Sports' Filtering System Has No Mercy
By JIM ELLIOTTCaught a youth baseball game the other day. I was there primarily to see my nephew Brett work on his quest to become the next Bill Mazeroski (even if he has no idea who that is), but as it turned out, a rather large collection of old college friends had kids playing in that particular game involving 7- and 8-year-olds.
Where did the time go?
As I stood on that Mozart hillside, all I could think about was 20-some years earlier, when I was playing on that very same field. Thoughts of hitting a homer like Willie Stargell, staying down on a grounder like Johnny Ray, or avoiding taking one off the shin like Dale Berra consumed me in those days.
I also started thinking about sports' sometimes cruel filtering system, the one that unmercifully tosses you aside long before you're really ready to go.
Because you never really are.
While it's unlikely all of those kids have dreams of one day playing in the big leagues, there's little doubt some of them do. Why not? Of course, those left-handed third basemen are going to have to undergo a position change at some point, that much is certain.
I was sure the Windsor Heights team I was playing on had some future ballplayers back in the mid-1980s.
I was wrong.
Of the countless number of teammates I had growing up, exactly two others would one day wear a varsity high school baseball uniform. Two played college baseball. They both had four-year careers, though neither was with the same school they started. From there, it was OVBL. Or coaching. Or umpiring.
Those pro contracts never came.
(Interruption: Former major-league shortstop and Bethany resident Joe Pettini just called the office looking for Doug Huff. Weird).
It's not just my teammates that didn't make it to the big leagues. Neither did yours. If you're from the Ohio Valley and played Little League baseball some time in the last 25 years, you had to have played with Jay Payton, Paul Hoover, or Dustin Nippert to make a claim like that.
Nippert, by the way, threw a seven-inning no-hitter for Texas' Triple-A Club (Oklahoma RedHawks) on Sunday and beat the Omaha Royals, 2-0, in the first game of a doubleheader at Rosenblatt Stadium.
So he'll be back.
Anyway, the sports filtering system works in many ways. Sadly, some kids never get an opportunity. Some kids simply pursue other interests. Some kids decide on their own, 'This isn't for me. These other players are simply better.' Nothing wrong with that. It isn't for everyone. At any one point, 2.3 million kids are involved in Little League baseball. Years later, less than 1,000 turn up on big-league rosters, and that's counting the ones who are too hurt to play.
Then there's always this, which probably happens more times than not: You ignore the high ERA and the low batting average; you love this game too much. And someone else has to tell you you're not good enough.
Happens every day, no doubt.
The point is make your memories at the park's now. Because the chances are, you're going to be making your living in a completely different field.
Good Drivers
I have no idea if Wheeling's Mike Sprause and Bellaire's Greg Cross know each other, but they're linked on the links. One came via a fax from Oglebay's Crispin Golf Center Course, the other via phone call from Majestic Pines on Monday morning. Both of these guys hit a hole in one using their drivers, which simply isn't an easy thing to do. Sprause did so on No. 16 at Crispin, which was playing 240 yards during the J.T. Thomas Memorial Golf Scramble last Saturday. Cross needed only one swing of his driver to cover the 261-yard No. 5 at Majestic Pines.
Jim Elliott can be reached via e-mail at:elliott@theintelligencer.net
