I was given the idea to do this from Jeff, and although we haven’t really talked about a new series, I wanted to take it up on myself and all of you to start writing posts about our favorite memories from when we played little league. So I’ll start with this first memory and see where it goes from here.
One of the first things that comes into my head when thinking of Little league is the two years I was lucky enough to take a trip to San Bernardino. District 57, the district that had all the Little Leagues around my area got to go to San Bernardino for a tournament against all the other Little Leagues. As a member of district 57 we were the only ones who were able to have the opportunity to go play at the stadium that held the Western Regional’s. As an 11 year old, traveling with some of my best friends to where some of the best players at our age compete was so exciting and I couldn’t wait.
All the teams got their own dorm rooms, and were next to each other which wasn’t a great idea. The reason it wasn’t a great idea was because my most vivid memory from the two times I went was. San Ramon LL had made an Axe bomb, for anyone reading this that doesn’t know what an Axe bomb is, it’s Axe spray cologne and you would wrap a rubber band around it and it would spray until there was nothing left. San Ramon LL did this to another Little Leagues dorm and got in trouble for it and they had to run, and at that age watching other kids get in trouble and having to run was a top tier thing that could happen. That wasn’t the only good thing to happen, every morning we would have team breakfast with all the teams, during the day, most of our time was spent playing wiffle ball which was great, and we would watch the other teams play.
As for how the tournament went this particular year, we made it to the championship, sadly we lost. I don’t remember exactly how I did, but all I know is that it was a great time playing baseball with all my friends and being able to play where the best in the west got to.
I enjoyed all the posts on this story. I guess the biggest thing we drew from LL is being a member of a team and learning that what you do affects others. I played football to as a kid as well and that is my favorite thing I have learned from team sports; your actions affect others that you are with.
When I was a kid, they did not have the “everybody plays” rule, so I never joined Little League. No sense paying the fees, etc… to sit on the bench all season.
Out here in NC little league for me was for ages 10-12. I was in my 10 year old season in 2001. My brother was 12 and I got drafted to his team. We were the worst team in the league, we won something like 2 games! Highlights for me were striking out only 4 times all season and starting in the cleanup spot in the order as a 10 yr old.
Despite our team being so bad we did have me an 2 other 10 yr olds to form the core of our team for the next two seasons. All the parents would say “Just wait until them 3 are 12, we’ll be unstoppable.” Fast forward 2 years and that core added 3 more 12 yr olds (you could only have 6 12 year olds on a team) and we absolutely dominated. We went from winning 2 games to years ago to losing only 2 games and making the league championship. Ended up losing but, damn that was a fun season.
Also, I made the 10 yr old All-star team. We won the state championship. And one guy from that All Star team made it to the big leagues, Alex Wood.
Is it this Alex Wood?
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/woodal02.shtml
Yup, that’s the one
Little League for me was in like 1975 to 1978 – almost a half century ago. I don’t remember much but what I do remember were the obnoxious parents – many of who were smoking cigarettes, some drinking booze and yelling stupid comments at the umpires and players. It was a lot like the Bad News Bears. We kids had to just take the abuse and ignore the parents – things were very different then and parents were rarely ejected from the stands. There were also lots of fights and a lack of any real coaching. These kids today with travel ball and training facilities and video analysis of their swings have it much different than we did.
Memory #2:
I sucked at baseball and had bad eyesight. Those two were probably related. One night I was standing in my customary right field spot when a high fly ball headed my way. I needed to run in to catch the ball but realized I was about to over run it and tried to hit the brakes.
My feet stopped but my face went forward right into the ball and I wore it. I’d just picked up new eyeglasses that afternoon. My mom was concerned for both me and the spectacles, ha ha.
To add to the humiliation the home plate umpire that night was a high school kid named Brooks I’d known my entire life and kind of looked up to like a big bro. He stopped the game to check on me out of genuine concern, but I was fine and this just put a spotlight on me.
Memory #1:
My tee ball team was sponsored by Salinas Auto Sales. That was the last name of local businessman Baldomir Salinas who was later arrested along with his brother for importing and distributing literal tons of cocaine into the country, using small planes to land at their farms in the Central Valley and Texas and often shipping the drugs inside cars sold at Salinas Auto Sales.
So whenever I watch Scarface and see Ray Liogga talking about his Little League team, it reminds me of my youth.
Ha! I remember being so proud of my team names. Deepdale Delicatessen at 9, then 3 years of Englewood Coal and Lumber. Coal! That’s how long ago it was.
Double J Packaging
We played in Burbank.
Yep. On a small town you knew the business owners.
I swam in Salinas pool. Later I played for Salyards Plumbing and Star Market.
One of my earlier memories was wanting my turn to play catcher and then getting an inner thigh foul ball and realizing pain went with the cool gear. I also realized too (Later) that if you actually extend your glove out further from your body you can minimize some of those painful laying on the clay moments.
I didn’t even play Little League until I was twelve and was super nervous as most kids had been playing for years. I was obsessed with Angels baseball and was “stoked” to get drafted by the Angels and picked uniform #7 just like Dave Chalk. I ended up being much better than I expected and even hit my first over the fence HR. Four hits = four snackbar tickets!
Yeah, I remember being picked by the Padres….I was crushed.
oh yeah! I have to tell this one!
My minor league Little League team when I was 9 emerged as champs at that level so we went to the awards ceremony. At that time we lived in Queens, NYC.
Handing out the trophies was local resident Whitey Ford. We were in heaven!
That is awesome.
In my first at-bat in my first t-ball game in Pee Wee League as a 6 year old, I hit a ball toward the shortstop. I had no idea that you could stop at a base so I just kept running around the bases, and of course, this was Pee Wee League so nobody could make a good throw or catch a ball if there was a good throw so I went all the way around the bases.
The game was fairly early in the morning so my mother was there but my father had to work. My mother was cheering loudly. My mother told this story to her very last days.
I love that! I remember one year when I was 9 I hit a “homerun”. We were playing in a park with 4 diamonds and the RF for the other team was watching one of the other games instead of the one he was playing in! So my groundball through the hole went right past him.
Yeah, I never got over that, thanks EiP (J/K).
I was good enough to make the city league all-star team as the starting LF but what I remember most were the failures.
Like for instance, I wanted to finish the season hitting .500. I had one last at-bat, needed a hit. I grounded out to short and ended up with a .476 average. I mean, I must have had a bunch of hits but the only at-bat I remember in the regular season was that groundout.
And then, in the tournament (in New Jersey) I had a chance to knock in the go-ahead run in the 6th and whiffed. Oh well.
Same game, when we got eliminated, I made the best throw of my life. The other team, Haworth, NJ, had runners on 1st and 2nd in the 8th, 1 out, the batter singled to left where I fielded it on the run, coming in, and I threw the runner out at home. Good for me! But our catcher saw the guy who’d been on 1st on his way to 3rd and threw over the head of our 3B so I had to chase down the ball and had no chance of getting that kid at home. I threw it anyway, into their celebration. Haworth then lost to the team that lost to the team that won the state championship so I figure we must have been 4th best in the state, right?
Time I remember most was fouling a bunt attempt off my lower lip…ouch!!
I have many found memories of coaching a men’s slow pitch softball team.
I hated playing baseball… not many great memories at all. From being disappointed for my first team (the mudhens…, eventually changing to the Astros since nobody liked that name/logo), to getting knocked out in a dugout one time by one of my teammates, to just not being good at all (pushed mainly into playing by my mom). Only real good memory I have from it was the little league days at Angels Stadium, walking in with all the other teams on the field. Soccer and golf were mainly my sports I enjoyed playing growing up (and had way more succes in).
I was the kid who got stashed in right field. I loved baseball, but it didn’t love me back.