02/19/2023
Should our partner organization, the Shasta Baseball League (http://shastabaseball.org), expand and incorporate a 3-4 team "Sandlot Division" in the future?
Notable excerpts from the article:
1) "Which brings us to the final and most important ground rule: Take it easy. This is sandlot’s foundation. Sanders frequently describes it as “the slow food of baseball,” and that pretty much sums it up. Nobody here is in a hurry; they all just want to run around in the sun and get up to some shenanigans. Lose sight of that -- start touching 85 mph on your fastball, for example -- and you’ll be gently reminded that this place is different. This isn’t the place to chase the bright lights of your glory days."
2) “We put a toe in the water of these men's city leagues, and it was just like kids throwing the ball too hard and just not having fun,” said Dave Mead, one of the founding members of the Pl***oys. “And we just thought, ‘Man, we want to play baseball, but winning is not everything. It's more about the experience, and it's more about the bond and the social engagement of it all. We just wanted to create something that we felt didn't exist.’”
This shouldn’t be misunderstood as apathy or laziness. There’s plenty that every sandlot team takes seriously, like designing and making their own (truly stellar) uniforms, or advertising each game with a beautiful custom poster, or inviting bands to stop by and play a set or two, or bringing in a food truck to ensure that you have access to a hot dog with andouille sausage and prickly pear relish.'
3) The Jardineros and Cobras had similar stories: They loved baseball growing up, but at a certain point -- in tee ball, in Little League, in high school, in college -- the game became more serious than fun. They’d drifted away from it, and now they just wanted to get back to feeling like little kids again.
4) Anybody who was anybody had to make the pilgrimage. I asked Mead for his favorite memory from a decade-plus as a Pl***oy; his voice lowered a bit, the way it does when you’re really trying to avoid the impression that you’re humble-bragging, before offering two. First, the time he got booed off the field after (unintentionally!) striking out Beto O’Rourke when the then-Senate candidate stopped by to play a few innings with Los Diablitos de El Paso while campaigning in 2018.
Second, the time he got viciously trolled by Jack White after the rock star -- and first baseman for the Warstic Woodmen -- tagged him out to end the game.
“He applied the tag, and we got tangled up and both fell down. No hesitation, he stood up, slammed his glove on the ground right next to my face and ran off in celebration.”
Inside Texas sandlot baseball The Official Site of Major League Baseball
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