They may not have a powerful swing, but every Saturday morning these little ones have a ball

Photo by David Shapinsky

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa, Japan — It’s not often that you’ll see a baseball player run with the bat after getting a hit, sit on a base and dig in the dirt during the middle of a game, or even try desperately to catch bugs while playing an outfield position — not unless you’re watching the Camp Foster PeeWee League.

The PeeWee League, which includes children between the ages of 5 and 6 years old, is a season of nine games designed to teach children the fundamentals of the game, according to DeAngelo Blount, coach for the Camp Courtney Dragons.

“We want them to develop the skills needed to play baseball at their age,” Blount said. “They learn the basics of how to swing the bat, hit, and, hopefully by the end of the season, catch.” (more…)

This is one of the finest movies ever made. Notice that I did not say that it is one of the finest baseball movies ever made. It is the best baseball movie ever made.

Having said that, Field of Dreams is NOT really a baseball movie.

What? Not a baseball movie?

Oh, sure, there are baseball scenes in it, but the film uses baseball as a device; the primary theme is dreams — dreaming dreams, living dreams, having dreams shattered, picking up the pieces of your dreams, and getting a second chance at fulfilling lost dreams. The secondary theme of the movie is relationships — between husbands and wives, fathers and daughters, between neighbors, but mostly between fathers and sons. (more…)

5. The fans get to go on to the field to catch balls during batting practice.

4. The fans get to run on to the field if their team wins.

3. Everyone gets an autographed cap at the end of the game.

2. The opposing team has to get a wedgie if they lose.

1. They could have better tacos.

(originally published in Baseball Ink Vol. 1, No. 4 – March 2001)

By Dan Zamudio

Shiloh Park – Zion, Illinois

Old library,
recently converted
into a Senior Center,
looms deep across
center field grass.

Little league
batters
swing at chest
high pitches
desperate
to crank a ball
onto the roof

just once.

Old-timers
watch from behind
glass windows
and boast
among each other,
embellishing
baseball stories

of their youth.

Welcome to the Majors, Kid!

Fast ball
sizzles across
the strike zone

chest high

before smoldering
inside their catcher’s
steady mitt.

Laughter erupts
from inside the visitor dugout
as I step inches from
home plate,
inhale a calming breath,
then carefully
prepare my batting stance
for another
big league pitch.

Opening Day in Chicago

Baseball
season begins
on a cold afternoon
as blankets warm cheering fans and

the first pitch soars across home plate
stinging our catchers hand
frozen inside
his mitt.

Dan Zamudio is a Chicago writer and lifelong Cub fan who recently forced his tired girlfriend to take three rolls of action photos while he played catch with strangers on Wrigley Field after a long tour.

Dan’s baseball poems can also be seen in the 2001 issue of SABR’s “The National Pastime”.

(originally published in Baseball Ink Vol. 1, No. 4 – March 2001)