Youth Baseball

When it started raining just before the scheduled start of yesterday's U.S. championship game in the Cal Ripken 12-and-Under World Series in Aberdeen, Raleigh, N.C., had reason to believe it was an omen in its favor. And, indeed, Raleigh won easily, 8-1, over defending U.S. champion Oahu, Hawaii, after a nearly one-hour delay. It had rained before Raleigh's district and state championship games, and there was a two-hour delay before the start of its 11-1 Southeast Region final romp over Virginia in Lakeland, Fla., that qualified the team for Aberdeen.

In perhaps the most dominating performance in the two years of the Cal Ripken World Series in Aberdeen, Claude Johnson of Pine Bluff, Ark., allowed no base runners through five innings - including 14 strikeouts - and hit two homers in a 7--0 win over St. Mary's County yesterday. Johnson struck out the first 14 batters he faced. He fielded a ground ball to the right side and ran to first for the putout and final out of the fifth inning. The right-hander also went 3-for-3 with four RBIs.

Whatever plans the residents of Preston and Federalsburg had for this coming weekend have likely gone out the window, as folks from the tiny Caroline County towns pack up and head for Williamsport, Pa., to watch their team play in the Little League World Series. "It's all been overwhelming, but everybody is really happy," said Tina Nagel, the mother of J.T. Nagel, an outfielder for the South Caroline team that beat Deep Run Valley of Hilltown, Pa., 4-1, Sunday in the Mid-Atlantic regional final in Bristol, Conn.

It was about three weeks ago that Churchville's Olga Perkins got a phone call from 12-year old Alejandro "Chuckie" Canales of Mexico City. "Chuckie asked me if his room was available," said Perkins, who with her husband, Bob Perkins, are one of the host families for the second Cal Ripken World Series in Aberdeen. "I told him, your room is always available." Canales is the only returning player on the defending champion Mexico team that is off to a 2-0 start in this year's series after an 8-0 victory over the Dominican Republic (0-1)

Chuck Jacobs, coach of Harford County champion Churchville, watched the Aberdeen entry struggle in last year's Cal Ripken World Series and learned from it. Believing that Aberdeen was at a disadvanage because of a lack of games played, Jacobs knew that for his team to get a shot at the 12-and-under tournament and to be competitive, it meant "playing a lot of games this summer." The Curve played in and won both the Harford County and Baltimore County travel leagues, in addition to the Cal Ripken Tournament for the District 13 title and a berth to the World Series.

WHEN YOU get this deep into summer, it's usually the exceptional players in youth baseball and softball still competing; the rec players, by and large, are swimming or relaxing. But the Howard County Youth Program has something notable building. That's a summer setup in fast-pitch softball that serves what backers call the middle ground for youth players - those not quite ready for elite travel play but too good and too motivated for rec-level competition. The idea is to keep them playing and learning, maybe by scheduling as many as 30 more games, through July in a rather low-key way that focuses as much on fun as it does on skill-building.

An area amateur baseball team leaves today for an exotic road trip, but the goal isn't merely to play the game - it's to give something back to it. The Maryland Mustangs, an Amateur Athletic Union traveling team of 17- and 18-year old players from the Baltimore region, will play a series of seven games in Puerto Rico this week. More importantly, at the end of the trip, the team will donate 1,000 pounds of new and used sports equipment - including gloves, balls, bats, uniforms and hitting tees - to a sports program for disadvantaged youth.

On opening night in 2002 when the Aberdeen IronBirds were just coming into existence, Vi Ripken surveyed the buzz in the stadium and said admiringly: "Everything he touches seems to turn to gold." The "he" referred to son Cal Jr., whose vision to own an Orioles minor league team and ultimately build a nonpareil youth baseball complex was turning into reality. Tonight, when the IronBirds open their third New York-Penn League season against the visiting Staten Island Yankees, the Ripkens can take renewed pride in what has become a 24-carat franchise.

"For the Preservation of the Windows in the New Meeting House no Person or Inhabitant of said Town, shall be permitted to play at any Game called Wicket, Cricket, Baseball, Batball, Football, Cat, Fives or any other Game or Games with Balls, within the Distance of Eighty Yards from said Meeting House." THE DISCOVERY, announced last week, of this 1791 ordinance from Pittsfield, Mass., with its reference to "baseball" has thrilled the game's historians. Previous clues traced the national pastime's roots to the 1820s in Manhattan; the new evidence offers startling proof that baseball was being played three decades earlier, in the very first years of the young country.

This weekend marks a tradition that goes hand in glove with spring: opening day for youth baseball in Howard County. For coaches of T-ball players, those 5- or 6-year-olds who haven't the faintest idea what the game is about, it's time to crank up the patience and haul out the sense of humor. For recreation-level coaches, dust off your memories and polish your tact, remembering that your job is to teach, not win, while understanding that kids will be kids. And for travel-team coaches, rein in the ego. Remember that baseball is just a game and that no matter what, who wins and who loses will be forgotten, mostly, by midsummer.