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Little League, the heart of national pasttime

Five O'Clock Shadow

By Charles Deal | Special to the Record

Published: August 30, 2009

What a season.

For real baseball fans, the 70th anniversary of Little League Baseball is an overload of joy and a freshet of happy faces and, at times, tears of disappointment.

It's all happening his weekend as the Little League World Series crowns a champion.

It all happens — for the best of reasons — at Williamsport, Pa., where the league for boys, ages 8 to 12 was founded.

Girls in recent years have crashed through Little League's glass ceiling. It was never more apparent in Tuesday's game between Canada and Germany. In the last of the final inning, with Germany leading 13-12, Katie Reyes was at bat in the bottom of the final inning. She drove across two runs, sealing the 14-13 victory for the Canadians.

While Major League Baseball stages a "world series" each fall, its world is limited to North America, where only Canada provides international flavor. The Boys of Summer in Little League truly play the game around the world. A sampling of games include Taipei China, Japan, Germany, Canada, Curacao, Saudi Arabia and a sprinkling of American teams from California to New York.

While some of the teams rely on playing "small ball using the bunt to move base-runners into scoring position, a number of games featured five or more home runs. The greatest show was a youngster who knocked two homers in the same big inning.

One of the coaches returns to Williamsport every season, for nearly 40 years, whether or not his team wins its way to the big show.

Little Leaguers come in all sizes. One kid, 6-feet and 180 pounds, is in sharp contrast to one of the smallest, a tiny left-handed pitcher who protected a small Texas lead in the bottom of the last inning.

If you love baseball, volunteer for at least one season as a Little League coach.

My turn came in the middle of the last century in a small tobacco town in eastern North Carolina.
The experience was memorable.

Until it was too late to back out, I learned that the teams had already been drafted. My team was the remaining dregs, most of the kids from the wrong side of the tracks.

Not long out of the military, I was accustomed to raunchy talk, but these guys had words that shocked me.

My first lecture was on four-letter words. The kids were surprised they could use the words, but there was a consequence: You will be assigned a place on the bench and would not be able to play.

I never heard a word that resulted in bench time.

Although more than 50 years have slipped past, some names of the boys remain memorable.

My top pitcher was Clem, a skinny boy with a whistling fastball. On occasion, Clem had a hunch where it might go, including over the backstop.

Clem had a fine strikeout record for good reason. Many of the batters he faced were willing to take three quick slashes and run for the safety of the dugout.

In a time when all players were not guaranteed playing time, on our team it was standard operating procedure.

Our ace in the hole was Little Mike, an undersized boy of 8.

When we needed someone on base, Mike became a pinch hitter, who caused nightmares for a pitcher in the daytime. Pitching to someone that small usually meant a walk. Mike would remain in the game as a seasoned second baseman.

The dead-end kids rewarded the sponsoring Lions Club by winning the regular season and playoffs.

Teams in the league voted "the kids on the wrong side of the tracks" the most important award of all, the Sportsmanship Trophy —- the heart of Little League Baseball.

Charles Deal is a former newspaper editor and publisher. Reach him at chazdeal@aol.com.