The sky was blue and the air crisp last Wednesday afternoon as a battery of skills evaluations kicked-off the early season for Magnolia Little League. The local league draws nearly 600 kids between the ages of 5 and 16 - all the way from T-ball to the serious business of competing in the Little League World Series.
A gaggle of parents, coaches, league board members and volunteers stood with clipboards in hand as boys age 10-12 were evaluated on such fundamental baseball skills as batting, fielding, throwing and running. For many, it was the first time swinging a bat since last summer.
"There's no walking in baseball!" one of the many coaches hollered as the players, some in shorts and T-shirts, others in sweats and hoodies, took a few warm-up laps before standing at the plate to face the pitching machine. The mechanical monster puts the ball over the plate at about 55 miles an hour. Each kid was asked to lay down two bunts, followed by three full rips at the leather.
Magnolia resident and league board member Mark Linsey - who has an 11-year-old son, Harrison, in the league - said turnouts this year are a bit down. He suggested this may have to do with Queen Anne Little League starting up earlier and drawing some of the kids away. Nonetheless, Linsey said, the first day of evaluations went well.
"Our goal is for the kids to have a good experience," he said. "We don't want to lose sight of the fact that we're doing this for fun."
During skills evaluations, players are rated on a scale of one-to-five in the aforementioned categories, after which the numbers are crunched and an actual draft occurs among team coaches. Such a system, which works much the same as the draft in professional sports, ensures fairness by creating parity among teams.
Linsey said the evaluation and ensuing draft is "pretty straightforward" and effective. "It's the best system that we've come up with," he said. "It's not perfect, but it works for us."
For such a system to work, dozens of parents volunteer hundreds of hours of their time, and it's a lot of work, Linsey said. "This is the biggest, full-time volunteer job," he said. "It takes a lot to make something like this happen. My hat's off to all the parents over the years who have done this. It's a great service to the kids.
"It just doesn't happen without all the people behind the scenes making it happen," Linsey added.
He said that in his experience the coaches have been excellent, fostering an environment that is competitive but unthreatening. Linsey said the image of overinvolved parents being too hard on their kids, yelling at them on the field, doesn't jibe with his experience.
"The coaches did such a great job," Linsey said of his son's team last year. "All the players liked each other."
Still, he added, playing in Little League "gets more intense the older you get."
These days, coaches are carefully selected and have to undergo a screening process to ensure their fitness to have contact with kids. "We want parents to feel safe," Linsey said, adding that such regulations also extend to making sure teams are not stacked with over-age players. "Now there's all kinds of rules where we have to have birth certificates for everyone. There's a lot of administration that is required of us in order to maintain our charter."
Despite the amount of kids and parents comprising Magnolia Little League, there's room to grow, he said. Right now they're having a hard time getting a coordinator for the Little League parade tentatively scheduled for March 19, Linsey said. Also, the league is looking for more girls to sign up for softball.
In fact, Linsey said, it's not too late for anyone, boy or girl, to sign up through late registration on the league's Web site at www.magnolialittleleague.com.
Skills evaluations will continue for the next few weeks (see Web site for a schedule), followed by a month of practice. The official season starts in April and runs through June. After that, who knows? Maybe some of the kids hitting the field right now will find themselves competing in the national World Series. And from there, the pros. There's no harm in dreaming.
One thing is certain: the great American pastime is alive and well in Magnolia. "It's an engine that is very long," Linsey said of the Little League tradition, which spans the country and operates under the aegis of the National Little League. "It doesn't end here in Magnolia."
For more information about Magnolia Little League or to take late registration, visit the Web site at www.magnolialittleleague.com or call the information line at 283-6710.
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