The “LL” in the title stands for Little League. ESPN has started televising the regional playoffs in the Little League championships. The regional winners will go to Williamsport, Pennsylvania for the Little League World Series.
I love watching the kids play on TV each year because Little League was so important to me.
I played Little League baseball at Wahoma Park in Birmingham, Alabama from 1953 to 1957. This was back in the day when our uniforms, like the professionals, were all wool – both pants and shirt. When you first put it on it was hot and scratchy, but after you sweated in it for a little bit, it was extremely cool and comfortable.
I mostly played center field, but sometimes first base – they assumed if you were left handed you would make a good first baseman. Rarely I pitched, but I sucked as a pitcher. I once gave up four home runs to the same batter in one game. Not my finest moment.
I was a pretty good outfielder and that’s what I liked best. One memory is catching a hard hit fly ball and running into a fence pole just as I caught it. It knocked me out, but I held onto the ball.
My Little League highlight was my last year as a 12 year old. I made the All Star team and we got to the Regional Championship (regional within the state playoffs). We were facing a team with a big kid for their pitcher and he could throw the ball with a lot of heat on it.
We got to the bottom of the 6th inning, the last inning in Little League baseball. We were tied 1 – 1. There was one person on base when I came to bat and there were two outs.
I got down two strikes. I vividly remember the brother of one of my team mates telling me to relax. I took a deep breath and, on the next pitch, hit a home run over the right field fence. I was in a daze running around the bases as I had only hit one other home run in my whole career.
For a moment I was a hero and every boy dreams of that opportunity to do something special.
What made it even more fun was it was my father’s birthday. When I left to go start the game, I popped him on the head with my glove and said, “I’ll hit you a home run for your birthday.”
So, watching these kids play (and they’re ten times better than we were) brings back some nice memories.
PS: We lost in the State playoffs. And the picture above came off the Internet, but that’s pretty much what we looked like.
3 comments:
Your story brings back a flood of memories..and explains your love of the LL World Series.
My little town in upstate NY had no team, so I rode my bike five miles three times a week to practice and games. My glove was used and my bat was held together with screws. (No aluminum bats then)
I was a great fielder but lousy with a bat. I struck out 23 straight times to start my 12 year old season.
Then my dad showed up for a game, patted me on the head, and told me to just relax. I hit three home runs that night-was it my dad being there or his advice? In any case it is the only game from all my years playing that I can remember every minute of...
Thanks for sharing!!
Hey, guess what? We got dish today and we could actually watch the LL world series....if we could only figure out the darn thing.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane and wow...congrats on that home run. Good memories Dan.
must be a "boy thing"~
:)
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