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OPINION

I’ve written about baseball a few times over the years. It is a sport I love, and played until head-first slides looked more like a week-long recovery than a good idea. I try to stay close even at my advanced age by umpiring high school, college and men’s league games in Florida and British Columbia.

There are lots of good stories I could write. Almost every week in Florida, I see players who will be stars on the best college teams…and some who will no doubt play Major League Baseball. The state is talent-rich…in players and coaches.

I could write about teams with 17-year-old pitchers who throw 90+ M.P.H. fast balls, and curve balls that turn most batters into pretzels. Some teams have catchers with rockets for arms…they throw behind runners on all bases…picking them off and sending them back to dugouts to face incredulous teammates. Players that are 6’4” and 220 pounds…and can hit towering home runs…are common.

I could write about any of those extraordinarily talented players…but what I choose to write about today…is a game between two teams whose players won’t likely play for any college team…and certainly not for the Yankees or Dodgers.

(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

Meadowbrook Academy in Ocala, FL, is a private, faith-based school with 262 students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. Its stated mission is to inspire achievement, identify purpose, instill character and enrich faith…all noble pursuits.

Cedar Key High School on the Gulf of Mexico is a public school with 196 students in pre-K through 12th grade. It is the smallest public high school in Florida…and like all who live on the islands and love it, the students are still helping their little town recover from being the target of three hurricanes in 13 months.

The game I’m writing about was played on March 10 between these two high schools. The teams are about 60 miles apart geographically…a tortuous one-and-a-half-hour school bus ride…but even farther in so many ways.

You would be hard pressed to have found a more inhospitable night for baseball…a few inches of rain the night before and morning of the game, followed by winds that whipped a steady 25 M.P.H. with 35 M.P.H. gusts at the 6:30 P.M. game time.

I knew the Cedar Key coach and some of the players from last year…when I called one game behind the plate for them. Cedar Key is famous or maybe a bit infamous for its population of no-see-ums…actually biting midges…a flying nuisance related to mosquitoes but much smaller and they don’t carry disease. What it does carry is venom that itches impossibly if you even think about scratching that first bite.

This was my first look at Meadowbrook Academy, which re-started its baseball program after five years…another unheralded victim of COVID-19.

As I walked on the field, I noticed the Cedar Key players were physically bigger…much bigger. The baseball diamond at Cedar Key is not one of the better fields I see while umpiring…in the U.S. or Canada. You could lose a baseball in spots of the grass infield…and bad hops on the uneven clay are a certainty. The baselines are not exactly straight.

But these kids, as well as spectators - comprised mostly parents and grandparents and other students - were there huddled with blankets in the stands and in beach chairs behind home plate. That might paint an awful picture…but to these players, coaches and family members…it’s a stadium and they are there to play ball!

That night I was the infield umpire…taking my position in foul territory near first base…as the pitcher took his eight warm-up tosses, just like Major Leaguers.

I remembered the first baseman from last year, and as he caught throws from his infielders, I asked, “How is school going?”

“Good,” he said, “Mostly As!”

“A senior, right?” I opined, adding, “How many in your class?”

“Sixteen,” he answered, “Mostly girls.”

Later, I thought how this kid was growing up…a small, rural school, with loving parents and family, caring teachers, and a dedicated coach…with a couple volunteer assistant coaches who were parents. Not a bad life.

As the game wore on…I noticed the Cedar Key players were having fun…playing baseball on their home field.

Chatting with the Meadowbrook Academy coach between innings, I found out what he was up against…re-starting a baseball team that laid fallow for five years.

“I had one kid ask me what hand to wear the glove on,” he said, shaking his head, but smiling.

I empathized as best I could.

He asked, “See, the kid coming to bat?”

“Looks like an athlete…” I responded.

“He is…a star basketball player,” said the coach. “This is his second game of baseball…ever.”

You might imagine how the game went. There were batters hit by pitches…slides that ended six inches short of the base…balls sailing over outstretched gloves at first, second, third and home.

After three innings over an hour-and-a-half…the score stood at 22-3 in favour of Cedar Key. Meadowbrook Academy had one last half inning at bat to score at least 5 runs…or the 15-run mercy rule would end the game.

Back at my position near first base, the Meadowbrook coach smiled brightly, as he explained his next two batters.

“They’re six-graders,” he said. “That’s our future. Watch these two.”

Both looked and acted like confident ball players…despite not reaching five feet tall. They both hit the ball…one of them a fly ball to center field that would be a home run in Little League…but was caught for the next to the last out.

The last batter struck out on three pitches…the players lined up at first and third…shaking hands at the pitcher’s mound. Baseball has lots of rules…and as umpire I’m there to see that the game is played accordingly, giving no unfair advantage to either team.

I congratulated the players of both squads…reminded them to listen to their coaches…play hard and have fun. They smiled. They might not know it yet…but the game they are playing is about a lot more than baseball.

Cedar Key has won two games this year and lost one; Meadowbrook has lost four straight.

I shook hands with both head coaches, who thanked me sincerely…they knew what one day their young players will all know.

“Truly, my privilege, coach,” was my answer to each. It was - all in all - a good game.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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