeySpan Park in Brooklyn that finished near the Cyclone, hitting 22 that season and 42 for his three years at Rutgers, both school records.

But it was the opposite field three-run homer in Game 3 of the ALCS off Houston’s Charlie Morton that ignited the Yankees, flipping the bat at a pitch on the outside part of the plate and depositing it over the rightfield fence in Yankee Stadium. Trailing 2-0 in the series at that point, the Yankees went back to Houston with a 3-2 lead.

"That was a turning point, a big turning point," Ken Frank said. "I’ve seen him hit home runs with one hand when he was in high school. He would go out and get a curveball and one-hand it over the fence. I don’t know anyone else that’s ever done that. When he hit it I thought it was a bloop single and then when I saw the right fielder going back I thought, `it’s out of here.’"

Now, not even Frazier knows what the future holds. He’s a free agent, and it’s unclear if the Yankees are willing to commit to a multi-year contract, or what they’ll be willing to pay for a player with great leadership skills, but who hit just .213 in 2017.

"To be where I was last season, in that situation, that could play into the decision, to be honest," said Frazier, referring to how much he enjoyed his time with the Yankees. "But we’ve got to see what’s in store for me and what’s out there, so I can’t pinpoint anything. But I would love to get back there. That would be awesome.

"Playing for the Yankees was all I expected and then some, and it was the best baseball I’ve been a part of in my career, that’s for sure. People say `my dream is to play for the Yankees.’ Well that was one of my dreams. To play for such a great organization as the Yankees."

It was a dream that started in Toms River. But it's one that continues today, as Yankee fans everywhere witness first-hand what's possible when you rediscover that inner joy of playing with the enthusiasm of a 12-year-old.

Stephen Edelson is as Asbury Park Press columnist: sedelson@gannettnj.com