Great Read on Youth Baseball

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ON SHAKY GROUND: Youth baseball is the game at its most fun
Gary Trembly garyt@nwanews.com

Posted on Wednesday, June 15, 2005

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Making my rounds

through the

various ball fields Monday evening, I was reminded again of what baseball and softball is all about. Oh sure, I'm a big St. Louis Cardinals fan, and have been since... well... umm... well, for a long time. Admittedly, I liked the 1964 Cardinals better than I liked the 2004 Cardinals, but we won't delve into that. No, wait, yeah we will, cause that's kind of what I'm getting at. If you're old enough to remember baseball of the 60s, you'll recall names such as Mantle, Maris, Musial, Aaron, Boyer, Spahn, Wills, Gibson, Mays, Banks, etc. You'll also remember that $50,000 a year was a nice piece of change for those guys. And they'd all stop, even go out of their way, to sign autographs.

Look at today's players. They won't even sign autographs for $50,000, seems like.

Let me tell you, what I saw Monday renewed my faith in the game. Oh sure, some of these kids I saw might one day become the next Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa or Ricky Henderson, but most of them will grow up normal and might continue playing ball with an adult league, either slow pitch softball or possibly baseball.

I saw one young man sidle up to the tee, take deliberate aim, stop and look at the camera, then back at the tee. This went on for nearly a minute until, finally, with a mighty swing, he... knocked the heck out of the tee about three inches below the ball.

The process was repeated — half swing at the ball, look at the camera, half swing, look at the camera, half swing, might swing — and, yeah, you guessed it, the tee took the hit again.

Eventually, the kid hit the ball and ran to first base.

Now comes part two of this wonderful drama.

The ball rolled around in the field until one of the fielders picked it up. Although the batter/runner was already standing on first base, the field coach instructed his fielder to throw the ball to first, obviously for practice.

The kid wound up and fired the ball to first base. It went almost straight up in the air and didn't miss hitting him in the head by much. He simply picked it up and threw it again, this time somewhat close to his target.

I've related the story before of a player on my TBall team years ago. The girl picked up a ball and heaved it homeward — about five feet. She picked it up and tried again — and again, about five feet. On the third try, she managed another five feet. Precious walked up to the ball, looked down at it, drew back her foot and kicked the fire out of it.

How can anyone not love that?

Or the little boy running to third base who was instructed to go home? He took it literally and started off the field, much to the chagrin of his mother in the stands.

I love T-Ball. I'm not a big fan of keeping score and all that, but I suppose it's OK. I've found that at that young age and experience level, keeping score and "winning" is for the parents, not the kids. Those kids could get beat 35-0 and after the game ask who won. If you told them they did, they'd be as pleased as punch.

You're not gonna see any shoe contracts or athletic drink contracts on the TBall field. In a few cases, you'll not even see kids who are playing because they love the game. Some are there because Mommy or Daddy wants them to play.

Most, however, want to be there. And the love of the game grows as they do.

The more they play, win or lose, the more they come to love the game. Some will fall away from it as time goes on, but others will flourish.

Some will reap even greater rewards as time goes by.

Right now, though, these youngsters are just having fun. Let them. Don't expect too much from them. Let them be kids. Let them learn to love the game rather than hate it because they were pushed too hard.

If they show a penchant for being a cut above the rest, that's the time to start looking for some of the traveling teams such as the Alley Cats or Pumas, etc.

The most important thing right now is to encourage them, laugh with — not at — them, and by all means, have fun with them.

They're gonna have fun. Try it. You might like it, too.

Gary Trembly is the sports editor of the Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.