A Dad's League

Last April, my son brought home a paper from school. It began, "Are you tired of spending money to sports programs, only to have your child spend most of the time on the bench?" That hadn't happened to us yet, but then, we hadn't signed up our son for Little League baseball. I knew well that Little League is not an equal opportunity sport.

The paper came from our neighbor, the father of two sons and an avid baseball fan. For various personal reasons, he decided to start his own baseball program this summer. It was open for children in the same age range as his sons (14 children signed up), and they would meet on Saturday mornings until school let out. As soon as summer vacation started, they met every day, from 10 am to noon. If it rained, they all gathered at my neighbor's home to trade baseball cards and learn how to figure out ERA and batting averages. A minor league baseball team donated caps and t-shirts. The only cost to us was having a number and our child's name put on the t-shirt.

Originally, my neighbor's goal was to teach the kids baseball skills - something that our local Little League program doesn't do. "It's terrible," he told me, "that these kids don't understand who the cut-off man should be, or that they don't know how to bunt." What he didn't bargain for was the kids' need to play "real" games. They wanted the competition. Winning was important; it was a sense of pride.

Each kid played each position - they are all vital, stressed the coach - and I wonder if this was the first time in youth baseball a child didn't feel relegated to no-man's land in right field. These are fairly normal kids, and pitching remained the prima donna position. I laughed at the kids as they bragged about who they struck out.

From June to August, these kids played baseball five days a week. They had the time of their lives. It was a chance for them not only to learn, but to do what we all did as kids - play semi-organized neighborhood pick-up games.

Another father from the neighborhood has picked up the idea for basketball season. The popularity of the baseball program had spread around the school, and interest in the basketball program was outstanding. Again, the only cost to us is the price of the shirt. For forty-five minutes, the kids run drills. For forty-five minutes, the kids play a game. The kids are having fun.

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