Dodgers Reunion

Yesterday, MBA's junior varsity baseball team played the first official game of their nascent baseball season, a non-league tilt against Hillsboro.  The game was uneventful, as MBA easily defeated an undermanned Hillsboro squad 15 - 3.  Neither team hit particularly well but Hillsboro's infield had several errors that led to a couple of big innings for MBA.

What was really cool, though, was seeing several of my former players on the field.  For MBA, Winn Hughes (shortstop), JD Bashion (catcher), Ethan Deerkoski (pitcher), and JP (second base).  For Hillsboro, Riley Hayden (third base), and Cyrus Connor (starting pitcher).  

Cyrus - one of the all time Dodgers - started on the mound for Hillsboro.  He always was the youngest, and quietest, player on our team.  In those days, he was on the small side but I always suspected he would grow bigger than the other boys in the end because his dad and my friend, Ike, is 6'6".  Sure enough, Cyrus is 6' now, taller than me, with a mini-afro that I love.  He's still on the quiet side but as was the case when he was younger, he interacts easily with his teammates, joking around and laughing, even racing one in a spring in left field after the game.  

I always told Nalini and Ike, Cyrus's parents, that he had a future as a pitcher.  He's a kid that God blessed with a magic right arm.  Although he was smaller and thin as a youngster, the whip action of his right arm as he pitched created snap on the ball.  Real speed.  Now, as he's filling out to be a long-legged, superior athlete - just like his dad, who played basketball in college - his fastball is in the low-80's and he has a wicked curve ball.  Impressive, particularly since he's a freshman.  

JP lead off yesterday and I missed his first at bat against Cyrus, a walk on five pitches.  JP stole second and third, too, but was stranded after Cyrus got the third out.  In the end, Cyrus gave up three runs in two innings, striking out four batters (three looking at curve balls).  He also hit a double his first time up.

JP didn't do anything noteworthy at the plate, although he got on base three times on an error and two walks.  That's leadoff hitter's job, I supposed, to get on base one way or the other.  I'd like to see him get his hitting back on track, though, like it was during the middle school season last year, when he was pulling the ball and hitting with power.  He played flawlessly at second base, making all of the routine plays.  

It's going to be a fun baseball season, I think, as we run into more players I coached in years past.  I miss those days terribly, of course, but time marches on, doesn't it?

Dodgers forever.