Let's talk some baseball!

Jack's post about baseball and the start of the new season has inspired me to write about baseball, but let's forget about the professionals. Let's talk about true baseball - Little League.

In the early 60's there weren't 112 different kid's baseball leagues, and just because you signed up it didn't mean you got to play. There was only Little League, at least in Arlington, TX. There were a limited number of teams and a limited number of roster spots on each team. You had to try out and the managers then drafted players from the tryouts to fill out their teams. Players were ages 10-12.

There were about 8 leagues or divisions in Arlington and the winners played for the city championship and the right to go on to the Little League playoffs. The teams in our league were the Kiwanis Katz, B&B Grocers, First National Bankers, Builders, Eagles, Tornadoes, Scorpions, and Crusaders. The last two teams were added in my 12-year old year. They had been started as minor league teams when I was 10 for the guys who didn't make "the majors". All the teams has a business sponsor but I can't remember all of them

Gary either wasn't selected or didn't try out as a 10-year old, so we were both trying out when I was 10. We were selected by the Katz. Our color was yellow and the uniforms were a gray flannel with yellow trim, long yellow stirup socks, and a big Kiwanis Katz patch the size of a football sewn on the back. Our coaches were Mr. Boykin and Coach Brown. Coach Taylor also coached our football team when I was in the 6th grade. Mr. Boykin had a daughter, Patricia, in my class. She was one of the prettiest girls in school, so I was real happy with my team.

As a 10-year old, my Katz team wasn't very good and I don't remember playing a whole lot. About all I really do remember about that season was that a couple of guys quit the team and when Gary and I went on vacation for 2 weeks they had to forfeit the games while we were gone. Coach Taylor also had a son on our team. I think he was the same age as Gary. He wasn't very good but I remember him being funny. He was a nice guy. It was either this year or my 11-year old year that we upset the Builders. Their pitcher, Don Kirby, threw real fast and was usually in the strike zone. One game we got an umpire who was as scared of Don's fastballs as the batters. I don't know why, but he wouldn't call a high strike. We figured out that if we squatted down real low he'd walk us. I squatted so low that my shoulders were only slightly higher than my knees. The umpire used that 4-inch strike zone and not a normal batting stance. Kirby walked in a bunch of runs and we won. So much for my 10-year old season.

The next year we played the opening game for the entire city. We got to ride on the fire truck in the parade from downtown to Senter Park and I got my glove autographed by Miss Arlington, Bonnie Bebee. Gary was our opening day pitcher. we lost 3-2 to the Tornadoes. I think I played center field that game. During the course of the year I played every position except pitcher. Again, we didn't have a real good team and lost more games than we won.

One of our better players was Jimmy something. He was small, very fast, and played catcher. Bradley Johnson was an 11-year old pitcher who threw sidearm and threw very hard. Unfortunately, he didn't have much control. I remember one game where Brad kept walking guys and Jimmy kept getting mad at Brad and throwing the ball back to the pitcher as hard as he could and yelling at him. It wasn't long before Bradley was crying. Coach Taylor kicked Jimmy off the team and put me at catcher.

Since I had a catcher's mitt and caught Gary all the time so he could practice pitch, they decided I would be the catcher. Besides, we had no one else. The chest protector was so large it swallowed me. Even pulled up as tight as the straps would allow, you could have put two of me in it. If the ball was on the ground and I bent over to pick it up, the chest protector would swing out and block my vision. I had to hold it with my glove hand and pick up the ball with the other. Fortunately, I only had to catch a couple of games. A new kid moved into town, Chris Burkett (I think), and he was a catcher and they let him take Jimmy's place. One highlight for me was against the Bankers and their pitcher, Mike Nicole. I think the Bankers won our league and Mike was the best pitcher in the league. He was also our quarterback. I had broken my right index finger and it was in a curved, metal splint. I got to go in as a pinch hitter late in the game. We were losing 5-0. I couldn't grip the bat real tight with my right hand becasue of the splint, but when Mike threw, I swung and hit a line drive over the first baseman's head. The ball hit and kicked toward the foul line and rolled all the way to the corner of the field. Their RFer was playing straight away and by the time he got to the ball I was already rounding second. He threw to the second baseman and by the time he caught it I had rounded third. I beat the throw home for an inside the park home run! For the last game of the season the starting lineup was the players that would return for the next season and we won.

My 12-year old season didn't start quite like I had hoped. I was supposed to be one of the 12-year old pitchers. Each team was only allowed to designate two 12-year old pitchers and those two remained in place for the entire season. You couldn't change them. A new kid, Ronnie Morris, moved into town. He was supposed to be a real good pitcher and hitter so Coach Taylor got his dad to sign up as our Coach and Ronnie was placed on our team. I was bumped from pitching every other game to full-time shortstop. Really, that was a good move because I wasn't a very good pitcher. I didn't throw hard and my control wasn't that good either. Ronnie was really good until he blew up for a couple of games in the season.

I was very fast and batted lead off. I'd bunt for a single, steal second and sometimes third, and score by the second or third batter. Our 3B batted second. I think his name was Rodney and he was an 11-yr old. Bradley batted 3rd and hit a lot of home runs. Doug Tye played 1B and batted 4th, Chris Burkett, the catcher, batted 5th, Ronnie Morris played LF and batted 6th, Gary Ellis played CF and batted 7th, Flowers (I can't remember his first name) was another 11-yr old and played 2B and batted 8th, and one of two other 11-yr olds, ? Pierce and Chris ? would bat 9th and play RF. We should have had another couple of players but I don't remember who they were. They didn't play much. We only lost one game and that was when Ronnie totally lost his control and walked in 100 guys. We were behind from start to finish due to walks. Bradley couldn't pitch in two games in a row and we didn't have anyone else. The next time Ronnie pitched he was OK for the first few innings before going whacko. They'd worked a little with Chris the RFer and he came in to pitch to the last couple of batters to preserve the win. I hit another inside the park home run that year on a hit similar to the one the year before. In the last game of the regular season we were playing the Bankers. It was my 2nd or 3rd time up that game and their coaches were yelling, "Scoot up and watch for the bunt!" Coach Taylor gave me the hit away sign. The pitch was a fastball down the middle. I swung and hit a high fly ball over the left-centerfield fence by the concession stand at Senter Field, my first and only true Little League home run.

We won the first half outright and tied the Builders for the 2nd half, each with one loss. Since we beat them we thought we had won the tiebreaker and wouldn't have a playoff. All the other leagues were having playoffs since different teams had won each half. For example, Verne Hargave's team with Rusty Ward had won one half but lost the other half to Don Bodenhammer's team. Rusty later played in the Cincinatti Reds organization during the era of the Big Red Machine. He couldn't get out of AAA because of Ken Griffey, Sr and the other OF stars of that team. Verne's team lost their league playoff so they didn't make the city playoffs. Our league decided that we needed to have a playoff with the Builders for the 2nd half championship. If they won that game we'd have another playoff for the league championship the next day.

We won the the playoff highlighted with a really neat 3-6 double play to close the game. We were winning 1-0 in the last inning. Somehow, Mike Pringle (he was later a QB for Arlington High and a coach at Bailey during Emily's years) for the Builders had advanced to 3rd with one out. Their coach called for a squeeze bunt to try and score the tying run. When the batter squared to bunt our 1B and 3B charged the plate. The batter bunted a one hopper down the first base line that Doug Tye fielded on one hop and tagged the batter. Pringle, seeing the ball fielded so quickly, stopped and tried to get back to 3rd. I had broken to cover 3rd when the batter squared, so I was covering the bag and waiting for Doug's throw, I caught it and tagged Pringle for out #3 and the ball game. On to the City Playoffs!

Our first game was against a team that had Phil Mycoskie who has done a couple of knee surgeries and a shoulder surgery on me and a kid named Shellhammer. I'm not sure why I knew Shellhammer, but I did. My mom was nurse at the Arlington Clinic for Phil's dad. We won 3-2 or 5-2. Our next gamw was against Bodenhammer's team. He threw a good fastball and a very good curveball. I'd never seen a curve before. My second time up, we had a couple of guys on base. On the first pitch I ducked out of the way and the umpire called "Strike one!" Same thing on the second pitch. I looked back at the umpire. It was Mr. Kirpatrick, the Builders' coach. "He's throwing a curve," he said. On the third pitch I stood in, waited for the curve, and slammed the ball one hop off the right-centerfield fence driving in a couple of runs. Again, we won a close game, I think 3-2 setting up the championship game against the Olds 88 Rockets.

They batted first and we got them out. Again, I started off our hitting with a bunt. I was so nervous that I held onto the bat too tight and the ball ended up as a ground ball that made it past the pitcher and I beat the throw to first. I think I scored. A few plays stand out in my memory. Early in the game one of their guys tried to steal second. I took the throw and tagged the guy 6 feet from second base. The umpire called him safe. He claimed I never tagged the guy, but I had tagged him on his chest. He scored later in the inning after 2 were out. Also, their big hitter blasted a home run off Bradley. No one had hit a HR off him all year. It really pysched him, so much so that he intentionally walked him the next time up. The game went extra innings. The umpires rotated every three innings, so by this time the guy that had made the call on 2b was now behind the plate. He wouldn't call a strike so they scored went ahead. There were already 2 outs when I came up in our part of the inning. The first pitch was well over my head but the umpire called it a strike. The second pitch was in the same place so I swung at it anyway because the ump would have called it. Coach Taylor called time and came down to talk to me. I told him about the ump and he said don't worry about it, just hit the ball. The next pitch was over and I hit it for a clean single. Our next batter made the 3rd out so we didn't get to Bradley and lost the game.

That was the end of my baseball career. After that it was fastpitch softball and later slowpitch softball.