Little league baseball was a pretty magical experience, at least from my perspective. Which, hopefully many of you may think the same. It all happens at such a perfect time of innocence and imagination. When we all spent hours in our backyards playing wiffle ball, declaring which major league baseball player we were portraying. Mario Rivera now pitching to Ken Griffey Jr…
Which, I often tell people when talking about my experience, it is the only thing I ever really did that made me feel like I was truly in the major leagues on a professional baseball team. As you were working the way up the ranks from tee-ball, to C league, to B league, and then finally to A, you spend so much time admiring the older kids in the league and wanting to be like them. Not to mention they have the biggest stands with more people watching it always seemed, everything seemed more intense at that level. I for one spend much time just hanging around the baseball field anyways. The A league players were also at the top of the chain at your elementary school.
It all combines to make that magical feeling when you make your way up to A league, especially that opening day, feeling like one of the coolest kids in the world. Every game you felt like all eyes were on you and that the games had so much value to them, after those years I would never experience anything ever quite the same way again… not long after you are entering middle school and at the bottom of the totem pole, going through puberty, and coming to realize all new definitions of cool.
But, to get back to A ball in little league, often times we hear a lot of about how coaches get too intense or parents get too excited, which they certainly can go overboard at the time. But, from that little leaguer’s perspective, this is the biggest event that has ever happened in their life, and these games are extremely important, in our heads, we are in the big leagues right now…. and we wanted a big-league coach, someone that seemed to care as much about the game as we did.
I say this, because my father may have been considered one of those coaches that seemed to get a little overboard sometimes, probably embarrassed my mom up in the stands at times. But, to this day, when I see some of my old teammates, they still bring up how fun baseball was and being on that team, and always ask how my dad is doing. He has forever endeared himself in a place of their hearts…
I just thought this would be a fun thing to talk about, and maybe bring back some fond memories for some of you out there, that enjoyed their time as a professional baseball player…
But, I also wanted to say, I wouldn’t like to see all the intensity of the coaches be drained from the game, as having our coaches out there fighting for us made the games feel all the more real and important. Would be nice to find the happy medium in there.
They helped sell the big-league dream…
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