Piece of the Pie

A Look At One Game of Little League. (1992, June 29). Centre Daily Times, p7. 

A Look At One Game of Little League

A Piece of the Pie

They say baseball is as American as apple Pie

By Timothy Rogers/Photos by James Staebler

The last out in the top half of the second inning had just been recorded and as the players for Plumbs Little League team filed into their dugout on the first base side of Webster Field in Bellefonte. They could tell their coach was not happy.

Especially the 12-year-olds on the team who had played for Coach Thal for four years, and for whom this would be their last game under him.

Their lead going into the inning had evaporated into thin air and they were looking at a short end of a 6-3 score.

It wasn’t that the team was losing, however, that got Andy Thal upset. After all, he has been the coach of Plumbs for 25 years and has seen a lot of wins and losses without giving up his love for the game and the players he coaches. No, he was upset that his team was playing sloppy baseball, in particular one play at the plate where no one seemed to be able to hang on to the ball. Three runs scored.

“Sit down and listen up,” Thal yelled as his players scrambled to find seats on the dugout bench.

“That was some of the worst baseball I’ve seen in a long time. Now are going to start playing or am I going to go over to the other dugout and tell them we forfeit right now?” he asked the squad of 9 to 12 year-olds.

“No!” they shouted back in unison. And with that the team was alright. It went on to win its game against Logans 12-7 in Bellefonte Little League action Thursday, ending the season on a high note and making sure its final record, 11-10, was above .500.

“Sometimes I have to get mean,” Thal said with a grin as he headed out to his customary seat on the coach’s bench.

“Sometimes I have to get mean,” Thal said with a grin as he headed out to his customary seat on the coach’s bench.

Just another day in the park for him in the world of Little League baseball.  

It’s a world shared by hundreds of other Little Leaguers across the county.

Pregame practice produces flurry of activity on the field

Just like the players in the major leagues, little leaguers arrive early at the park to take batting practice, shag fly balls and throw a little to get their arms lose.

Unlike those million dollar stars, however, the Plumbs players seem to run everywhere. The field is quickly transformed into a beehive of activity with kids in blue seemingly in constant motion.

“Step into that bunt,” Gary Rockey, Thal’s longtime co-manager says to the batter as he squares around to lay one down.

Rockey, the team statistician and tactician, is seemingly oblivious to everything else going on around him as he focuses in on the hitter he is pitching to.

Attention to detail is important to both Thal and Rockey, and they constantly remind their players of it, especially the good ones who they think ought to know better.

“Do it right or you’ll hurt your arm,” Thal tells one of the team’s stars, Brian Robbins, during the throw around.

Little League is a place to learn how to play baseball and the coaches want everyone to learn the fundamentals in their four-year stay with Plumbs.

Watching Robbins, it is clear he has learned how to hit, as his two home runs this year attest.

“I don’t like throwing batting practice to him,” Thal says later. “It’s scary. He can really hit the ball.”

Robbins is one of three players from Plumbs who will play on Bellefonte’s All-Star Little League team.

Pletcher the catcher likes position

“I hate it when they say that,” Zach Pletcher, the team’s 11-year old catcher, says as he stands in the dugout while the team is up to bat.

“Actually I like how it rhymes, but I hate people saying it every night.”

Sure enough, every time he comes to bat the public address announcer intones, “Now batting, Pletcher the catcher,” and his teammates aren’t shy about repeating it either.

Unlike some kids, however, Pletcher doesn’t mind catching as opposed to playing a more active position in the field.

“I hate getting stones in my shoes when I slide. If I put every stone into a cup that got into my shoe, I would have six cups full by now.” Zach Pletcher Little League catcher

What he doesn’t like are the stones on the field, particularly the ones around home plate and the bases.

“I hate getting stones in my shoes when I slide,” Pletcher says as he takes off his shoe to get rid of the stones that lodged there following a successful slide into home.

“If I put every stone into a cup that I got into my shoe, I would have six cups full by now.”

Bench good place to have fun, too

Not only is the dugout the place where the team is supposed to stay during the game, it’s also the place for swapping jokes, talking about girls and harassing the coaches.

In all not a bad place for players to pass the time.

Early in the game, Thal tells a base runner on second that there are two outs in the inning, which brings forth a chorus of laughter from the bench.

“Coach, there’s only one out,” a few of them tell him and one brave lad even admonishes him “to get into the game.”

As Thal looks to Rockey to see who is right, the entire team laughs when Rockey nods and hold up one finger.

Parents play a part in players’ success

“Please don’t throw them slow,” says 10-year-old Willie Heckman as he gets in his warm-up swings in the cage next to the dugout that servers as the field’s on deck circle.

“I hate ’em slow. You can’t hit them.”

All of which make his dad, Craig Heckman, laugh.

“Willie doesn’t like slow pitches and he tells me that before most games,” he said.

Like several players on the team, Willie is the son of an ex-Plumbs little leaguer. Craig played for the team from 1971 through 1974 and he is a regular at the games.

Parents not only act as cheerleaders for their kids, but in this case Craig is invaluable as counselor as well.

“You’ve got to keep your head in the game” he tells his son when he gets mad that this may be his last inning of play. “There are a lot of kids and everyone has to take their turn.”

Indeed, Bellefonte has a rule that every player must come to bat at least once per game and play at least six consecutive outs in the field.

All of which is part of the game.