My Little League memories – 1970's

With a few communities in the TCN area already holding opening ceremonies for their Little League baseball programs (and dates of all others should be e-mailed to sports@tcnpress.com), I look back fondly at my own Little League experience.

To say it was a whole other ball game "back in the day" would be an understatement, but I have no doubt that the enjoyment and excitement of the participants is much the same as mine was.

While I lived in a city of 65,000, the city's summer baseball program did not  fall under the auspices of Little League, and "travel teams" did not exist. This pre-minivan era saw me looping my glove around the handlebars of my one-speed bicycle and pedaling to the local ballpark. We had no uniforms, nor did we have coaches - we had instructors for the first few instructional sessions on fundamentals, and our names were then printed in the local paper along with which team we were assigned to.
 
The games went on with one umpire, and I don't remember any first- or third-base coaching boxes. We were all on our own and "green-lighted," kind of like early Ricky Hendersons.

There were also no  "Little League parents." You all know the type. They can supposedly quote every sub-section of the Little League rulebook and already espouse the "win at all cost" philosophy. We were free to just play the game and enjoy it.

I recall one summer in particular when a boy on my team had an African-American child staying with his family for a few weeks. In my German-Irish hometown, this was notable to grown-ups, but didn't mean beans to me.

When we were getting together before the game and the question "Where is Andre gonna play?" was brought up, I said that he was playing leftfield - my normal spot. I sat this one out.

I related this to my mother when I got home, and when my father came home from work and asked me if I had played a good game, she quickly interjected, "Yes, he sure did."