tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78246704676643198332024-03-06T00:40:42.388-06:00The Sweet SeasonMiles from Williamsport, Pa., where Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West baseball team is currently playing in the Little League World Series, each year boys—and girls—play the game on local diamonds in seasons filled with life's lessons, with hopes and dreams. Story, photos and video by John W. Fountain.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7824670467664319833.post-34125638120836632332017-08-16T13:23:00.000-05:002017-10-14T13:05:42.914-05:00For Ford Heights Boys of Summer, Finally A Field of Their Own<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAEfD_yX_cgPKALXIimpLFA7utdNvLXch6UnSsXVX395cNrc-1HtiUOmo8tVV1rOoHQYX6ekB-VgVvZz_isTqxNYMz-6HpjBBNjzutPohD-c2zB61iBXlkSkyEoOgHNHyUa2LzDdGVVrnc/s1600/7Clark+the+Cubs+mascot+poses+with+the+Ford+Heights+team+and+fans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="1600" height="564" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAEfD_yX_cgPKALXIimpLFA7utdNvLXch6UnSsXVX395cNrc-1HtiUOmo8tVV1rOoHQYX6ekB-VgVvZz_isTqxNYMz-6HpjBBNjzutPohD-c2zB61iBXlkSkyEoOgHNHyUa2LzDdGVVrnc/s640/7Clark+the+Cubs+mascot+poses+with+the+Ford+Heights+team+and+fans.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span>
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "" "bookman old style" "" , "serif"; font-size: 54pt;">The Sweet Season</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 36pt;">three years later,</span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 36pt;">the story continues...</span></i></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;">By John W. Fountain</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"> FORD HEIGHTS, Ill. (August 11, 2017)</span></span><span style="font-family: "minion pro";"><span style="font-size: x-large;">—</span></span><span style="font-size: large;">Here, in Ford Heights, a field of dreams lives. That was as clear as a perfect baseball afternoon on Friday. It shone like the green grass carpet and the soaring silver backstop that has now replaced the tattered rusty one that not long ago was among the old remnants of a forlorn field overgrown with weeds.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> On Friday, the rebirth of youth baseball in this south suburban village echoed with each crack of the bat--restoring a sound that had long faded in a place where baseball died...</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/fountain-batter-up-baseballs-back-in-ford-heights/">READ Fountain's Chicago Sun-Times column</a></span></span></div>
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</style>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7824670467664319833.post-86641455167013243372014-09-14T13:59:00.000-05:002015-01-08T18:06:26.069-06:00Baseball. Boys. Sunflower seeds. A field. And dreams.<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: ""Bookman Old Style"","serif"; font-size: 54pt;">The Sweet Season</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 36pt;">Part IV</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt;">Miles from Williamsport, Pa., where Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West baseball team recently captured the national Little League World Series title, each year boys—and girls—play the game on local diamonds in seasons filled with life's lessons, with hopes and dreams.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">We, the media, keep missing the story</span></b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">This is </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">the fourth and final part</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> of the series</span></b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b><a href="mailto:author@johnwfountain.com">By John W. Fountain</a></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnQWZvLLVM9FEw9IT0wKwhVtgUZP_zqBoXFsTMTY6WlhBycSKK_K8bvG_3mhV8Ti3PGdNd6KhtTNZQGGbge-qgCmCcXismNshgsOp3U6aQ5_N_c_8AuctK2ffwDIaGVi8caSXrQmTHdwV_/s1600/_DSC0265.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnQWZvLLVM9FEw9IT0wKwhVtgUZP_zqBoXFsTMTY6WlhBycSKK_K8bvG_3mhV8Ti3PGdNd6KhtTNZQGGbge-qgCmCcXismNshgsOp3U6aQ5_N_c_8AuctK2ffwDIaGVi8caSXrQmTHdwV_/s1600/_DSC0265.JPG" height="211" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: x-large;">P</span>age-one
pathology. Front-page fatalism. Ten o’clock neuroses. </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">Murderers,
muggers, robbers, rapists, we are. The number-one suspect. Societal menace. Thug.
Heartless. Criminal. </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">Or so
goes the portrait of black American males that too often fuels the American news
media engine and the perceptions about black males. Ours is the mug shot below
the headlines.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ours
the soulless brown eyes staring back without remorse. Too often, ours is the
story of our supposed propensity toward criminality in a world in which a
racist and unfair justice system holds different rules and different outcomes
for males of color. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ours
a jaded portrayal overall by the media at large who help make every black male,
all 19.9 million of us—even in a “post-racial” America—all potentially guilty
by genetic association.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">America’s
most hated. Most wanted. Most feared.</span><br />
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/o-4WqIaEh0s" width="640"></iframe>
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<a name='more'></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Too
often the stories that pepper the platter of daily American journalism dwell on
what is wrong with some of us, rather than on that which is right with the
majority of us. Rather than on stories like the story of the south suburban Matteson/Olympia
Fields Cubs I covered this summer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
image of black males is reduced to stories about homicidal hittas, about gang “chiefs”
and murderous drug dealers. Immortalized in notoriousness by a mainstream press
whose “first draft of history” mostly misses the true and more complete story of
black male life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unless
you happen to be a blue chip athlete; millionaire rap mogul; Hollywood movie star;
a rags-to-riches success; or an intellectual genius. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
we the news media miss, neglect, or ignore the middle ground—that space between
the ends of the spectrum where most of life is lived in America. All the while
embracing the scales of fairness and balance in one hand and the lens of
objectivity in the other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
the news media are part of the problem, symbolized—even 46 years since the Kerner
Commission report, which called for diversity within the news media—by the glaring
absence of people of color in American newsrooms and in key editorial
decision-making positions. Mostly, it is crystalized by the media’s lack of
parity concerning our portrayal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m
not saying don’t report the news, the truth. Only that we need to report the
whole truth. To strike a balance in the stories we produce about black
males—about black life in general.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m
saying that there exists a treasure trove of stories to be written about
functional black life. Stories of so many good men and women—coaches, teachers
and parents—living by the rules and playing by the rules, and making a real difference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Whether
that narrative framework is academics or sports, or something else, the news
media have a moral obligation to go out and find and then tell those stories.
And the public has a right to demand it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Recently,
I too celebrated the success, poise and character of the Jackie Robinson West
All Stars—the little boys who captured our hearts and this year’s Little League
World Series national title. It was refreshing to see their brown faces—their
positive images—in the media, even if I know they had to achieve the almost
impossible dream to receive such ink and public light.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
also understand that there are so many others like them. Men like Kelvin Oliver
and George “Kirby” Green whose Cubs this summer found baseball and coaching a vehicle
for teaching little boys lessons for life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
asked Oliver, who has coached baseball for many years, what his greatest moment
or season of coaching has been. He spoke about some other good seasons in the
past, of boys he has had the privilege of coaching but who now are grown,
including his own son. There is nothing like coaching your own son, he assured,
reflecting. Then he paused. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">“They’re
all my sons,” he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">They
are his. And mine and every other man willing to stand up to help these boys within
our community and beyond, who, without our help, just might be lost. Boys like
those I had the privilege to meet while covering The Sweet Season. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Good
boys. Not a menace among them. And a more hopeful portrait of black life in
America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7824670467664319833.post-6817289819062559092014-09-05T19:05:00.000-05:002015-01-26T23:32:09.464-06:00Baseball. Boys. Sunflower seeds. A field. And dreams.<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 36.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Part III</span></i><span style="font-size: 36.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt;">Miles from Williamsport, Pa., where Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West baseball team recently captured the national Little League World Series title, each year boys—and girls—play the game on local diamonds in seasons filled with life's lessons, with hopes and dreams.</span></i><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_kRQeSbl94kNEsRDivfB0ljY_JHZ8VVjYOAtRlMfgTtPVHT5g1ceJAkWU9cmJKv4aRrJipc-MLDUPpR_OPvg5oduD3k4iP8_hR-jXpMJn_9oWPAgorsDob0wQm96I7Av-cibb0zu4ts4q/s1600/trophy.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_kRQeSbl94kNEsRDivfB0ljY_JHZ8VVjYOAtRlMfgTtPVHT5g1ceJAkWU9cmJKv4aRrJipc-MLDUPpR_OPvg5oduD3k4iP8_hR-jXpMJn_9oWPAgorsDob0wQm96I7Av-cibb0zu4ts4q/s1600/trophy.jpeg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Matteson Olympia Fields Cubs pose at season's end after the title game.</td></tr>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Baseball principles teach kids not to give up</span></b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">This is </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">the third </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">in a series</span></b></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b>By <a href="mailto:author@johnwfountain.com">John W. Fountain</a></b></span><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>n the bottom of
the 6</span><sup style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">th</sup><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"> and final inning, the tension was thick like molasses. Win
or lose, the season for the M.O.F. Cubs was already a winning one—and baseball
a game of life, the field just a classroom for lessons by their coaches to help
these little boys someday grow into good men.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dominique, a
short, stout kid with a mean fastball and in a good groove on this warm evening
in July, stood at the mound, time ticking on the last game of the season for
these boys of summer. An inning earlier, they squandered a lead, looking on the
verge of a complete meltdown. It’s not like it hadn’t happened before—this
season. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But it was soon
clear—after Aiden, Dominique’s little brother, had run off the field with tears
streaming down his face in frustration over an error—that the Cubs had learned to fight.
Clear that the boys had absorbed the principle of teamwork, of never giving up,
of cleaving to the words and faith of their coaches. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">Clear was that
this group of unlikely champions wanted not just to learn to play baseball but to
win.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHV0bDoBUZADBGiap89_55J3JqoysDZgEbACOIYaIlPfMaWYppbeOLxrWJDElEmMO1WC6m5jJm2rw51KzBuyhTqINAfue5yqR2j2L5TpZ9WnZ6nHFi70fVQoZ-Vo1cBNc4AAEbJD3_Nse6/s1600/Tears.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHV0bDoBUZADBGiap89_55J3JqoysDZgEbACOIYaIlPfMaWYppbeOLxrWJDElEmMO1WC6m5jJm2rw51KzBuyhTqINAfue5yqR2j2L5TpZ9WnZ6nHFi70fVQoZ-Vo1cBNc4AAEbJD3_Nse6/s1600/Tears.JPG" height="211" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not even tears can keep Aiden from helping to lead his <br />
team to a win in the championship game.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">W</span></b>ith his face
still wet with tears, Aiden, a carefree, wiry kid with big glasses, got a walk.
He sprinted to first base. Except he never stopped running. He rounded first,
his eyes filled with tears and determination, bound like a lightening bolt toward
second. Eyeing an errant throw—and waved on by his coaches—Aiden dashed toward
third. Then toward home he ran, as if being ushered by a mighty wind. Saaaafe!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Aiden scored in what
amounted to a base on balls homerun. He trotted off the field to the dugout and
cheers, his teary face turned into a contented smile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And yet, even
with the rally led by Aiden, and the Cubs holding onto a 5-run lead in the final
inning—and even with two outs—the game was still on the line. Except this
wasn’t just any game. It was the biggest game of the season—the league
championship. And who would’ve thunk it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is the story of a team
of boys called the Cubs, mostly from Ford Heights—a forlorn hamlet of 2,787,
about 30 miles south of Chicago. A story about boys, who, this summer, would
discover baseball in a season beyond their wildest dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Miles from Williamsport, Pa., where
<a href="http://thasweetseason.blogspot.com/2014/08/special-feature-chicagos-jackie.html">Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West baseball team </a>captured this year’s Little League
World Series national title, each year boys—and girls—play the game on local
diamonds in seasons filled with life's lessons, with hopes and dreams. Most
teams and their coaches never make it to Williamsport. Most of the kids who play
aren’t all stars. And a career in the Major Leagues isn’t their life’s dream. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dominique gets words of encouragement from Coach Dudley<br />
in the late innings of the Cubs championship game.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And yet, for so many, perhaps for most,
baseball is the vehicle for teaching invaluable lessons like teamwork,
discipline and sportsmanship. It is the stuff for building character and
achieving goals, even dreams, even on local fields far from television cameras
and the national spotlight. This is where Little League baseball lives—thrives—with
kids whose sweat and tears fill a season and with coaches operating on a
shoestring budget and who spend tireless hours of dedication and dip into their
own pockets with no compensation, except the joy of making a difference in a
kid’s life, if only for a season. And if the stars should align, maybe, just
maybe, also a championship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the start of the season,
the Cubs more resembled the Bad News Bears—an assemblage of boys, most of who
had never even played baseball before this summer. For the Cubs, it was a
season in which about half the boys quit. A season that was saved by the
addition of a new player here, and two there, and the steadfastness of Coaches
Kelvin Oliver aka “Coach K” and George “Kirby” Green, despite more losses than
wins, to simply keep teaching, to keep coaching and to keep hoping—to prove to
the boys what is possible with hard work and a dream.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Judging by their
regular season record, the Cubs should have been one and done in the first
round of the playoffs. The league’s worst team, in the first round of the
playoffs, they’d faced the league’s first place, undefeated team. Turns out, the
game wasn’t even close. The Cubs beat their opponents from Chicago Heights 9-2.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Next up was the
league’s 4<sup>th</sup> place team. Cubs won 9-6, qualifying for the title game
for the South Suburban Little League Baseball conference championship against
the team from Country Club Hills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now,
in the championship game and one out away from the title, there was a sense of almost
giddy disbelief mixed with tension. Coach Green could hardly contain himself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sharod poses with his father after the title game.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We just need one
out,” a woman yelled. “Just one!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Everyone watched
on edge as Dominique fired another pitch. …It’s a strike. He’s out. Game over.
Cubs win! Cubs win! Cubs are champions. Final score: 17-12. They erupted in
celebration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">After
congratulating their opponents, the boys--Aiden, Jaheim, David, Sharod, Dominique and all the others--sprinted to the dugout. They
spontaneously formed a circle, cheering and chanting, hugging, jumping and
laughing as sheer joy flooded their faces, like the glint of sun on a shiny
helmet. Coach K, Coach Green and the other coaches looked on, some near tears,
almost speechless as the boys reveled in their moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Minutes later,
they hoisted their shiny red and gold championship trophies as the field’s lights
beamed down brightly on their sweet season.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AcMKlYISCQs?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7824670467664319833.post-68522593183171623912014-08-23T19:25:00.002-05:002015-01-08T18:07:49.745-06:00Baseball. Boys. Sunflower seeds. A field. And dreams.<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: ""Bookman Old Style"","serif"; font-size: 54pt;">The Sweet Season</span></i><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-size: 36pt;">Part II</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt;">Miles from Williamsport, Pa., where Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West baseball team recently captured the national Little League World Series title, each year boys—and girls—play the game on local diamonds in seasons filled with life's lessons, with hopes and dreams.</span></i><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The only thing stolen: bases</span></b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">This is </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">the second </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">in a series</span></b></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b>By <a href="mailto:author@johnwfountain.com">John W. Fountain</a></b></span></div>
</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtXl6_AHsxfY3nkt7ayL1GmaOu8c2QRu9SQ8UPFMj9zvgqh4W8sYWZY8QsNJffhC5YAT_pZs8MKSGNROxTRedBtUXYZSJDJfre1fj2ieVxlAbl238z-Iak2kh4xkGjrH8IWjtTlflPm1A3/s1600/_DSC0103.NEF" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtXl6_AHsxfY3nkt7ayL1GmaOu8c2QRu9SQ8UPFMj9zvgqh4W8sYWZY8QsNJffhC5YAT_pZs8MKSGNROxTRedBtUXYZSJDJfre1fj2ieVxlAbl238z-Iak2kh4xkGjrH8IWjtTlflPm1A3/s1600/_DSC0103.NEF" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">N</span></b>o fatalism. No pathology. Simply
a slice of life in middle America. Of little boys and men with Little League hopes
and dreams. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.1in;">No gang. Team. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">No guns. Bats. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.1in;">The only hitters are base
hitters. The only thing stolen: bases.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">No OGs. Just older men,
graying, or balding or simply seasoned by life and eager to share their wisdom.
To see black boys thrive. No courthouse holding pen. Just a dugout.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">No sagging. No prison
orange. Uniforms—blue shirts tucked neatly into gray pants. Shoes laced and
tied, caps not cocked to the side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">No bullets flying. Fly balls. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">No murder tally. Only runs. No running for cover. No guns. No fighting, except the fight to win.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats'; font-size: 34.79999923706055px; text-indent: 9.600000381469727px;">★★★★★</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Ptw4O1ewwVE?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats'; font-size: 34.79999923706055px; text-indent: 9.600000381469727px;">★★★★★</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">Tears. Over a missed ball.
Over a big victory. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">Losses, but no loss of life.
And here, on this field of dreams, the possibility of tomorrow is itself season
enough to keep trying, to do it all again and again, believing that sooner or
later, if you just keep at it, just maybe, you might win.</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The sweet season: Baseball.
Boys. Sunflower seeds. A field. And dreams. Little League Baseball teams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is the story of a team
of boys called the Cubs, most of them from Ford Heights—a forlorn hamlet of
2,787, about 30 miles south of Chicago. A story about boys, who, this summer,
would discover baseball. It is the story of a season filled with challenges. A
season beyond their wildest dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Miles from Williamsport, Pa., where
Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West baseball team competed in this year’s Little
League World Series, each year boys—and girls—play the game on local diamonds
in seasons filled with life's lessons, with hopes and dreams.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jaheim is a lanky quiet kid,
a natural athlete, even if his propensity for baseball wasn’t yet clear when
the season began. There is Tony—Coach Kirby’s grandson—a coffee-brown boy with
big eyes. There’s Isaiah, a sure catcher, who at 8, already has years of
baseball experience. He happens to be one of two boys who live in Olympia
Fields. His dad Leland White III is a college grad and has coached his eldest
son and namesake who blazed the trail for younger brother Isaiah. He’s one of
two boys from Olympia Fields. Mostly, the boys, like Jaheim, are from Ford
Heights: Sharod, Caleb, Brandon, Teron…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">From the beginning, the task
of Kelvin Oliver aka “Coach K” and Coach George “Kirby” Green was
comprehensive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">‘Throw a ball with two
fingers, not your whole hand.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">‘Don’t hold a bat like you’re
sweeping with a broom.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">‘Put the glove on your hand,
no, the other one.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Run…” a coach yelled at a
practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Other coaches chimed in with
one tip or another: “You can’t be afraid of the ball.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Don’t sling the bat.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Sli-i-i-ide.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Don’t slide into first!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Hey, come over here, hurry
up, run. ‘I said run’.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the beginning, some of the
boys duck and dodge. Or the ball rolls through their legs. Or they run away
from it—too fast, too hot. They learn that getting hit by a baseball can hurt. The
boys fumble and stumble about, look lost. It’s soon clear that this is going to
be a learning season rather a winning season. The coaches figure they had better
focus on the fundamentals first, worry about winning later. Much later. Like
maybe next season.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: large;">Walk
this Way</span></span></b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcK7nDFZXhJTQ0WYaU-8UXsrsdw74hGFNbu6s5D2EvK_vjtNjyvbqw6QnecbOUvIWw7zKZJ9vXfOTiJK7kHSM0e2il1BngqJL6Ujzv2aeo_-zyLYuVwBQoho5IYToOrRuKLsm_Vk7mpGuD/s1600/_DSC0101.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcK7nDFZXhJTQ0WYaU-8UXsrsdw74hGFNbu6s5D2EvK_vjtNjyvbqw6QnecbOUvIWw7zKZJ9vXfOTiJK7kHSM0e2il1BngqJL6Ujzv2aeo_-zyLYuVwBQoho5IYToOrRuKLsm_Vk7mpGuD/s1600/_DSC0101.JPG" height="211" width="320" /></a></b></div>
On 12<sup style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">th</sup><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"> Street,
not far from where he lives, Coach Kirby, 52, stood on a field of overgrown
wild grass and weeds, green and straw brown. Kirby knelt down and pulled back
some of the growth in search of evidence that this was once a potential field
of dreams. “See, here’s some gravel.” There are also still the remnants of the
fence that hugged home plate. Partially rusted and with its top missing, it
marks the place where home plate once shone but now sprouts grass.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Providing a guided tour to a
reporter on this day, Kirby pointed out old haunts while recounting the history
of his hometown as he rolled past blight, past the area where the drug boys
hang out, past abandoned buildings. There is the barren plot of land where a
housing development—so troubled and violent that everyone around here called it
Vietnam—once stood. And nearby are the boarded and decaying low-rise buildings called
“the Bronx.” The story goes: the boys in the Bronx and the boys in Vietnam
didn’t get along—were always fighting and shooting at one another. It didn’t
matter that there was no real line of demarcation other than a single street. Nor
did it matter that they mostly grew up together. Bulldozed or vacated now,
there is no sign of animosity and the violence that Kirby says once marred this
section of town. Nor any more inhabitants—only poverty, decay and the sun
shining down on potential-rich fields of green that now lay barren.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Around the corner from the
former baseball field stands a site that Green blames for helping to put the
death nail in baseball. It used to be a tennis court. But on this day a group
of girls sat on metal stands overlooking a basketball court where young men
played a pick-up game. Other boys dribbled on the sidelines, or else watched
the older boys shooting jump shots, driving to the basket, stutter stepping and
crossing over. Basketball and football are the sports of choice for young black
men, both Kirby and Oliver say.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJlpmN0XfKOOq33SFCUQe_brFtsG6w2WgFVHvwTuF7a4-0Ta37gmUXZbTnGS7kqyfXt5cE8caWT6y3aYkKxpESZuTB0Cu8RwEiwDQgqKz9eARTNncP-uhTawIKTS6c_Wg3wpweDA47lLa/s1600/_DSC0130.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJlpmN0XfKOOq33SFCUQe_brFtsG6w2WgFVHvwTuF7a4-0Ta37gmUXZbTnGS7kqyfXt5cE8caWT6y3aYkKxpESZuTB0Cu8RwEiwDQgqKz9eARTNncP-uhTawIKTS6c_Wg3wpweDA47lLa/s1600/_DSC0130.JPG" height="211" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And in their eyes, the
elevation and transcendence of basketball and football in the eyes of many a
young black boy—aided by the likes of Dr. J and Walter Payton, Michael Jordan
and others whose star power and success over time—left baseball in the dust.
Ultimately, this has meant fewer and fewer black boys playing baseball—creating
a well-documented dwindling of African Americans from the game integrated by
Jackie Robinson 67 years ago (1947). It is a baseball legacy that includes the
Negro Leagues and names like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige. Gone is the golden
era of baseball for African Americans when names like Ernie Banks, Fergie
Jenkins and Billy Williams were on the tips of the tongues of black boys as
their favorite sports heroes. Today they have long since been replaced by names
like D Rose, Durant, Briggs, Vick, “Bones” Jones…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oliver and Green know that’s
what they’re up against. And yet, both coaches are not willing to concede that
baseball is out for the count. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: large;">“Green
Machine”</span></span></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6dI86QFSbi8YXxANBN1Km-OkinUHAyvQP1Y3rGdXmbD3yrEXA16Moj8KpApSMgkKsg2CHjZYj-k2fSJen_C2d9kj8L-DLq293r9Aa9j05aHKUWALP3yXhPIW3br3aED7mchnzGGn8BPj/s1600/2-3Kirby.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6dI86QFSbi8YXxANBN1Km-OkinUHAyvQP1Y3rGdXmbD3yrEXA16Moj8KpApSMgkKsg2CHjZYj-k2fSJen_C2d9kj8L-DLq293r9Aa9j05aHKUWALP3yXhPIW3br3aED7mchnzGGn8BPj/s1600/2-3Kirby.JPG" height="210" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b> </b>Green grew up playing
baseball in Ford Heights, back when the town was East Chicago Heights, before
the town’s name was changed in 1987 in an effort to give it a makeover, even if
it didn’t work. Even if poverty and some systemic issues that can ail a town
are more stubborn. Back in the early 1970’s, when Green was a kid, most boys
played baseball.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">From nearly sunup until
sundown, everybody played hardball on the baseball field next to Cottage Grove
Elementary School. Or sometimes Green and the boys played “strike ‘em out” at
the fence in his yard, or else on the home-made baseball diamond on a lot
adjacent to his home, where he lived with his parents and seven siblings—a
brother and six sisters. He was a Cubs fan back then and can still recite the
lineup—Hundley, Beckert, Santo, Kessinger... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Back then, Green lived and
slept baseball—his father’s first love. A Ford Heights policeman who later
drove a truck for a living, his father George W. Green, drilled into his sons
the game of baseball. In those days, all of their fathers were around. The boys
in the town used to go out to the baseball field every Saturday and play
against their dads. Green recalls the devotion of a man named “Excel Walker,”
who coached Little League baseball and also youth football. How the man didn’t
have a car. But he would walk up to the community center and beg up on
uniforms. How the uniform tops and bottoms would be two different shades of
green. But it didn’t matter to the boys. They always had uniforms. The “Green
Machine,” they used to call them. There was a sense of community back then.
Back then, it was unusual to see someone without a dad around. Times have
changed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Green and his wife are high
school sweethearts. Born a day apart, they have been together since they were
17 and have four grown children. He moved away from Ford Heights for years, farther
southwest to University Park,<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></b>where they raised their children.
He moved, in part, because he could see the handwriting on the wall for Ford
Heights, which had long been marred by corruption and poverty. Then, in 2007, 19
years after he moved away, he and his family moved back to the family’s house
where he had grown up, a brick ranch on a sprawling emerald plot of land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Green still sees baseball as
blue collar, a skilled game, a team sport, a teacher of lessons for life. As an
opportunity to instill discipline in young men and to mentor boys whose fathers
are MIA, imprisoned, inebriated or simply not around. In his estimation, most
boys in his town are growing up today without the influence of a father. And he
believes simply that good coaches can be good surrogates.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">___________________________</b><br />
<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">___________________________</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;">T<i>he way Coach K sees it, you have two options:</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">You do something. Or you do nothing.</span></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">___________________________</b><br />
<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">___________________________</b><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Still, coaching comes with a
price. Green admits that his wife sometimes scolds him for spending so much
time coaching and says he should spend more time with his own family. Green
understands, he says. But somebody has got to help these boys. At least that’s
the way he and Oliver see it. Or else, they say, we’re doomed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">By
Any Means Necessary</span></b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9hX77qN5wsBcWLVPtZxWX-F8_uVnY7fGQGwBc-R-dtU0ztkU-GP8VovbSwL73F_lHNWeMTnq6_Pfovec5KW6-SRODDqb6dKlvH5GOayWMCukcz-Oigyq0wzmfkbRlwucYa1Xg8oVKevFN/s1600/_DSC0060.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9hX77qN5wsBcWLVPtZxWX-F8_uVnY7fGQGwBc-R-dtU0ztkU-GP8VovbSwL73F_lHNWeMTnq6_Pfovec5KW6-SRODDqb6dKlvH5GOayWMCukcz-Oigyq0wzmfkbRlwucYa1Xg8oVKevFN/s1600/_DSC0060.JPG" height="211" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b> </b>Oliver, 58, has been married 31</span><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"> y</b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">ears. He and his wife Pam, a television
news planning producer, have raised a son and two daughters. Although Oliver
lives in a comfy suburb, 30 miles south of the big city, he doesn’t feel
entirely removed from the social elements that plague it. A village of Olympia
Fields trustee, he is also an advocate for education and involved with a
community of men working to improve the troubled Rich Township High School
District 227, where discipline, poor test scores and a feuding school board
have been well documented.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oliver sees evidence of the
same kinds of issues that affect poor black Chicago neighborhoods encroaching
upon the south suburbs, if not already totally enveloping some of them. Issues
like poverty, poor quality schools, familial breakdown, a disintegration of
community and an erosion of the social and cultural fabric in a way that threatens
us all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oliver sees these issues as
symptomatic of a larger failure to simply put children first. And he sees the
politics, red tape and status quo bureaucrats, including some school board
members and administrators, as roadblocks to success for black boys and girls.
For him, the issue of education couldn’t be more critical. Oliver, who, in April
2013, launched an unsuccessful bid for mayor of Olympia Fields, also sees
mentoring as a way to point young people in the right direction and also to
help shepherd them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The way Coach K sees it, you have
two options: You do something. Or you do nothing. Coaching baseball is one way
for him to do something to help create community, to provide a lifeline for
boys, to be “fathers” in the community. To use the lessons of baseball as
lessons for life. To save black boys by any means necessary. One player, one
game, one season at a time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: large;">Batter
Up!</span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"> After a month of forfeits and
rainouts, they finally played their first game in late May. The Cubs were
nervous and plenty green: missed balls, fielding errors, swinging at bad
pitches… The mercy rule is invoked in the 4</span><sup style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">th </sup><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">inning. Cubs lose: 18-6.</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKYHqs36hpsa87-WRFMBqYnTivF79I571EDBV-Foge7IZkQCGcqpjIltG2kPOrqP2se2bYzns-WVdwxUfOCZ5ezJrXFte9Ir7JgbBXeFiE41Q03iuq4kbiN87RRHWTnmMJuaP5rBXhBmA/s1600/_DSC0157.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKYHqs36hpsa87-WRFMBqYnTivF79I571EDBV-Foge7IZkQCGcqpjIltG2kPOrqP2se2bYzns-WVdwxUfOCZ5ezJrXFte9Ir7JgbBXeFiE41Q03iuq4kbiN87RRHWTnmMJuaP5rBXhBmA/s1600/_DSC0157.JPG" height="211" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"> The next game isn’t much
better. Cubs lose 23-3. Soon five players would drop off. Then more losses:
5-3, 7-6… But there are signs of progress, including, finally, a win. It was
enough for coaches to point to for the sometimes bewildered, sometimes
frustrated, sometimes embarrassed boys as evidence of their growth. And yet,
proof that there were lessons still to learn.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Work hard—nothing good comes
easy. Be a team player. Don’t slack or sulk. Keep your head up. Never give up. And
never underestimate the power of hard work and having a dream.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Win or lose, the team forms a
circle on the field after each game. All hands in. “On three…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Cubs!” they all yelled in
unison, ever hopeful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With losses mounting as the season winded
down, the good news was: the Cubs were getting better. Also clear—by their
effort and by the passion shining in their eyes—was that these boys no longer
simply wanted to just play the game. They wanted to win.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>Next:
The Impossible Dream</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7824670467664319833.post-55708063649299093922014-08-15T15:17:00.002-05:002015-01-08T18:08:08.291-06:00Baseball. Boys. Sunflower seeds. A field. And dreams.<!--StartFragment-->
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-size: 36pt;">Part I</span></i></div>
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt;">Miles from Williamsport, Pa., where Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West baseball team recently captured the national Little League World Series title, each year boys—and girls—play the game on local diamonds in seasons filled with life's lessons, with hopes and dreams.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Sweet Season begins in Ford Heights</b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>This is the first in a series</b></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b>By <a href="mailto:author@johnwfountain.com">John W. Fountain</a></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaR57VlvcNbyMKQNFQnjiK9c6D4X9UmcFfPG3br8fI1cbiuUXFdUC-B_U5ewaiQS1eoq3zjrjwoTlwN99-yfDksSK2jwMM7aRHzxJMODp-xiYEXu_CGMWz7TCWm0hCZ4ft4y9CA_xyozgP/s1600/Tothedugoutafterscoring2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaR57VlvcNbyMKQNFQnjiK9c6D4X9UmcFfPG3br8fI1cbiuUXFdUC-B_U5ewaiQS1eoq3zjrjwoTlwN99-yfDksSK2jwMM7aRHzxJMODp-xiYEXu_CGMWz7TCWm0hCZ4ft4y9CA_xyozgP/s1600/Tothedugoutafterscoring2.JPG" height="262" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> T</span></b>he Sweet Season. It is a
time when graying or balding men—even men in their twilight years—still
remember like yesterday. It is a time we all remember. A time when little
boys—and girls—are innocent and free, to a certain extent, no matter what
cruelty their eyes might already have seen. A time when smiles curl easily at
the edges of their faces and joy shines in their eyes like the glint of sun on
polished chrome. A time when boys aren’t ashamed to hug each other. When a bag
of potato chips and a pat on the back from a coach are still sufficient prizes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Sweet Season. A time in
our lives when disappointment and pain over a loss can dissolve as quickly as a
two-run lead in one inning. A time when the fate of a season can hinge on one
last at bat. One last hope.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is a time when there’s not
much sweeter than the sound of a bat smacking a fastball, the sight of it
sailing into centerfield for a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>bases-loaded-clearing hit. Or the pop of a catcher’s mitt and the yell
of “Streeeeeiiiike threeeeee!!!” by a giant-sized umpire, leaping from his
crouch. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Or a sip of cold water on a
sun-drenched summer’s evening at the end of a sweaty game or practice, the mix of
chatter and laughter of little boys rising like crickets as they their collect
bats and gloves against a purplish sky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Sweet Season: Baseball.
Boys. Sunflower seeds. A field. And dreams. Little League Baseball teams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is the story of a team
of boys called the Cubs, most of them from Ford Heights—a forlorn south
suburban hamlet of 2,787, about 30 miles south of Chicago. It is a story about
boys, who, this summer, would discover baseball. The story of a group of men
with a passion for hardball and also for trying to save black boys at risk to
gangs, homicide and prison—at a time when baseball has waned as the sport of
choice among African Americans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Miles
from Williamsport, Pa., where Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West baseball team is
currently playing in the Little League World Series, each year boys—and
girls—play the game on diamonds that, despite the environs, can be fertile
ground for life’s lessons and also for dreams. This is their story. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The story of a season filled with
challenges. A season beyond their wildest dreams.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>____________________________</b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">____________________________</b></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>There is something about baseball.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>...Something about playing beneath a </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>baby-blue sky kissed by marshmallow clouds.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b>____________________________</b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">____________________________</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqzHABm4tgjgUQ-_Q2OWDMZxMqZUFm_UO0haFGcs1neLSkFHqNBGxjAsW4ul_SE-gdqvPjnyTf2k2Ti8b6-xNpRAzosRGPc8cmRGNgJjCMuMDxGVtFlLPUBI6FBshUUWQfNwVzOZn0EQIr/s1600/_DSC0165.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqzHABm4tgjgUQ-_Q2OWDMZxMqZUFm_UO0haFGcs1neLSkFHqNBGxjAsW4ul_SE-gdqvPjnyTf2k2Ti8b6-xNpRAzosRGPc8cmRGNgJjCMuMDxGVtFlLPUBI6FBshUUWQfNwVzOZn0EQIr/s1600/_DSC0165.JPG" height="211" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In Ford Heights, there is no
supermarket. No bank. No police department. No library. No Little League
baseball. Once dubbed the poorest suburb in America, not much has changed in
this town, once a stop for runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. Today
Ford Heights’ version of Main Street is punctuated by signs of liquor, lottery,
vacant lots and crumbling housing that symbolize the poverty and sense of
hopelessness in this village that years ago vanquished its police department
because of corruption and also because it could no longer financially afford
one. The park district’s lone baseball field sprouts with wild grass and
weeds—a symbol perhaps of the rich history and potential buried within this
town that was once a stop for runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">George “Kirby” Green, 52,
remembers. One of the town’s Park District trustees, Green is a longtime youth
sports coach, though within this town where he grew up playing baseball, the love
for the game and the funds to support it dried up long ago. For years, he’s had
a dilemma: Plenty of boys but no baseball. A few miles west in Olympia Fields—a
middle class suburb of tree-lined streets and emerald fields—Kelvin Oliver, 58,
had baseball but not enough boys. Fate and a phone call would bring them
together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their team is the MOF Cubs, a group of boys,
ages 8 to 10. And theirs is a story that emerges amid the backdrop of Chicago,
where murder, gunplay and gang activity have become a pastime for too many
city—and also suburban—boys. It is the story of a season filled with
challenges, with highs and also with lows, and with unforgettable moments. A
season filled with baseball. The sweet season.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Sweet
Dreams</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is something about
baseball. Something about the elements. The dirt. The field. The air. Something
about playing beneath a baby-blue sky kissed by marshmallow clouds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is something about the
sensation of gripping a baseball by its threads and firing it hard with your
own power. Something about getting a hit and rounding the bases or<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>stealing home. Something sweet about the
thrill of the game and simply being a part of the team. Something about getting
better in time, something about learning to no longer be afraid of the ball,
about learning to stand unflinchingly in the batter’s box and swing for the
fences. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Something about baseball that
after all these years still makes it shine like the sun off a helmet, something
about baseball’s roots that run deep to the heart of the American dream like no
other sport. There is something sweet about baseball. Something mighty sweet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Bridging
the Gap</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was April and the clock
ticking with Oliver hopeful of still being able to field a “Mustang” team in
the South Suburban Little League Baseball conference. Mustangs are the youngest Little League division. Oliver, a clean-shaven father of three grown
children who works downtown as a public service administrator, got his start
coaching many years ago when his son, now 20, was just a tyke and playing
T-ball. For years, Oliver coached Little League but retired a few years back
after his son stopped playing. The way he figured, another parent with kids on
the team would be smitten by the coaching bug and would simply carry the torch.
But it didn’t happen that way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzR7V27pvS9aYjcc-7iKrleq98DkHXgN-1X30AJq35KS8tbt63H4S3mK8k5FJLt0qRDpLPqvLcMSoik44VvxgDNy2_-RaOpTk-0sO4UBgpbkiebSpM-Bs0mntGK-onm2CUhbmxlxSxoAeh/s1600/Van.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzR7V27pvS9aYjcc-7iKrleq98DkHXgN-1X30AJq35KS8tbt63H4S3mK8k5FJLt0qRDpLPqvLcMSoik44VvxgDNy2_-RaOpTk-0sO4UBgpbkiebSpM-Bs0mntGK-onm2CUhbmxlxSxoAeh/s1600/Van.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coach Kirby's van is loaded up for the trip home after practice</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kirby is round, 52, a jolly
man with silver and black hair, coffee-bean brown. He is jovial with a smooth
tenor voice that floods with booming bass when he is shouting instructions or
disciplining his players. He doesn’t shout, he says, he sometimes talks real
loud. Oliver is balding, a middle age man who keeps in shape by running a few
times a week. He talks to the boys like a patient and also philosophical field
general with the disposition of a motivational speaker. The boys call him Coach
K. Kirby is the statistician, though not dispassionate. Coach K is the visionary.
Together they are the soul of the team.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Intent on
fielding a team, Oliver got on the phone to friends in surrounding suburbs and
his hunt for boys. Call after call. Still no boys. One day, Green got a call
from a fellow Ford Heights Park District trustee who had gotten a call from a
coach named Kelvin Oliver. The fellow trustee explained the situation. No
problem. Green said he could provide the boys. He rounded up a group of 11. There
was only one more problem: Transportation. He figured his large, red passenger
SUV would have to suffice. The boys piled in and their makeshift team bus
headed west to Olympia Fields and baseball dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">About 6.6 miles
separate the two suburbs but they are worlds apart. It has been penned as one of the wealthiest “majority black” communities in the
nation. Its golf course has been host to two U.S. Open championships. A village
of about 5,000, more than half the homes, according to the 2010 U.S. Census,
were headed by married couples living together, with female-headed households
amounting to 11 percent. The median income for a family was $88,839. In Ford
Heights, children 69.2 percent or about 7 out of 10 children under 18 live
below the poverty level. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">About
6.6 miles separate the two villages. It is a 6.6-mile divide between the haves
and the have-nots and symbolic of the gulf<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>between the American dream and the American dream deferred. That divide
is less one of race and more one of class and the division that exists between
those who, in a post-urban renewal, post-Great Society plan, moved to the head
of the class and those who have become the forgotten class, perhaps the
abandoned class. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As
the van rolls, Kirby listens as the boys play a game of calling out luxury cars
as their own. They point at houses, some too large and fancy to imagine…
“That’s my car…” “Ooh, that one’s mine” They spot another, shiny and expensive:
“That’s mine!” The boys gaze at manicured lawns and pristine blocks of pristine
homes and circular driveways, of homes recessed in wooded lots and finally a pedicured
field of green with a pampered baseball field that is theirs for the taking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now, if they only knew how to
play baseball.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Next:
Growing Pains<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i>(Story, Photos and Video by <a href="mailto:author@johnwfountain.com">John W. Fountain</a>)</i></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b><i><a href="http://web.mlbcommunity.org/index.jsp?content=programs&program=rbi">Learn about Major League Baseball's effort to </a></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b><i><a href="http://web.mlbcommunity.org/index.jsp?content=programs&program=rbi">Revive Baseball in Inner Cities</a></i></b></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://web.mlbcommunity.org/index.jsp?content=programs&program=rbi"><img alt="MLB RBI Program" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOax_aup7IesbJvVu3bqGqEjMJzVVmZ0eoUOjf65zE3Sp0IlLdwU-wzl7yG88wv5pC_PfXLs8PQxKBCjy3ylDaHEgBd45x8JGcDGEIfYD6a5qklJtr6l1-9TjzuH2Yo7Ou1QUCljspcWMk/s1600/rbi.gif" height="40" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7824670467664319833.post-68995438448414877252014-08-15T15:16:00.000-05:002014-09-06T11:51:03.338-05:00Special Feature - Chicago's Jackie Robinson West returns home as National Little League Champs<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Story and Photos: By Roosevelt
University Journalism Students:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Katelyn J. Anderson, Elisabet Bernard,
Katherine L. Childress, Katherine A. Gage, Melinda McClain, James C.Moore, Ivonne
Valadez and Kurt B. Witteman</span></b></i></div>
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<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEgKlT2q_dBgNVDDW9mC0iq2Oamnw_LehTA2tBhqSF1ZCLnmjXPU1SnaWpnMvWVrqHIQL94NqSRRwdYT8YKf5I7krFBT-FxuERUNFC15F0MFnXAu_vEabV_AAV2bg7qr_qnCGL58qtWllG/s1600/photo-2-2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEgKlT2q_dBgNVDDW9mC0iq2Oamnw_LehTA2tBhqSF1ZCLnmjXPU1SnaWpnMvWVrqHIQL94NqSRRwdYT8YKf5I7krFBT-FxuERUNFC15F0MFnXAu_vEabV_AAV2bg7qr_qnCGL58qtWllG/s1600/photo-2-2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></span></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large; text-indent: 0.5in;">N</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">othing
but smiles and pure elation filled the crowd of thousands Wednesday Aug. 27, as
the </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Jackie Robinson West All-Stars returned home, bringing with them the Little
League Baseball national title. Throngs of onlookers anxiously awaited the
parade down Michigan Avenue, most of them dressed in bright yellow shirts emblazoned
with the words “Jackie Robinson West All-Stars NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.” Among them
was Lee Lewis, 44, who attended the parade with his son.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“This
celebrates a great group of Chicago’s kids, kids who are coming from a part of
the city that only get’s negative press,” Lewis said. “They’ve brought Chicago
together, and they are great roll models for the my son.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As the parade approached, the crowd
started to roar. Horns blasted. And children and adults chanted for these boys
who captivated a nation with their poise and performance both on and off the
field in the recent Little League World Series at Williamsport, Pa.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“USA,
USA, USA” they chanted over and over again as the boys waved. The people
cheered and screamed in jubilation. “Go West!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">At
Millennium Park, where the parade culminated with a rally, many supporters were
dressed in JRW yellow and black T-shirts and caps and holding signs, saying “Chicago
Stands Behind You JRW 42!” As the crowd patiently waited on the young champions,
the sounds of the police horns on their motorcycle let the fans know that JRW
was nearby. The crowd whistled, clapped, chanted, yelled and screamed “Number
1” as the team stood proudly, and waived as they passed aboard a trolley. Mayor
Rahm Emanuel and the Reverend Jesse Jackson rode in a trolley that trailed the
team.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4zGNbHBfWmxuDNirH6I3c_1VZ3Fscnx8u4f7DNmNmpz1QbHdUznA0CbFsPOQ65qjbNkjWjBPbT_wf81qzUhO61AXUVIGfkDsuF_KziYR7rzHovb9Yg5lMZJrsdy7FiJUIAj4wDVblGJo/s1600/2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4zGNbHBfWmxuDNirH6I3c_1VZ3Fscnx8u4f7DNmNmpz1QbHdUznA0CbFsPOQ65qjbNkjWjBPbT_wf81qzUhO61AXUVIGfkDsuF_KziYR7rzHovb9Yg5lMZJrsdy7FiJUIAj4wDVblGJo/s1600/2.png" height="180" width="320" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The parade and the team’s success
was a way for local merchants to cash in with memorabilia like T-shirts and
caps. But Gary King, 35, passed out free cold water on behalf of his employer,
Jewels food stores. Even though, King said he hadn’t followed the South Side
baseball team’s success, he added that he was happy to help show Jewels
shoppers and neighbors appreciation by giving them cold water on this hot
summer day.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">At the rally, Jackie
Robinson West founder Bill Haley addressed the crowd that brimmed with
energy and pride.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Thirteen young boys let
us know not what we have that divides us, but what we have in common,” Haley
said as the crowd roared. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Haley also noted that as
the team won the state regional tournament and advanced to the regional
tournament in that they had little funding and eventually set up a website to solicit
support, proving how far they had come and how much they had accomplished
together. But there was clearly no lack of support Wednesday as a sea of
humanity swarmed Millennium Park and lined the parade route from the city’s
South Side to downtown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Among them was Leslie
Sanders, a loyal fan who danced with enthusiasm in Millennium Park, cheering
the boys on as they stood on stage for all to see. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I’ve been following the
team since they went to the playoffs as some of my church members are a part of
the neighborhood they’re representing,” Sanders said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Earlier,
under a hot August sun, a crowd of hundreds lined along the partition dividing
the curb from Michigan Avenue. Excitement filled the air as faces, young and
old, joined in the celebration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Among them were Beverly Ann
Sandifer, 58, her daughter Nina Rayburn, 39, and Rayburn’s sons, Azariah Turner,
5, and Aaron Johnson, 9. The family eagerly waited near a partition, hoping to
get a better view of the parade. With a big smile on her face, Sandifer
explained how baseball was always a part of her family’s lives, adding that her
family is deeply rooted in the Jackie Robinson baseball teams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsR-gWx0YOmFV4OBZyUILXXD7rz3bZSsDBQ74sYi7WNLGPD_eHzGieLda7H8de_rZqsyh9GrzLo5IK7cbXZRprkVbIXNH4-cpTOQRl4p_cKzbpEzYVpBCetmb1Bpvyqm3C6dmYV0M8Q0G5/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsR-gWx0YOmFV4OBZyUILXXD7rz3bZSsDBQ74sYi7WNLGPD_eHzGieLda7H8de_rZqsyh9GrzLo5IK7cbXZRprkVbIXNH4-cpTOQRl4p_cKzbpEzYVpBCetmb1Bpvyqm3C6dmYV0M8Q0G5/s1600/1.png" height="180" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Since
1983, my brothers, sons and now grandsons play in the leagues. It’s about time
their efforts pay off,” Sandifer said. “I’m really glad all of Chicago is
behind them, and that children led them here.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Rayburn
shared her mother’s sentiments. “Jackie Robinson Park baseball teams are a
wonderful community-based organization,” Rayburn said. “Jackie Robinson West is
finally getting the recognition they deserve.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Others
agreed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Youth
need to be celebrated in the same fashion as Kanye West would,” said Tshurhad
Chivas, 37, who cheered the players. “The most inspiring moment of this whole
event is that they gave 100 percent, and it sets an example for not only kids,
but people. We (Chicago) don’t have to be separated. The actions of Jackie
Robinson West showed us how one group can impact the actions of all.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> The celebration moved to Millennium
Park where hundreds filled the auditorium as Coach David Butler made an
impassioned speech thanking the city, the community and most important, the
players, for their efforts and the hard work that led them there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> Standing
in the outskirts of the auditorium was Vance Blackfox, 38. With tears in his
eyes, he said, “It’s exciting to see young people-youth-achieve great things,
and to achieve them with such style, class and maturity as those who play on
the Jackie Robinson West team.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFCrx3YH6Jnzn2NHpKiGBiOuM7DzaX5PBbLbBhsqGAdCBqw8FeEef2Hlch9evBQheitgn_oIWhoW2boU4gGaE8ZiuG1NRT7wNDVOaMROflNkiwriBW4-4hiI6Loah-TdATgp7aJxeGdoWr/s1600/_DSC0472.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFCrx3YH6Jnzn2NHpKiGBiOuM7DzaX5PBbLbBhsqGAdCBqw8FeEef2Hlch9evBQheitgn_oIWhoW2boU4gGaE8ZiuG1NRT7wNDVOaMROflNkiwriBW4-4hiI6Loah-TdATgp7aJxeGdoWr/s1600/_DSC0472.JPG" height="263" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b> T</b></span><span style="font-size: large;">his is a story of a group of boys, most of
them from Ford Heights, who this summer, for the very first time, would
discover baseball. A gregarious group of schoolboys, ages 8 to 10, who would
learn to play the game as the MOF (Matteson-Olympia Fields) Cubs. It is a story
that emerges amid the backdrop of Chicago, where murder, gunplay and gang
activity have become a pastime for too many city—and also suburban—boys. It is
the story of two men—one a coach from a middle class suburb, and the other a
parks’ commissioner from a struggling hamlet. Two men with a passion for
baseball and also a quest to help save black boys—at risk to gangs, homicide
and prison. The story of a season filled with challenges, with highs and also
with lows, with unforgettable moments and lessons for life. A season filled
with baseball and big-hearted little boys. A season beyond their wildest
dreams. The sweet season.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>(Story, Photos and Video by John W. Fountain)</b></span></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7824670467664319833.post-5444063002847905602014-08-12T20:19:00.000-05:002014-08-15T12:53:20.902-05:00RELATED STORY<span id="goog_1381871640"></span><span id="goog_1381871641"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Jackie Robinson West All Stars, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">team from Chicago's South Side, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">advances to Little League World Series</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">First All African American team in 31 years</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-jackie-robinson-west-little-league-world-series-photos-20140814-photogallery.html" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-rPUozF0j_D9Q6-L6ghkwNs6pXKto4-fduK7xOGxE2IzP8rPZxnoqG-xt2Z6pmnVXOqWI4q33E7f7uyyUwoUcNzphyphenhyphenEpYHsQMsqvx0w3KNqZl2_yGkeFlvtd8-f4af0xVlh6PbCBjehJe/s1600/chi-jackie14flagwave-20140813trib.jpeg" height="354" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Photo: Chicago Tribune - click on photo to view Tribune Photo Gallery on Jackie Robinson West</i></b><br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>____________________________</b><br />
<b>____________________________</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/29162495-419/jackie-robinson-west-team-reaches-little-league-world-series.html#.U-z1v4BdWzk">Jackie Robinson West reaches </a></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/29162495-419/jackie-robinson-west-team-reaches-little-league-world-series.html#.U-z1v4BdWzk">Little League World Series</a></span></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/29162495-419/jackie-robinson-west-team-reaches-little-league-world-series.html#.U-z1v4BdWzk"><br /></a></b>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/29162495-419/jackie-robinson-west-team-reaches-little-league-world-series.html#.U-z1v4BdWzk" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/29162495-419/jackie-robinson-west-team-reaches-little-league-world-series.html#.U-z1v4BdWzk" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6IUdNVQ_2Z8N_pd1o_1tdTXsJyerBIN1a3BRHagpgx5dfIS_32kyeHGZl2mxY_7vZaASE5vvP4aH9d9iRjsVU0OeH6q5IkxXVcdRSwfFezxjLrcrK6pGiM_IpO55qzgIi1pLEitG2atWH/s260/Chicago-Sun-Times-Logo.jpg" height="78" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Click above for story<br />or below for video</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>____________________________</b><br />
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<span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://abc7chicago.com/video/embed/?pid=251801" width="500"></iframe><br />
<b>____________________________</b><br />
<b>____________________________</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7824670467664319833.post-25510974025068378402014-08-12T20:18:00.000-05:002014-08-12T20:23:10.092-05:00Reflections: The Boyz of Summer<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>By John W. Fountain</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHon-JNWQA2MEeFdWa0be3XeqWrktu6vvqw-gJQoL4QhzXwctUYOJl1c7rEo-3jl67iBZstTM5PKqD52483WJMebWGQGMbOF83HcG9ioulokV-E23aR7ii16H-A5Zw-tnhfOH-LYFnJ2G_/s1600/DavidB&W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHon-JNWQA2MEeFdWa0be3XeqWrktu6vvqw-gJQoL4QhzXwctUYOJl1c7rEo-3jl67iBZstTM5PKqD52483WJMebWGQGMbOF83HcG9ioulokV-E23aR7ii16H-A5Zw-tnhfOH-LYFnJ2G_/s1600/DavidB&W.jpg" height="223" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b> </b><span style="font-size: x-large;">I </span>was jingling
coins in my pocket the other day, chump change to be transferred to the bedroom
dresser, the ashtray in my car or an extra large apple juice bottle my wife
dumps all the stray currency in. I've grown more fond of dollars than cents.
Lost some respect for change.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I used to love
the pocket symphony. Thirty-two was the magic number. Thirty-two cents was
enough to buy a bright white rubber baseball at Mr. Penny's grocery store on
West 16th Street on Chicago's West Side. A thin, dark chocolate man, he kept
the balls—white ones and red ones—in a glass case behind the counter,
surrounded by candy. We'd walk into the store, a couple of us,</span></div>
<a name='more'></a>beaming with
coins in hand.<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Rubber
ball," we'd say, not swayed in the least by the sea of candy, "a
white one."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">He'd count out
the change on the glass counter top, then hand over the ball. I'd hold it with
two hands, squeeze it in my palms, then caress it with my curve-ball fingers
and thumb, tickle its ridges, and hold it up to my nose so I could breathe the
new rubber.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We'd pooled our
money. We couldn't afford a real major leaguer, which cost more than a buck.
Plus we didn't all have baseball gloves all the time. Sometimes we'd borrow one
or two from somebody's dad or older brother. Somebody always had a bat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We never really
had a diamond, though. Usually we'd play in the narrow alley out of the range
of windows and cars that were vulnerable even to hard-hit rubber balls. At
other times, when there were just a few of us, we'd find a building adjacent to
a barren vacant lot and use a piece of white chalk to draw a large square on
the building, right where the strike zone was, and cross the box with a large
X. The building was our catcher—for as long as our parents could take the
wall-pounding—which meant we could have a pitcher and a fielder on each of the
two teams, even if there were just four of us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We'd start
playing in the afternoon and go until the sun went down, unless Horse Head or
Mercury or Hucky hit a home run and the ball landed on top of a roof or in somebody's
yard with a big bad dog or until somebody got mad over a call and a fight broke
out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sometimes
somebody's little brother would show up saying, "Mama said come home!
Nowwww!" My mama would occasionally yell, half-singing from our
second-floor apartment window, "Joh-honnnn!" My name suddenly
acquiring a second syllable. I hated leaving the game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Everywhere in our
neighborhood, the sounds of wood slapping rubber or rubber popping leather were
as common as the train whistle and rickety-steel noise of wheel over track that
echoed from blocks away sometime after midnight, trailing off into the
darkness. You could count on that train. You could count on baseball.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Things have
changed. Back in my old neighborhood, the bats have stopped. Mr. Penny's is
gone, replaced by a liquor store, the vacant lot strewn with garbage and
debris. The concrete alleys are idle and forlorn places where folks used to
occasionally find a dead dog and now occasionally find a dead body.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Boys in my 'hood
these days sell crack cocaine, hang out on street corners and "hit"
blunts—marijuana rolled in cigar paper. I hear them yell "blow!" when
cars drive by. They hide their stash in people's front yards and run across the
vacant lot we used to play baseball in, shooting at one another. What happened?
Drugs. When? Sometime between today and yesterday. Yesterday we dreamed of
making the majors. Hucky planned to take that lefty pitching arm all the way to
the World Series. Lonnie, a pint-size second baseman-shortstop who could rattle
off baseball stats faster than Harry Carey, figured he'd win a Golden Glove
some day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We never talked
about our absentee fathers and how long it had been since the last time we saw
them. Or the abuse that some of our mothers took from the new men in their
lives. We didn't talk about how poor we were, or whose lights or gas or
telephone had been disconnected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Back then, you
didn't curse within earshot of grown-ups. When you saw an old lady coming down
the street, you held the ball or stopped the game until she had passed. The
lines were less hazy. Dealing drugs was wrong. Baseball was right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We were driving
through my old neighborhood the other day, my wife and I. We drove down 16th
Street past the stretch of liquor stores and abandoned houses, past staggering
drunks and pipeheads, up to Pulaski Road, the route I took as a boy on the way
to Mr. Penny's. We drove on, down Pulaski, past the drug boys manning their
posts at 18th Street, eyeing passing motorists like roving peanut vendors at a
baseball game, past the old bedding store where the owner was robbed and killed
a few years ago, past the vacant lot where the A & P used to be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hope seemed to
have disappeared, like most of the old faces in my old neighborhood. Like many
of the buildings that have been reduced to ash and empty space. Wiped away,
like white chalk on a brick wall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then, we turned a
corner, and there they were: about a dozen boys, 10 or 12 years old, in a
vacant lot, on a summer day, playing baseball. It sounded like music. Like a
pocket full of change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Originally published in the Washington Post Aug. 1997.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7824670467664319833.post-25106104950270490402014-08-12T19:46:00.002-05:002014-08-12T19:54:26.730-05:00Reflections: When baseball was good and basketball became god <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>By John W. Fountain</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjxRTNAKHJotlMHvgO0ZjYTB8tG-HB9Y7U6pcnprXClTuYIu2oGViClEnD_a94Blc7zRwnkvjK43YEULt2TmAt3mvQhN-K5d7rCmkBh-42q-NVTpkQcXKXwuvoMDIkGYn8bui-gBEu9T7I/s1600/Dr.J.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjxRTNAKHJotlMHvgO0ZjYTB8tG-HB9Y7U6pcnprXClTuYIu2oGViClEnD_a94Blc7zRwnkvjK43YEULt2TmAt3mvQhN-K5d7rCmkBh-42q-NVTpkQcXKXwuvoMDIkGYn8bui-gBEu9T7I/s1600/Dr.J.jpg" height="320" width="251" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span></b>asketball
was god. With an orange-red sun kissing the horizon, we dribbled—dripping with sweat
in the summer heat as boys, playing on concrete courts the game we loved. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">Back then, even
the least talented whispered college or NBA dreams. Basketball was god. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0.5in;">It gave a poor ghetto
boy hope. It was glorious, like Dr. J’s cotton candy Afro as he glided in thin
air to a thunderous dunk. Basketball was cool, like a pair of white Chuck
Taylors. Graceful—like a George Gervin finger roll.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Exhilarating—like
the thrill of nailing a shot from deep with a defender in your face. Like the joy
of winning a hard-fought game—just for bragging rights. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Basketball gave
us status. It was our stairway to heaven. Our worship. Our escape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the early ‘70s,
on the West Side, we played all day. Sometimes, at night, we shot hoops underneath
the stars and a glowing street lamp. Intoxicating was basketball’s lure: glory,
fame and the potential promise of NBA contracts someday for some. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Except playing
basketball was never really about money. There was a certain wonder in witnessing
skill meet talent and talent meet hard work—coming together in basketball
perfection.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Basketball was
god. But it wasn’t always this way.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Once upon a time,
we played baseball. In the ‘60s, we had Big League dreams. I hurried home from elementary
school to catch the end of the Cubs games. Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Fergie
Jenkins and Ron Santo were my heroes along with Stargell, Cardenal, Bench and
Charlie Hustle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Back then every
kid owned a baseball glove. Between us, we had a few Louisville Sluggers. We sometimes
pooled our pennies to buy a rubber baseball. We took turns inhaling the scent
of a fresh rubber baseball before we christened it with a good smack off the
bat on a hot summer’s day filled with frozen Kool-Aid cups, bubblegum and
baseball on a vacant lot. Baseball was good. But basketball became god.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I can’t remember exactly
when it happened, or why I became more transfixed with developing a jump shot
and ball-handling skills than with hitting and fielding. I do know it had a lot
to do with Julius Erving, with the fusion of the ABA and the NBA in 1976, and
basketball’s ascension to a seemingly new and glorious level.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But here lately, I am reminded of
all that is inglorious about the game. Reminded that basketball is big business
and that some apparently still resort to winning at all cost. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m
not naïve. I suspect that for as long as some coaches, parents and other adults
see in a young star a potential cash cow, basketball will always have a certain
potential for taint.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some cases, it amounts to the bending, or
breaking, of rules—by coaches, teachers and school administrators willing to look
the other way when a kid is academically ineligible. Or perhaps it’s that a kid
manages to get a passing grade, even when he fails in the classroom—as long as
he can soar on the court.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here lately, I am
also reminded that most kids would be better served putting all that time they
put into basketball—and football—into reading, writing and arithmetic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I was lucky
enough to have a high school principal and a coach to give me this truth. For
them, basketball was always just a game. Never a god.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com