by Jerry Feitelberg

As a writer covering professional and college sports for the last 10 years, I have tended to forget about the young boys and girls playing baseball and softball at the tender ages of seven and eight. I have been on the DL and haven’t returned to covering professional sports but yesterday I was invited to watch my lovely companion’s two granddaughters play “fast pitch” softball at a park in San Jose. Ila’s older granddaughter is eight and is a lefty all the way. Throws and bats from the left side. Her team is known as the Cherry Bombs. Lauren’s younger sister, Megan, is a righty and plays for the Purple Panthers.

Make no mistake about this-this is serious business. Before the start of each game, the coaches round up the team and the girls get themselves psyched for the game by going through a series of warmups and cheers. As it is softball, there are ten players on the field, four outfielders, four infielders, a pitcher and a catcher. The rules are quite simple. Three strikes and you’re out or if you hit the ball and the fielder gets the ball to the right base, you are out. Some deviations do occur. For example, if the pitcher throws four balls to the opposing hitter, the hitter does not take first base automatically. The umpire signals one of the coaches who then comes in and pitches to the hitter until she either strikes out or hits the ball.

The coaches try to get every youngster a turn at bat. They may not get a hit but they at least had a chance. The young girls who were pitching were fun to watch. They wound up just like the women that pitch for UCLA or Berkeley but the ball went on the ground, or over the batter’s head or sometimes over the plate for a strike. The hitters, too, were fun to watch. Many of the girls had great form and some took some great cuts at the ball. It was so cute when the ball was put into play. The kids tried to pick up the ball but the throw was often errant and went in right field or left field or center field. It didn’t matter because the kids were having fun. Just plain old fashioned fun and the parents and friends were loving it. After each game the teams would come together for a big cheer and then the kids would race around the bags and join their proud families and depart for a nice big lunch.

Many times at the park, the sportswriters would talk about baseball being a generational game being passed down from grandfather to father to son. However, things change and the game is now also being passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter and it is a wonderful change and will bode well for the future success of our national pastime.