Sports

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The great car fire in the heyday
​of hardball

I coached Little League Baseball back before everyone had a favorite font.

I was a volunteer, paid in experience.

Coaching was fun. I told my charges to have fun. That’s what it was all about and what it should be about. I assured them that playing baseball was more fun than underwater welding or putting a new roof on an outhouse.

Some people called baseball hardball to differentiate it from softball. Hardball was a good name. The game is hard. Hitting a speeding ball with a bat is hard. So is keeping a ball from being hit by a speeding bat. I didn’t encourage them to give 110%. That’s impossible. You can’t even give 100%. There will always be a nostril or little toe that refuses to participate. I told them to give it their best shot.

One year, there was a kid who was sorely lacking in baseball skills, who brought a big bag of sunflower seeds to each practice and game to share with teammates and coach. We voted him the most valuable player.

A T-shirt bearing the team’s name was as close as we came to a certificate of participation. Everybody got a shirt. A cheap T-shirt looks good on a kid. One year, a kid came to the first practice, got his shirt and quit before touching a baseball. He didn’t want any glory on the diamond. He just wanted a T-shirt.

Our home ballfield was a retirement area for stones. Each kid had to haul stones from the playing field before practice could begin. This removal limited the number of bad hops an infielder might need to endure. We did it after practice, too. One kid claimed he must have had rocks in his head to be willing to pick up so many stones, but we kept on rocking in the free world.

I enjoyed my time as the skipper. Nobody was seriously injured. There were no parents who thought the only thing keeping their son from a lucrative major-league baseball career was his lunkheaded Little League coach. They might have considered me an idiot, but they knew I wasn’t crimping the baseball career of a phenom. 

I had good teams. We had great moments, amazing plays and big wins, but what did the players remember? They remembered the great car fire. My family had a tradition of being the last owner of every car we owned. Cars went directly from us to the junkyard once they’d lost their vigor. I had a 1961 Chevrolet Bel Air. That was fitting. There was a commercial jingle that went like this: “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet, they go together in the good ol’ USA.” 

My old car’s motto was: “Jumper cables — never leave home without them.” It had nearly as many dents as rust. In the small spaces between the rust there were three colors of metal. There was blue, blue-green and green-blue. The Chevy could rock, roll, rattle and rumble. I don’t know what it got for gas mileage, but I know it was much better heading downhill than going uphill. Because we didn’t have a luxurious team bus, the old Chevy was my baseball car. It carried bats, balls, extra gloves, catcher’s equipment, water jugs and players to practices and games. If I’d have been smart, I’d have bought a second car just like it. That way I’d have had one for driving and one for parts. That Chevy got by on the minimum number of parts. 

One day, on our way back from a game, I found a proverbial worm in my proverbial apple. The floor of the jalopy had rusted through and allowed the floor’s carpet to come into contact with the exhaust system. It wasn’t a blazing fire, but the smoke was alarming and annoying. I pulled into a field drive and got the kids out of the car promptly. That went well considering we’d not had any fire drills. Today, cellphones would have been employed, rescue calls made and photos taken. We had a boy who imitated the siren of a fire truck. The fire was extinguished by water and Kool-Aid from the jugs and many handfuls of gravel. Carrying the stones from the ballfield had made the young baseball players
effective firefighters.

Many of them played high school baseball. Some played in college. Some coached. None of them played Major League Baseball. For all of them, baseball stopped, but they kept going. A good number became volunteer firefighters. The great car fire was a good coach.

​© Al Batt 2019

“Pepper Game” plus Leaving Your Glove on the Field!

Last month, Maury, I mentioned certain techniques and traditions in baseball which have changed over the years. Specifically, I discussed how most players, today, now slide “head first” instead of using the “hook” slide. This was an example of an important technique that has changed over the years.

With this memory, Grandpa will discuss two traditions that have been abandoned over the years. One is the “pepper game” and the other is “leaving your glove” on the field.

The pepper game was played by seven members of a team (excluding the pitcher and catcher who were warming up) prior to the game with one player batting and six “pitching” to him at a distance of about only ten yards. Every ball tapped back to one of the six was not pitched again until the other five had “handled” the ball in every trick way imaginable.

It was unbelievable what some players could do getting a baseball to their teammate only a yard away! One great example on our ball club was Cuzzie Ottavi who could balance a baseball on top of his head before letting it roll down the back of his neck on to his back and down to his tail bone when he’d “launch” it to a teammate!

The better a team was, whether the big leagues or semi-pro, they not only enjoyed their pepper game but also were proud of it. Good players used it not only to loosen up but also as a chance to “show off’ and entertain the fans!

When Grandpa played, every infielder, from the big leagues to semi-pro, left their glove on the field in the grass just behind the infield dirt between innings. This was another tradition which was abandoned a long time ago.

​Hope you enjoyed learning just two of the ways the great game of baseball has changed over time.


Much love, Grandpa

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There are painters who transform the sun
to a yellow spot, but there are others who
with the help of their art and their intelligence, 
​transform a yellow spot into the sun. 
—Pablo Picasso

1. Who holds the New York Yankees pitching record for most appearances in a season?

2. Name the player before Joey Votto (2016-18) to start at least 202 consecutive games for the Cincinnati Reds.

3. Who was the first quarterback in Washington Redskins history to have three seasons for 25 or more TD passes?

4. Name the last time before the 2018-19 season (Kansas State, Texas Tech) that Kansas was not at least co-champion of the Big 12 men’s basketball regular season?

5. Who was the only Toronto Maple Leafs player before Mitch Marner in 2019 to score on a penalty shot in the
NHL playoffs?

6. Colton Herta, 18, became the youngest race winner in IndyCar history in 2019. Who had been the youngest winner?

​7. When was the last time the French Open had a men’s singles semifinalist older than Roger Federer (37 in 2019)?

1. Paul Quantrill, with 86 in 2004.

2. Pete Rose started 370 consecutive games (1973-76).

3. Kirk Cousins (2015-17).

4. The 2003-04 season, when Oklahoma State was the regular-season champion.

5. Mats Sundin, in 1999.

6. Graham Rahal was 19 when he won a race in 2008.

7. It was 1968, when 40-year-old Pancho Gonzalez reached the semifinals of the French Open.

© 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.

Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz met the media Friday morning at the annual Big Ten media kickoff days in Chicago. It’s a special year for college football, the 150th anniversary and the 130th year for the Hawkeyes on the gridiron. While there are questions in Iowa City, there’s plenty of excitement and optimism too. Four outstanding players left early for the NFL including a pair of tight ends in T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant. Both were selected in the first round, the first time one school sent two players from the same position in the 1st round. The incredible feat created an immediate gap. Who succeeds a pair of All-Americans? I’m not sure that’s possible, but next in are Shaun Beyer and Nate Wieting. The latter was just named to the John Mackey award watch list. Beyer is a bruiser from Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

The wide receivers will be critical to early season success, while the tight ends catch up on experience and why not. After all that position group, as much as any, had a big say in the New Years Day Outback Bowl win over Mississippi State. Ihmir Smith-Marsette and Brandon Smith are poised for a big season, what with veteran quarterback Nate Stanley poised for his senior season. He’s set to become Iowa’s all time leader for touchdown throws. Stanley trails Hawkeye great Chuck Long by 22 and has averaged 25 TD throws a season since stepping into the starter’s role.

With only six plays of 20 plus yards last season, Iowa’s running backs need to do their part. Mekhi Sargent is the clear number one tailback, with Toren Young in waiting with Ivory Kelly-Martin. Several freshmen could enter the mix as well.

Despite losing lineman Anthony Nelson and safety Amani Hooker to the pros, the defense appears to be more athletic and perhaps faster. Pre-season all conference end A.J. Epenesa could be the best pass rusher in the league after pacing the pack with 10-1/2 sacks in limited play a year ago. Geno Stone will be the new centerpiece at safety in Iowa’s effective 4-2-5 alignment. 

​Players and patrons are getting excited for the August 31st opener with Miami, Ohio. Come to think of it....so am I!

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