Wareham Little League players received lessons on the game from a former major leaguer who once helped Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez with his swing.

Wareham native Ed Rose, who worked his way up from playing as a child in town to the big leagues, provided a free baseball clinic at the league’s ballfields on Charge Pond Road on June 4.

Rose now lives in Florida, but maintains close ties to friends and family in town, including his cousin T.J. Rose, a coach and member of the league’s board of directors. T.J. invited Ed to offer the clinic, which covered all the bases.

“I have been so blessed in my life, and it all started here in Wareham,” said Rose. “This is a wonderful opportunity for me to come home and give back.”

Currently, Rose is the athletic director at Weston Christian Academy in Florida. He said baseball has brought him around the world as he played in Europe, scouted talent in the Caribbean and opened his own clinic, the B.E.S.T. Academy, in Jamaica for island youth.

Despite his impressive credentials, Rose said Sunday’s clinic is just as important to him as teaching any pro ballplayer.

“This is true baseball,” he said in between teaching the fundamentals of base running to players 8 and younger. “This is the game in its purest form.”