Little League years come to a close for Georgetown 12-year-old baseball all-stars

It all started at the rocky American Legion Park bandstand with T-ball in 2005.?

A mix of boys and girls donned Phillies, Pirates and Dodgers hats. They got bubble gum and flailed away at a stationary ball. I remember one kid stopped running between second and third bases to pick up a penny.

One mom made her kid wear her sweatshirt on a brisk night. He ran the bases with her keys jiggling in the pockets that hung down by his ankles. Scott Bellefuielle had an unassisted triple play chasing one runner all around the park. A catch was a miracle to be cheered like someone hitting for the cycle. Popsicles awaited all the players, win or lose.

Farm League introduced them to a moving target as the coaches threw darts at a spot likely to occupy the barrel of the bat. Ninety percent of the action was choppers to the ?pitcher? ? a kid standing in the shadow of the coach doing the actual pitching. It?s usually the one kid who was freakishly advanced in his motor skill development.

Half the players could only catch a soft one basket style, but they could throw hard which presented a problem ? who has to play first base. There are a few more catches and the occasional ground ball home run which gets Penn Brook as loud as Fenway (in 2010).

Minor League, for the third-and fourth-graders, starts getting very competitive. The kids get to pitch and there is stealing. The coaches are off the field and the players start to look like the real thing.

The pitching is wild and half the batters are scared to death of getting hit by a pitch. I remember Sean Thompson, our best bat for the all-stars over the years, would bail out on every pitch early on. Until one day, he fouled one off and got a little courage. He blasted the next one up the middle and continued to do that for the next four years.

Just as common though are the ones who get plunked and inch further and further away until they need a 30 inch bat just to reach the inside corner. You encourage them and hope they?ll have that "a-ha" moment and swing away without fear ... at bat, and in life.?

The Major League was my favorite. It introduced leading and a slightly bigger field. There were some home runs hit the traditional way, over the fence at American Legion Park. Pitchers start developing some guile and the fielding gets better every game.

The all-stars stand out, driving balls into the gaps and stealing bases at will. But everyone still dreams of being on the Red Sox, batting cleanup or striking out the side to close a game. Everyone has a moment where it all comes together and they?ll hang on to that memory as long as they live. That?s the truth ? I hit a triple off 6-foot-5-inch Darren Sullivan in 1979 ... and the memory gets better with age.?

So, now the Georgetown 12-year-old all-star team players have finished off their summer schedule. Next year, they move to the big diamond. They?ll have to start getting muscles to get the ball beyond the dirt of the infield. They?ll need binoculars for the throw from third to first.

But with the core skills developed over these six years from dozens of volunteer parents, they can take the next step with confidence and keep playing this wonderful game of baseball for as long as possible.

Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/georgetown/newsnow/x1405825732/Little-League-years-come-to-a-close-for-Georgetown-12-year-old-baseball-all-stars

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