Sharing stories you don't see every day on the diamond
Flaky things happen out on the baseball and softball diamonds. That's not limited to playing in late March and early April under a gray sky with 30-degree wind chill and an occasional dusting of snow.
Flaky things can happen May, June and July, too.
As a high school catcher in the years B.A. - Before Aluminum, not to mention carbon, corbomite or whatever's in modern baseball bats - recollections of stirring or daffy meetings on the mound are few. One too many foul tips off the mask could have contributed to that.
A senior hurler may have snarled to get back behind that plate and try to catch the dang ball next time, as he attempted to master a split-finger fastball that on one delivery would speed a foot over the batter's head and on the next skip in front of the plate a foot outside.
Wonderful, poignant, goofy diamond antics didn't end when the crack of the bat morphed into a "ping."
Geneva softball coach Greg Dierks recalled the time, a few seasons back, when he walked out to the mound to light a fire under a pitcher he believed had lost her focus.
He spoke his piece, she listened, and then she finished the game in strong fashion without further mention.
After the game the pitcher and coach stood together. The girl's father approached and asked what they'd discussed on the mound.
"If we wanted you to know, we would have invited you to join us at the time," Dierks remembered his pitcher saying.
He didn't say if Geneva won or lost.
When it happens in the big leagues you call the perpetrator a slacker. Still, it happens all the time regardless of age, level and ability - failing to run out a deep drive which might be, could be, over the fence for a home run. But it isn't.
Programs have rules to enforce hustle, like coach Len Asquini has with the St. Charles East baseball program. He brought up an instance that probably drove him batty at the time but looking back, draws a chuckle.
One of his players, a right-handed hitter, turned on an inside fastball and launched a blast high and far down the left-field line. The ball's majestic trajectory captivated the Saints player in complete admiration of what could be his first high school home run. Then he realized it was going to stay in the ballpark.
Unwisely shifting straight from second gear into fourth, he tripped over first base and stumbled while rounding it and, as Asquini recalled, "just barely makes it into second with a dirt double."
A wise man, perhaps Joe Maddon, once said that what doesn't kill us can only make us stronger.
Delivering the pain can be as intimidating as receiving it.
Third-year Aurora Christian softball coach Rich Hazlett was working with a freshman pitcher during a preseason practice when he stepped in at the plate. The rookie hurler warned she might hit him with a pitch.
"I walked up to her and said, 'You are going to hit a lot of batters this year,'" he said.
"She looked puzzled."
The season began, and in this pitcher's first appearance she indeed plunked an opposing batter. Frayed and without much defense behind her Hazlett said, "She was on the verge of a meltdown."
He called time, strode to the mound, smiled, and reminded her that this was the first hit batter of more to come.
"A smile came across her face that could light up New York City and I walked back to the dugout," he said.
Some managers are minimalists. Aurora Central Catholic baseball coach Sean Bieterman worries that a trip to the mound makes a pitcher more nervous than inspired.
What does get his blood flowing is when an infielder routinely tips the pitch location or is not properly aligned depending on the situation.
"My assistants joke about how fast I get out there, because I'm on a sprint for those," Bieterman said.
Batavia baseball coach and Matt Holm is a history teacher at the high school, his alma mater. It's from a historian's perspective he shares his perception of how in his 23 years coaching baseball the Bulldogs have changed for the better in terms of depth particularly on the mound. Holm said when he took over the club in 1992 he had 13 total players. In the 2014 season he had 13 pitchers he could trust, accompanied by two pitching coaches who work to develop starters and relievers, some of whom are proud to come in only once or twice a week to secure a win.
"I never have to walk out looking, hoping, that someone is ready to pitch," Holm said.
In 2005 that wasn't the case.
Four seasons earlier, Holm started a freshman Justin Fitch at catcher. That skirts Batavia convention but Fitch was that good a backstop. By the time Fitch became a senior he had also joined the starting pitching rotation, also a dual-role abnormality at Batavia.
Late in the 2005 season with the Suburban Prairie North title on the line and Batavia in a tight spot, Fitch was at third base since he'd pitched the day before. The Batavia starter was sapped. Holm took to the mound to buy time and contemplate Plan B with no other real options from his thin staff.
"Justin walked over to the mound, he stuck out his hand and said, 'Give me the ball. I'll end the darn thing,'" Holm recalled. "He struck out the side and we won the 2005 conference championship, the first since 1969.
"Today we have guys like Nick Rogalski sitting in the wings as 'The Vulture.'" Holm said. "I don't know how much flexibility we would give Justin these days, but we certainly needed iron men like him a decade ago."
doberhelman@dailyherald.com
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