Sunday, June 1, 2014

Little League Baseball at 75

This picture is of our 11 year old son Tim as a Little League injured baseball player back in 1963. He broke a bone in his right foot sliding into 2nd base and was out of action for just over a month. He and Verlon had both played Little Chiefs baseball in Lincoln prior to our move to Virginia in 1962. The Tops team was in a 12 and under league and very competitive. June 6th of this year marks the 75th anniversary of Little League baseball. It was on that date in 1938 that Carl Storz tripped on a root from a Lilac bush in Pennsylvania and decided his boys needed a better place to play. Today there are more than 160,00 Little Leaguers. A Museum at South Williamsport documents the growth of the activity as well as some of the names of celebrities who had played as youngsters. Our Minister had a sermon on "Hope" this morning and told of a Coach asking a Little League team how many expected to play Major League baseball; several hands went up and they went on to have an exceptional winning season. When one of the boys on that team became a coach, he asked his team the same question and not a hand was raised. Needless to say, they had a losing season. I don't know if Tim ever had visions of being a professional baseball player, but he had a lot of natural ability plus the drive and determination  to succeed. It helped him graduate with high distinction from Duke University, work his way through Law School while employed in a full time job, and became a successful Lawyer. As the Preacher said, "We can do more than we think we can".

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