(Not the Orioles, but Great Fun)<\/p>\n
\u00a0As a reporter for the Mayefield Messenger, Thomas Carroll captured the soul of his hometown by writing about \u201creal people,\u201d not just those considered newsworthy.\u00a0 His feature stories were well regarded and occasionally came to the attention of the metropolitan daily, the Beacon Light, which published Thomas\u2019 stories under the heading \u201cDispatch from Mayefield.\u201d\u00a0 The following is one of these Dispatches, published in 1977<\/em>.<\/p>\n Not the Orioles, but Great Fun<\/b><\/p>\n By Thomas Carroll<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0Mayefield Messenger<\/strong><\/p>\n Parents, grandparents and friends arrive with their lawn chairs and blankets, with water coolers and picnic baskets, ready for a full seven innings of excitement.\u00a0 Passing motorists stop for a few minutes, as do joggers, bicyclists and walkers.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a game like no other.<\/p>\n The little girl runs the bases with the enthusiasm of a major leaguer. The fielders throw and overthrow trying to stop her, but she eludes capture and touches the bases one-two-three.<\/p>\n Heading for home, she turns the speed on full steam, both arms flailing, blond hair waving in the wind, face flushed with effort.\u00a0 In one final burst of energy, she long jumps the last few feet, landing almost squarely on home plate.\u00a0 Defiantly she stands, brushes off some dirt, and sticks out her tongue in triumph at the opposing catcher.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the Mayefield Boys and Girls Club girls\u2019 tee-ball league, a wild variation on the national pastime.\u00a0 Played every Tuesday evening behind Mayefield Elementary, the seven to nine year old girls square off for seven innings of frantic action.<\/p>\n Using standard rules, with a few alterations (some devised on the spot as the situation occurs), the game serves as an introduction to the game of softball.\u00a0 For some of the girls, the coaches literally have to introduce them to the ball and bat.<\/p>\n As one coach comments, \u201cWe\u2019re not the Orioles, but it\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n The girls play a seven game schedule, five of which they hit off a three-foot tee, and the final two with the pitching provided by the coaches.<\/p>\n Humorous moments abound during the action, but the laughter is not that of spectators poking fun at the players.\u00a0 The game\u2019s fascination is similar to observing a baby taking his first step or a bird learning to fly.\u00a0 There is some stumbling at the outset, but an unparalleled thrill when the coordination begins to take shape.<\/p>\n The appeal of the game is offense.\u00a0 The girls are there to hit \u2013 scoring runs is always more fun than preventing them.\u00a0 Since it is a hitters\u2019 game, innings are limited to three outs or ten batters, whichever comes first.\u00a0 More often than not, it\u2019s the ten batters.<\/p>\n Quality of play is inconsistent, ranging from an occasional running catch to the utter defensive disregard of an ongoing ball.\u00a0 But miscues never occur through a lack of enthusiasm.\u00a0 There is an occasional lapse of attention during a long inning in the field, but a plea from a coach to \u201cpay attention, please, girls!\u201d brings daydreaming players back to reality.<\/p>\n Keeping players alert is one of the coaches\u2019 main functions.\u00a0 One coach explains that \u201cin tee ball, you always have to tell the girls what to do.\u00a0 During the last game, I tried for an inning to let them it do it themselves.\u00a0 It was a disaster!\u201d<\/p>\n A player doesn\u2019t always hear the shouting that comes her way.\u00a0 The noises blend together and the girl is on her own.\u00a0 The ball comes to her.\u00a0 She stops it or catches it, or slaps it with her glove, or kicks it.<\/p>\n Of course, a fielder always runs into perplexing situations.\u00a0 For example, there are two runners on base who start to run on hit.\u00a0 You are the shortstop and stop the ball.\u00a0 Where do you throw?\u00a0 To first, to second, to third, to home?\u00a0 Hurry up, think!<\/p>\n One runner is coming home \u2026 forget her \u2026 over to second?\u00a0 No, she advancing toward you \u2026 tag her out?\u00a0 Too late, she runs back to second.<\/p>\n You stand there, ball in your hand, with nowhere to throw it.<\/p>\n Why is the coach shouting so much?<\/p>\n The game isn\u2019t all indecision.\u00a0 If nothing else, imagination plays the most important role.\u00a0 Part of the game\u2019s magic is young girls making up their own way of doing things.<\/p>\n The structure of local tee ball brings up an interesting situation.\u00a0 Since a team is limited to ten batters in an inning, the tenth girl up has two alternatives:\u00a0 hit a home run or get tagged out.\u00a0 Usually what happens is that the player hits to an infielder who tags her out as she runs the bases, or throws home and the catcher waits to make the tag.<\/p>\n But the young mind cannot accept the inevitable.\u00a0 In a recent game, one girl found what she felt was the perfect solution.\u00a0 She rounded the bases and started home, noticing that the catcher was blocking the plate, ready for the tag out.\u00a0 Instead of submitting, she took a slight detour, turning left and circling around the pitcher\u2019s mound, attacking home plate from the rear \u2013 with the catcher, of course, in hot pursuit.<\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t understand why she was called out.<\/p>\n (Robert J. Marton)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Not the Orioles, but Great Fun)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}