In celebration that baseball is back...post your favorite Little League pic/stories
 

Thought it would be fun to get some baseball excitement back in our lives and reminisce as most us played tee ball/Little League/Babe Ruth leagues, etc. some time ago.

Let see how many posts/pics/stories we can get....

Mine:
1981 (age 14). Scandinavian League (Fresno, CA) which is now defunct. Sweet uniforms that were recycled each year for All Stars. Played with at least 4 guys who advanced through the minor leagues (none made the show) and one good friend who played 11 years in the NFL. Great times but the seasons were always so short (April-June) and long before year round ball as we know it today.

United California Bank Tigers 1964 (Lancaster California) with my Ed Mathews model bat. The Little League field was just around the corner and I bought many baseball cards there. Of course thanks to my coaches who I still remember. Dwayne Murphy was on my Pony League team he was one year younger than me and had a great MLB career mostly with the Oakland As.
Larry
https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=28678

The first ball team I ever played on - The 1972 Orioles of Poquoson Little League. We had an orange 'O' ironed on our hats, provided the team mom with white t-shirts that she dyed black and played in our most expendable pair of jeans. If you were lucky, you had a pair of cleats. That's me in the middle.

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My Pa played First Base for St. Joe's Church League. That's him at the arrow in the back!

He taught me and my 3 brothers how to play THE GAME on our Whiffle Ball Field that we kept groomed next door! It was aptly named Ruthole Park before we moved on to Little League.

He was a GOOD MAN!

RIP, Pa Z!

LL Photo
 

My team from 1968. We were undefeated and getting ready to play an all star team from our league. It was our last game. I'm in front row with the cast on my arm. I broke it 3 days before the game playing football.

1975 American Blacks - City champs and regional runners up.
I'm second from left on the bottom row. Played third base.
1976 Pony League Pirates - City champs (a lot of the same players from my 1975 team) and regional runners up. Played second base. I'm third from the right on the bottom row. Some of my happiest times growing up were on the ballfield. My Dad was a little league coach for 25 years and won several state championships. Baseball lived at our house.

1970 Little League Champs
 

1970 Little League, we won the league championship. I am on the front right, smallest and youngest kid on the team. Played right field and pitched relief, I was a lefty, should have stuck with it...took up golf instead. I still have the uniform.

1978 - Central Federal Savings & Loan. Champions of the Clinton, Indiana Pony League. My first season of playing baseball.

Nothing compares to being the manager for my son's Little League team 40 years later as they captured the Natomas, CA crown!

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Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

I don't have any pictures, but the last year I played in Little League (2007), my team went undefeated in the regular season (our pitcher threw a no-hitter on Opening Day). We steamrolled the team that had won the championship the year before, beat a pitcher who later went on to play DI baseball...and then were bounced in the first round of the playoffs. We lost the first two games, won the next two, and were eliminated on tiebreakers.

Kid at heart
 

No little league but how about Cubs Fantasy camp?

Definitely counts + bonus points!

August 2013 almost made it to Williamsport!
 

I had just returned from Afghanistan with the US Army.

It was August 2013.

My son's team was 2 wins from Williamsport (no Vermont team has EVER been to LL WS). We played a RI team that we had beaten a few days prior. Our best pitcher got tired and we gave up a 3 run blast and we then had to drive home! Ughhhhhhh..... some of the best memories I've ever had and such an amazing week! This pic was taken by a NESN photographer of my son "in action". Reminded me of my little league days but honestly was way more exciting!

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Little League World Series
 

Before moving to Pennsylvania in 2002, we lived in Toms River, NJ for 20 years.
In 1998, the excitement in this town was unbelievable.

Toms River won the L-L WS ! ....Toms River won the L-L WS ! !


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TED Z

T206 Reference
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More New Jersey Baseball
 

Palisades Park - 1963. Me with my Ted Kluszewski "Big Klu" Model first baseman's mitt.

It was a good year for baseball. Our previous sponsor, Brahms Chevrolet, dropped out, but was replaced by Introna's Market, a small grocery store in town. The two brothers who owned/ran the place loved their baseball. They handed out steaks as rewards - winning pitcher, hitting a home run, game winning RBI, etc. We ate well at our house this week!

The whole league was pretty strong. The All-Stars lost in the State District Finals to runner-up West New York.

Been a long time since I've seen these and running them through a scanner to jump drives as eventually they will get tossed. What a space saver.

Here's another one of me in '76 (#5) and #4 is the my neighbor who was a military kid who spent 4 years in Fresno. Charles was super fast and HATED playing neighborhood football as a kid (I kid you not) to avoid hurting knees as a track athlete. His dad (was track stud in his day) and mine coached the team. Many suitable years in the NFL (11 or so) and early on Jerry Rice took him for 5 TD's in one game...if its gonna happen, might as well be the from the best!

Great photos and stories, thanks for sharing.

I played a couple years of little league but the violence of football appealed to me more (yes I was an angry child) so that's the way I went. Brent Jones of the 49ers and I played together for a few years. He went on to the Pros, I found motorcycles, fast cars, and even faster women more appealing.

I do have many memories of my Son coming up through Little League though, here's one;

I coached a few years which was a lot of fun but found a lot of the parents were pretentious, conniving, unpleasant people thinking little Johnny was the next Babe Ruth or Dads who tried to live their failed baseball dreams through their kid. All pretty disappointing.

At the end of Little Leage when my Son was 14 I hatched a plan to put together a Travel Team, I grabbed two Dads who were great guys, one was an incredible pitching coach whose Son is currently in the A's system, they are both friends to this day.

I told them both of my plan, we would draft parents instead of kids. If you were a shitty parent chances are you had a shitty kid and vice versa. I gave no thought to the kids skill level and I only had three rules.

1. Do your best on the field at all times.
2. To be on our Team you had to volunteer so many hours of community service.
3. Also, every kid would get to play no matter the score or baseball situation.
4. I made them all sign a contract.

We built our Team, named the Oaks in honor of the Oakland PCL team. My brother donated the money to get them the classiest looking home and away uni's and we were on our way. Essentially a real life bad news bears experiment.

We volunteered at homeless shelters, learned what it was like to be homeless, volunteered at Senior Centers, anything that needed some able bodied young men I would volunteer them for. We taught them how to recognize and control their emotions both on and off the field. Taught them how to be professional and have class. And practiced baseball, lots and lots of baseball.

Our first tournament we went up against a Team made up of the parents/kids that I spoke about at the open. They were good, real good. We just told our kids relax, have a good time, remember what we taught you, you guys are already winners no matter the score at the end because you have character. Everybody played as per our promise, the other team chalked up an early lead but our kids kept their cool, scratched out a few runs and went up by one in the 4th. You could feel the other Team melt down from across the field, parents, coaches, and kids alike. Blood in the Water boys just keep playing our game. I forget how many runs we won by, what I do remember about that day is the smiles on every face of the kids and their parents alike.

I've already gone on too long but as a reward for becoming good humans we took them on a 2 week trip that started at a Fenway Park night game and ended at a 10 day tournament in Cooperstown NY field of dreams.

But that's another story...

here's Hank Aaron's little league photo:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...05%20x%207.jpg

:D

Me as a Firebird, c. 1968 (not Facebook)! With Trixie.

No team pictures, but still have this PONY League memory.

The 1965 Pirates at Anderson AFB Guam. I'm on the front row, far right. Middle of the pack finish with no famous people. We had to run a lap around the field after practice. The manager and coach thought it was a good idea that I run with the shin guards on since I was the catcher. The only problem was that whoever finished last had to run again. Since I've never been accused of being "fleet of foot" in my life and having to run with the shin guards on after catching a full practice, guess who almost always came in last. This was my last year of catching.

That’s a lot of Ks....great memory as few could top that

All these league champions here. Let me tell a story from the other end of the standings.

I started out playing youth soccer (specifically Little Guy Soccer in Chili, NY) back in the early to mid 1970s when leagues were just starting upin the US. I was a horrible soccer player, so after 6 years I finally convinced my mother to let me play baseball. I wasn't very good at that either. My first year, I was on the worst team in the league. I mean really bad. We would lose by scores considered blowouts in football. There was one game where we were down by something like 24-0 after 4 innings. After our turn at bat, I grabbed my glove and headed out to my position at first base. After I got there, I turned around and realized I was the only one out there. All my teammates were sitting in abject misery on the bench. They did eventually take the field, but the game didn't get any better afterwards.

Also, in one of the games I actually got on base, I managed to get fooled by the hidden ball trick. 40 plus years later, I still remember it was Tim Abel that got me.

Thankfully, high school was just around the corner and I got involved in track and cross country, which I had some success at.

That’s funny and cruel at the same time. Sweet, giant LL logo on those shirts

The dog and sweet ride across the street are bonus features of the shot!

+1000!!

Thru the years...lots of them
 

So, here is a pic from when I was in Little League (wearing Mattingly's # of course), then one from my high school team, later on playing as an adult, and most recently...coaching my sons' State Championship Little League Team.

Posting this was like listening to the radio..."playing the hits from the 80's, 90's, 2000's, and today!"

Great thread...this is what its what its all about...what its always been about.

Jon
www.dugouttreasures

My most prized childhood baseball memory
 

This is a signed ball from my entire pony league Pirates championship team. The glove trophy we received for the tournament inspired me to get the ball signed. I'm glad I did. I cherish this ball as three of my best childhood teammates and one coach have passed on. Bobby Norch was my best friend, best teammate and fellow baseball card collector up until we graduated high school together. He was killed in a car accident traveling back home from college not long after we graduated. His favorite player was Freddie Patek. I left a Patek card on his gravestone the last time I visited his resting place. RIP Bobby.

Sometime around 1972, my league winning team advanced in the Michigan State Little League tournament. In my team's last game, we were the home team. I started in left field. First two batters out, the third batter hit one deep into left field. I ran back, focused on the ball in flight. I stretched outwards and squarely caught the ball at the same moment I collided with the outfield chain-link fence rail. Took the impact square across the mouth, with my teeth cutting the inside of both lips. And impact caused the baseball to pop out of my glove, as my hand was extended over the fence. Home run for the opponents. I was removed from the game at that moment, and watched my team lose 1-0 and see our season end.

Post Script: last year was a tough year as two of my three coaches both passed away in 2020. Third coach had died in 2014. So happens I went to visit that third coach at his home in 2014 but he was not there. Turns out he would die within 24 hours after that attempted visit, in hospice care. I waited too long to reconnect.

My son, who loves baseball

1957 Lawrence,Mass. Little League Cubs
 

Wow has it been 63 years since my days in little league. I was 12 in 1957 and how I loved to play baseball. My final year I batted a whopping .227 with 3 doubles. We wore wool uniforms and were they super warm on those summer nights. Yes, I was one of those kids from the 50's that bought baseball cards and enjoyed flipping them for fun. I can still remember trading my Mantles for Frank Malzone and Jackie Jensen. It made me very happy in 1957. Best to all, Jim MacCord (I'll be 76 in a couple of months) Collecting has made my life so much better.

I'll share one from 3 years ago. This is one of my all time favorite little league memories. Coached my son for several years in rec ball. It's been a lot of fun for me and him. Our team (9 and 10 yr olds) is in the semi-finals, all tied up in the last inning.

We were losing light, so you might even say it was gloaming. This was likely the last inning. I was in charge that night and coaching 3rd base as our head coach, Bill, was in Dubai for work. I found out afterwards one of the parents was live streaming the game over Facebook Live so Bill was able to watch the last inning.

Our first two batters made an out and that brought up my son. He has exercise induced asthma and had an asthma attack a few innings before but recovered well enough to stay in the game. The asthma is a kick in the shorts because he is fast. He manages to work the count full and draws a walk.

Now we have one of our best hitters up at the plate. I am over at 3rd and we have signs but I know it doesn't matter. Everyone knows he is running. I didn't even flash a sign, I just gave him a head nod over to 2nd. I hear a chorus of shouts from the other teams dugout behind me "He's running, he's running." The pitcher goes into his windup and he is running full speed into second. The catcher makes a throw and the ball scoots out into center field.

My son jumps up and heads towards third base. The middle infielders are scrambling after the throw into second. While he is halfway to 3rd, I take a step back and start windmilling my arm sending him home. He rounds 3rd with a full head of steam. At the same time half the world away watching on a laptop in a hotel room in Dubai at 3am, my buddy Bill yells "Send him, John, Send him!". Probably waking up a number of his fellow hotel guests. The shortstop finally grabs the ball and turns to fire it home.

I remember crouching down and grimacing after he turned the corner because I knew it would be a close play. The throw comes into the catcher at the same time he starts sliding into home. In a cloud of dust his leg touches home plate just as the catcher goes to make the tag. The umpire swings his arms out and yells safe!

At this point, the kids come pouring out of the dugout, jumping up and down like a bunch of delirious 10 year olds to celebrate going to the championship game.

...and that is probably my all-time favorite baseball memory. To be able to share in a moment like that with your own son is one of the greatest feelings I will ever know.

That’s a great story John - I coach my two sons as well so I can relate to the excitement you must have felt!

Great story John, thanks for sharing.

My favorite LL story
 

Of course I take credit for the whole thing, since as the story references, me being old enough to play LL in 1971 was his start...

https://www.littleleague.org/world-s...ard-recipient/

Doug

1971 Stamford CT, Town Little League Championship Semi-Final, (I was on K of C), I was a 10 year old in a 10-12 year old league and scared shitless. Everyone had to play one inning. Team we were playing was 19-0 as were we and their pitcher was seriously like 6-2 and had struck out 14 by the end of fifth. Our pitcher was smoking too and it was 0-0. This was a time when Stamford, CT had great little league and Babe Ruth teams that had won several Babe Ruth US championships (they hosted many championships too) in the 50's and 60's. I had no chance of hitting this kid but my father had focused on teaching me how to bunt and really used to fire them in when we practiced. Bottom of the 6th we somehow get a guy to third base and I am up with 1 out. No one had much hope I would do anything other than either get hit by a ptich and killed or strike out looking. I bunt on the first pitch and we score and win. Unbeleivable. I don't think I had a true hit that entire year.

1971, you say? That would've landed your feat on a 1972 card...

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This is a great thread!

Here I am in little league. We played six-inning games, and our pitcher once struck out all 18 batters straight, a perfect perfect game.

I, on the other hand, have no stats to back this up, but I'm pretty sure I was the worst player ever to play in my town. If any kid was worse than me, I feel really awful for them.

But I turned it around as a dad, and on the very same fields I stunk up. Turns out I'm a phenomenal pitcher, at least in coach-pitch. I grooved them in so perfectly that every girl on my daughter's team would tee off on me. I hit bats so well that by the end of the season, the dads on the opposing teams would ask me to pitch to their kids so they could slug some, too.

Curse you, sideways picture!!

Easy fix!
 

Here you go Ken! :)

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Thanks!