Anyone who knows me knows I love baseball, always have, always will. Over the years I’ve had the privilege of covering baseball from the highest levels in Wrigley Field and Bush Stadium to watching a five-year-old pick up a bat not made out of plastic for the first time in tee ball. Baseball is the thing that gets me through the long winters on the Range.
Ask any of my former sports colleagues and they will tell you I start talking about spring training in January. in fact I circle the date on the calendar (or did when the calendar was still printed on paper) of when pitchers and catchers report as my personal official end of winter.
When I ran into a friend of mine last week and he asked if I’d be interested in covering the Rock Ridge Youth Baseball hosted, first travel league tournament of the season held last Saturday and Sunday in Virginia’s historic Olcott Park I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate my first full weekend as a newly minted independent photojournalist.
I got to the field Sunday afternoon in my typical fashion when I don’t have an official schedule, the minute the morning games ended and the start of the leagues 2 hour lunch break! Somehow I have an innate ability to always show up at the moment lunch is called, no matter what time lunch is called!
There were two games starting for the afternoon session all from the 11U travel league. Hibbing was playing Hermantown on the lower field and Rock Ridge took on the Diamond Dawgs of Cherry on the upper field. Since I can only be on one field at a time and because Rock Ridge was the host team for the tournament I grabbed a spot along the third base line to watch Rock Ridge jump off to a fast start putting up a quick four run inning. The Wolverines would pad that lead with some timely hitting mixed in with some truly impressive defense.
The Diamond Dawgs still had something to say about the matter, however, when they put up a six-run rally of their own to keep the game competitive. The game ended with both teams trading a couple of runs an inning until the last pitch in the 5th due to league time limits.
The atmosphere was everything that you could hope for in youth sports. The players were excited to be on the field. They cheered on their teammates from the dugouts. Both teams flashed the skills they are learning with solid hitting and much better glove work than I could have dreamed of at 11. They also showed that they are learning and growing in the sport with missed plays and wild pitches and the coaches really impressed by quickly turning those situations into positive learning opportunities.
At the end of the game both teams lined up in the baseball tradition to shake hands one side with a little bigger smile than the other but both sides defiantly smiling and parents packing up lawn chairs planning what I would assume would be a well-earned trip to Dairy Queen.
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