Little League Memories

[Texsox]

We were driving though a tiny Missouri town which had its July 4th decorations up at their little league fields with a game going on. A flood of memories followed. 

Craziest play I was ever involved in. I was 10 and playing in the All Star game after the parade. For some reason I was playing 3rd. I never played 3rd before. 

Runner on first,  a line drive comes at my head and more for self defense than anything else I raised the borrowed glove ( I only had a catcher's mit with me) and somehow hung on. The home plate umpire signals out. The hit was so fast the coaches were yelling where's the ball? Confusion is starting. I see the batter running to first and throw to first. The 1st baseman tags the base and the ump signals out. Meanwhile the 1st baseman sees the runner heading to 3rd and throws it back to me and I tag the baserunner. The 3rd base ump (big game 4 umps) signals out. 

Triple Play!!!! People are cheering. I'm getting pats on the back. We run into the dugout. The other team grabs their gloves and starts running onto the field.

Time out!! Neither scorekeeper could figure out how to score it. Gradually what really happened became clear.  A few minutes later we were back in our positions with 2 outs. Lol 

 

[greg775]

Great memories. Mine from 115th st. Little League in Mt. Greenwood. Played for the Bears. Have so many memories.

I will say back in the day little kids played baseball every day and coaches could put some great 10 to 12 year old Little League teams on the field. For instance, our team rarely made errors. I mean we little guys caught everything hit to us.

The memory I'd like to share is way back in the day our coaches, two old guys named Mr. Keough and Charlie Keough, got us kids together at a practice before the first game and said, "Look. We have a rule. When you are 12, your third year with the team, you play the whole game, every game. But ages 10 and 11 we play the best players. You might play a lot; you might play a little. Just remember at 12 if you are still here you play the whole game.''

He said, our other option is he could play everybody the same amount if that's what we want. If we do that, Mr. Keough told us, we will lose almost all our games. If we do it his way he said, "We will probably win the title or come close. What do you want to do?"

Each kid agreed we wanted to play the best kids and win, which we did. Not the whole thing but made the world series 1 of my 3 years and playoff championship series one of my three years. The other year we were good but didn't advance.

My point? To heck with this new generation of playing all kids the same amount. Let the best kids play, try to have as many practices as you can find fields for, and make sure the best kids are playing. I'd never trade the memories of winning baseball. One team in our league played everybody the same amount and they didn't win a game.

Oh and when I was 10, my role was play 3B when the 3B/pitcher we had pitched. I even got to play one of the World Series games cause he pitched. Other times I sat the bench awaiting my turn at 11 and 12 when I started and played the whole game. Fun memories.

Edited July 19, 2021 by greg775