Dodgertown

Baseball for the boys began in earnest this week and that means one very important thing - Dodgertown is back!

Our special group has grown this year to J.P.'s "Minor" league team of 9-10 year olds with 13 players and Joe's "Wookie" league team of 4-6 year olds with 20 (!) players.  I had to split Joe's team, the Junior Dodgers, into 2 teams because we had so many boys interested in playing this spring.  The league agreed to schedule their Saturday games back-to-back, which is actually pretty cool because it gives families some scheduling flexibility in determining the game in which they want their son to play.  Joe, of course, played in both games yesterday because, well, he's Joe.

Tuesday night, after the final preseason practice for the Dodgers (J.P.'s team), we had a hastily planned but perfectly executed 9th birthday party for J.P.  It was pretty great to watch the boys and their siblings gulp down pizza, then play football, tag, etc. on the baseball field in the twilight while their parents sat in the bleachers talking and laughing.  We finished with cupcakes from Ivy Cakes in Franklin (down from my office), which were a huge hit.  It was a near perfect evening.

Wednesday, my friend, Chad and I met at the Filling Station and had a beer while we worked out the rosters for our two Junior Dodger teams.  It was a bit of a challenge given that several parents had requested their son play with a particular boy and we had a set of brothers and and a set of cousins.  It all fell into place, especially after Chad and I had our second beer.

Yesterday - opening day - was fantastic.  The Junior Dodgers' two games went smoothly.  In the first game, we played against a team coached by my old friend, Tom Courts, who was pinch hitting as head coach for two of his sons who were out of town.  I have a few holdovers from our team last spring, as a result of which I can place some fathers who know what they're doing in strategic positions to help keep things organized.  The two dads - Tony R. and Joe W. - who ran the dugouts in the games did marvelous jobs.  Experience has taught me the key to a smooth running baseball game is having a coach keep the boys in the dugout in line.  With the younger ones, we seat them and baby them in numerical order (0-12 or 12-0), which means we can get everyone to the plate to bat more efficiently.

Joe hit well, even scorching a line drive that rolled to the fence.  He made a couple of nice throws in the field, although at his age every batted ball ends up in a skirmish as the boys tackles each other and wrestle in an effort to come up with the ball.  By the second half of the season, we'll have them a little more under control in the field.

J.P.'s game game against the Giants (as a lifelong Dodger fan, I hate any and all baseball teams named the Giants and wearing the hideous orange band black uniforms) went down to the wire.  The boys struggled early against a tough left-handed pitcher who went a couple of innings.  J.P. struck out his first time at bat, thanks in part to the umpire's generous strike zone (to say the least) on the outside part of the plate.  I pitched Aidan, Benton, J.P., Porter and Wes, in that order.

J.P. struggled mightily on the mound, pitching into and out of trouble as he walked two batters.  However, he struck out his third batter of the inning with the bases loaded and didn't give up a run.  It was pretty cool to see him pump his fist when the boy who made the last out swung and missed.  J.P. trotted off the mound with a grin on his face.

In the top of the 5th, an extra inning as it were, the Giants nicked Wes for one run and led 6-5 heading into the bottom half of the inning.  I felt reasonably optimistic, though, as our 2-3-4 hitters were scheduled to bat.  Aidan, leading off, was hit by a pitch.  We pinch ran Benton for him, and scratched out a run to tie it in a couple of infield hits and an errant throw to first base.  With no outs, we had boys on second and third, with J.P. coming to bat.

I called timeout as strode to the plate and motioned him over toward me as I left the dugout.  I bent down and said quietly to him, "in this situation, hit the ball hard to the right side - don't worry about trying to pull the ball - and drive Wes in from third base."  He looked at me seriously, nodded his head, and turned away.

As his teammates cheered from the dugout, he took a called strike one, predictably way off and outside of home plate.  He stepped out of the batter's box for a minute, collected himself, then hit a hard ground ball to the right side of the infield, toward second base.  As Wes crossed the plate with the winning run and the umpire signaled the end of the game, the boys erupted from the dugout cheering and high-fiving each other.  As J.P. jogged back toward the dugout, Cooper engulfed him in a bear hug and the other boys followed suit.

I beamed and realized I had just witnessed one of best moments of my life so far.  I hugged J.P. and he smiled broadly and proudly as our parents cheered wildly from their perch on the hill beside the third base dugout.

Dodgertown is back.  And I couldn't be happier about it.