On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

I would like to dedicate this story to my friend Brian Spingel. When we lost Brian, we lost a great father, friend and coach.

I have baseball cards with my two sons pictures on them, glossy photographs, and refrigerator magnets. It shows the boys smiling in their little league uniforms just like little major leaguers.

Somerville Little League has been a wonderful experience for many, many kids. It has also been a painful memory for others.

Little League was started in 1939 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. For me, it started in 1964 in Somerville .

I understand that this year marks the 60th anniversary of little league in Somerville. I wish them a lot of luck!

I remember my dad taking me to tryouts at Trum Field. I took my glove and went out and stood in the grass waiting for my turn to catch the ball. I stuck my glove up, the ball dropped on the ground three feet away from me, and my father said, “Okay, get in the car!” That was the beginning and end of my little league career.

Somerville has a rich Little League history thanks to the likes of real men like Fred Caruso, Al Zucarro, Richie Liberatore, Joe Janiero and Tony Alibrandi among many others, who have dedicated countless hours to the sport.

I wanted to share stories from parents, coaches and former players .I posted an invitation on Face book for people to tell their Somerville Little League stories and here they are. There are many glory stories of the boys who won accolades and went on to be high school and college stars and those are great. The following are about the boys who weren’t gifted with great talent, or perhaps a coach for a parent.

-I signed my two sons up when they were of age starting with T-Ball. We spent a fortune on registration, uniforms, jocks, bats and balls. We went to the practices and attended the games that were spread out at various parks throughout the city. My oldest son was playing on a team and one day I got a phone call from a friend whose son was also on the team. She told me that she got a call from one of the coaches saying that “because they had too many kids on the team, all the players names were put in a hat. The two names picked just happened to be my son’s and my friends’ sons.“ They actually thought we were stupid enough to believe the lame story!  Of course the two coaches’ kids got to stay on the team. Thanks
to some other more upright coaches, teams were found for both boys.  But the damage had been done, my son felt terrible and I was very angry.

-One guy tells me, ”there were so many kids trying out and because my father wasn’t connected, I didn’t make it onto a team. I tried out but never got called. I ended up playing for Webelos (Boy Scouts) at St. Catherine’s.

-I was at a game last year, when the fighting broke out, or should I say one of the games where the fighting broke out (from what I hear, it wasn’t the only one). The game was stopped and was never replayed. That was probably the most disgusting display I had seen in youth sports (or any sports for that matter).

-I’ve seen marriages end, kids mature, kids not mature, and parents not mature, and so on. It’s like a grand sociological experiment!

-It got very old standing around Hodgkins Park night after night practicing, (when they weren’t called off.) My kids hated it and I hated it. The games were peppered by the juvenile actions of the coaches getting mad and sometimes even throwing temper tantrums in front of their teams

For the short year my son played baseball, there was an awful lot of anger between some parents and some coaches.

Like I said, these are the tales of the not so fortunate kids. The kids who weren’t given out standing athletic ability. The kids who didn’t have a parent who was connected.  There have been a few guys who came along every so often that were going to change things and give the little league back to the kids. I hope that has happened, because my kids have found other passions , and anything baseball these days with us involves Fenway Park.

Even though my kids Little League careers were short I am now at peace. Like I said, I bought the most expensive photo package with the fridge magnets and baseball cards. They can show them to their kids if they want to. They are having more fun playing in their rock band anyway, and the only adult they have to hear yelling  is me.

Thanks to John Roderick for his input.