Play Baseball

DEAR CAL / / MY 17-year-old son is a pretty good pitcher, but he can?t hit much. I took him to a guy who played semipro ball to fix his swing. He hit well in the cages but not live pitching. What can I do to help him? John Rushnok, Middleburg Heights, Ohio DEAR JOHN // It is not unusual to find someone like your son,who hits line drives all over the place in the batting cage or during batting practice but struggles against live pitching. While there is no perfect formula for how to fix this, from my experience the only way to improve a hitter?

Matt Tilley hasn't had much free time outside of practice this year. In fact, Gilman baseball coach Larry Sheets said the senior has taken just two days off since August -- both between the football and basketball seasons and none between the basketball and baseball seasons. Such is the life of a three-sport athlete. And he hasn't just participated in football, basketball and baseball -- he has excelled in all three. He played wide receiver and free safety for the Gilman football team that won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference last fall, served as captain for the basketball team that was one win away from winning its second consecutive MIAA B Conference title in the winter and stars all over the field for the No. 10 Greyhounds in baseball.

NEW YORK -- When Pat Kelly was growing up in North Catashuqua, Pa., one of his chores was to stack the chairs and clean the floor at Kelly's 19th Hole, a bar that his father owned, every Sunday morning. But the way Kelly figured it, his work at the bar kept him from the playground next to his house. So he paid his sister $15 to swab the bar while he skipped out to play baseball."I was broke," he said. "But I was happy."Three years ago, Yankees scout Joe DiCarlo called to tell him the Yankees selected him in the ninth round of the amateur draft.

Laurel Little League is offering fall baseball and softball programs. Fall ball is an instructional program that provides an opportunity to play organized baseball and softball during the fall season. The goal is to provide a fun experience for the players, help them develop and refine their baseball or softball skills and encourage their enjoyment of the game. Practices are once a week (probably Fridays) and games are played on Sunday afternoons. League age for baseball is player's age on April 30, 2011.

You're 14 years old and you're a boy and you want to play baseball, but there's no league available in your neighborhood. So you sign up for softball. Yeah, it's girls' softball, but it's the only game in town and the coach tells you it's not really girls' softball, it's anybody's softball, according to the rules.Is this wrong?You're 14 years old and you're a girl and you like baseball, but you don't want to play baseball with the boys because you want to play a game in which you can excel.

Quote: "This is probably the worst place you could play baseball." - Giants' Jeff Kent on soon-to-be demolished County Stadium in Milwaukee It's a fact: The Cardinals are the only team in baseball with four 10-game winners: Pat Hentgen, Darryl Kile, Garrett Stephenson and Andy Benes. Who's hot: The Astros' Tony Eusebio has a 13-game hitting streak. Who's not: The Braves' Chipper Jones is in an 0-for-20 slump, the longest of his career. On deck: The Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson tries tonight for the fourth time to win his league-leading 16th game.

WASHINGTON - Cal Ripken received a posting at the White House yesterday: honorary commissioner of President Bush's T-ball league. The former Orioles great will be on hand Sunday on the South Lawn when a schedule of T-ball games resumes, said Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman. Two teams - from Trenton, N.J., and Uniondale, N.Y. - will play in a game that had originally been scheduled for Sept. 16. It was postponed indefinitely after the terrorist attacks earlier that week. "This is a sign of Cal Ripken's ongoing dedication to the sport of baseball, a sport he has done so much for," Fleischer said.

Taking aim at baseballToo hot outside to play baseball? Sports Game International has an alternative to the nation's pastime. The Baseball E. R. A. dart board combines the elements of baseball and the skill of darts. Players try to throw strikes or balls, hit home runs and even steal bases by throwing darts at a baseball diamond, which is laid out on a dart board. The game costs $50, plus shipping and handling. To order, call (800) 574-9133. "21" Lawn Dice by Pressman Toy Corp. is a new backyard game that's been called as much fun as horseshoes, croquet and watermelon-seed-spitting contests.

Becky Carlson got drilled in the back by a pitch yesterday and she took it like one of the guys.Carlson, 14, played in her first and possibly last game yesterday as a member of the Arundel High JV baseball team.But in one inning of Arundel's 13-7, seven-inning victory over Calvert Hall, the freshman reserve outfielder from Gambrills proved that she belonged on a baseball diamond.Anne Arundel county school officials may decide otherwise. They were unsuccessful in convincing Carlson to play softball, but next week Superintendent Carol S. Parham may force her off the baseball team.

I'm 57 years old and love baseball. When I was a kid, there were seven ball fields to play on, and in summer, the organized leagues had all the fields occupied from morning to night. These fields are still there, in the Brooklyn section of Baltimore. Sadly, there are few teams playing on these diamonds anymore, but just over the hill from these fields, there is an entire neighborhood full of underprivileged kids. What a waste of resources. Is there any way I could help get these baseball fields filled up again?

Poly senior Eric Jarkowski is a three-time Baltimore City tennis champion, but this year he decided to go out for the Engineers baseball team. Coach Corey Goodwin said it isn't unusual for seniors to try out for the first time but added that it is unusual for him to keep a senior on as a rookie. "I'm surprised. It's hard to give a senior who is out for the first time a place on the team over a freshman or a sophomore, who you know will be contributing for two or three more years," Goodwin said.

Archbishop Spalding junior first baseman Nick Freeberger sits on a dugout bench. The evening sun is shining on his boyish face, and he smiles. It has been a good day. He helped his No. 2 Cavaliers to victory with a three-run home run. That would be enough to make most high school baseball players grin, but there is more behind this display of happiness than a single game. To look at him now, no one would suspect that a little more than a month ago, screws were ground into his head for a halo to support a broken neck, and that the chances of his playing baseball this season or perhaps ever were in doubt.

Members of the lacrosse community recalled the former Naval Academy player killed in Afghanistan this week as a tough player who, with his teammate brothers, was a respected competitor. Brendan Looney, 29, a Silver Spring native, was among nine U.S. military personnel killed in a helicopter crash Tuesday in southern Afghanistan. He was a lieutenant in the Navy SEALs and a 2004 Naval Academy graduate, according to the Military Times website. "When you played the Naval Academy, you always felt the presence of the Looneys on the field," said former University of Maryland men's lacrosse coach Dave Cottle, who lives in Edgewater.

This is my story about Spring Training.

The Woodlawn Middle School gym, with its basketball hoops, scoreboards and banners touting school pride, served as a backdrop Saturday for a memorial service honoring Lonnie L. Hill III, a 13-year-old alumnus. About 300 mourners sat before tables filled with photos of a smiling Lonnie posing in various baseball stances, one in front of Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. "We are not in church, but we are having church right here," said Lonnie L. Hill Jr. "My son is not lost. He is in heaven." With words and soulful hymns, dozens of family, friends and teammates paid tribute to the boy who drowned in the Atlantic Ocean July 23 in South Carolina, while a attending a baseball tournament at the Ripken Experience complex in Myrtle Beach.

Baseball has become a way of life for Andrew Huber, a second baseman and pitcher for No. 8 Patapsco. The senior right-hander, 18, is still coming back from an operation in August 2007 to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow, commonly known as Tommy John surgery. He plans to play baseball next year at CCBC-Catonsville. He also played soccer for the Patriots. What's the earliest memory you have of baseball? When I first started playing, I just loved it. It's something I always wanted to do. Nobody had to force me into it. If anything, I was dragging people out to play.

JOHN RICHTER loves baseball. The 16-year-old Meade High School junior plays with the guys in his Fort Meade neighborhood. He plays catch in the back yard with his father, John Sr. And for years, he played for youth league teams in Germany and the United States. Now he's planning to play baseball throughout Europe this summer as a member of the Coast to Coast Amateur Baseball Stars team. John, a shortstop and pitcher, was recently chosen for a spot on a 16- to 18-year-old team of athletes from around the nation that will represent the United States All Stars in a summer baseball tournament against teams in Germany, Belgium, France and England.

FREDERICK -- An 11-year-old girl stretched as far as she could across the railing, trying to catch the attention of one of the Colorado Silver Bullets at Harry Grove Stadium.She didn't want an autograph. She only wanted to ask a question: "How do I try out for the team?"Lee Anne Ketcham smiled and sprinted over to the girl with the same drive that led her to join the Silver Bullets, the first women's professional baseball team recognized by the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues.

It's close to downtown and open to the sky, and features sweeping views of the city beyond. There's an asymmetrical field with enough nooks and crannies to keep the game interesting - plus a state-of-the-art scoreboard, luxury skyboxes and all the creature comforts fans could want. Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1992? Yes, but also Nationals Park on the Anacostia riverfront in 2008. Sixteen years after Baltimore broke the mold with its "newfangled, old-fashioned" ballpark, Washington has joined the list of cities that can boast they have a new, baseball-only stadium in a prime urban setting.

The freshman started at first base against powerhouse Miami. Four innings into the game, heat exhaustion sapped Georgia Tech's catcher, so the kid moved behind the plate. In the top of the ninth, he hit a two-run homer to put the Yellow Jackets ahead. And finally, holding that one-run advantage, he stripped his gear, moved to the mound and earned the save. Faced with this preposterous display of all-around excellence, Matt Wieters' teammates handed him a nickname: God. He could probably walk on water, too, they figured.