Little League baseball: Oh Happy Day

Steve Virgen

CORONA DEL MAR - With Jim Roberts pounding out cathedral-type music

from his keyboard, Newport Beach Little League President Rex Jones

speaking with a humble tone at the Opening-day Ceremonies and

inspirational messages from former Dodgers’ manager Mark Cresse and

former Angels’ pitcher Dave Frost, about the only aspect missing was

singing hymns.

Even the setting was a bit glorious. Bright green grass, a podium set

at home plate surrounded by an evenly-raked diamond amid a gentle breeze

and a bit of sunshine emblazened the NBLL field behind Lincoln Elementary

in Corona del Mar.

All this for little league baseball. Sounds a bit much? Not when you

consider the future of the children and the state of mind for the

parents. Such was the message from Cresse, who spoke frankly of the state

of little league and his experiences with youth teams which travel.

“The kids are out there having a great time,” Cresse told the crowd.

“If we could only keep the gates shut on the parents,” Cresse said. “I’ll

be a doing a private lesson with a kid, and all of a sudden, out of

nowhere, I hear the dad screaming at the umpire and the mom screaming at

the kid. And I’m thinking ‘gosh, it would be great if their kids could

just play baseball.’ ”

Cresse also stressed the importance of teamwork and how players could

learn about life through baseball. He continued to speak to the parents.

“The coaches are volunteering a lot of their time,” Cresse reminded

the parents. “They’ve decided to be your little league coach for the

season. Let’s not second-guess that guy. If you think you know more

baseball than he does, sign up next year so you can be the coach.”

The parents responded with applause, but Cresse was not satisfied.

“I appreciate the applause,” he said. “But, that same speech has been

given for 75 years and it still doesn’t work. Let’s really support these

guys. You (parents) have a great thing here.”

By the time Frost came to speak, Cresse had covered just about every

facet of the game. But, Frost used stories from his past as well as

examples of lessons learned from baseball.

When he touched on being embarrassed, he shared the story of a rare

triple he smacked against the Dodgers. Frost said he began to lose

strength when running to third base.

“My thighs turned to rubber and I went from 6-foot-6 to 4-foot-3,”

Frost said. “My slide was a head-first collapse and I started crawling

toward the bag. The ball got there first, but Ron Cey was laughing so

hard that he dropped the ball and I was safe. Don Drysdale was announcing

the game and he said something like, ‘Look at Frost, it looks like he got

shot by elephant gun.’ ”

Youngsters Jake Rangell and Charles Vickery of the Majors Division

Braves came away with laughter and values to use throughout the season.

“I learned that it’s important to have fun,” Rangell said. “It’s not

all about winning.”

Vickery said he enjoyed Frost’s story of humility, while Frost enjoyed

his time spent with the NBLL.

“I just know at this age baseball is such a big deal to kids,” Frost

said afterward. He played in the Los Altos Little League in Long Beach.

“There’s not the kind of pressure you feel when you make it to

professional baseball. (Little League is) probably one of the most

exciting times of all.”