As the children frolic in the batting cages down the left-field line, no one’s surprised when a tennis ball or tired old baseball rolls onto the field.
Hands in the air, an umpire halts the game and ambles over to pick up the ball. Sometimes, he keeps it to avoid future delays. Other times, he throws it back and the games continue — on the sideline and on the field.
It’s been that way at Newman Park for quite some time. Those young children, from different elementary schools and varying backgrounds, are bound by a common thread — a love for baseball and the dream to someday become one of Rowan County’s boys of summer.
“I guess I was one of those kids back in the day,”said Drew Davis, the catcher on this year’s Legion team.
As the memory slowly takes shape in his mind, the beginnings of a nostalgic smile play across his face.
“We didn’t bring our own ball, though. We usually played ‘cupball.’ We’d make our ball out of somebody’s cup.”
Now, Davis and 16 others are using the real thing. They’re living that dream this summer and attempting to take it one step farther. Rowan County opens play today in the American Legion Baseball State Tournament in Garner hoping to win its sixth state championship in its illustrious history.
For parents, players and coaches alike, it’s been a long, fun trip, one they wouldn’t trade for anything.
“We always came out here and sat on the left-field side,”said Steve Goodman, whose son Phillip pitches for the Legion team. “As soon as the game was over, he was the first one on the field, having somebody throw a ball to him.
“He’s like all the other kids out here. They’ve all grown up here.”
Every May, a few dozen hopefuls gather at Newman Park for tryouts. Some are seasoned veterans of Legion baseball, locks for the squad.
Others aren’t old enough to drive yet, but they’re ready to prove themselves.
“You see a lot of excitement and also a lot of nervousness,”Rowan head coach Jim Gantt said, “especially out of the young ones.”
Not too many years ago, Rowan’s current players were wide-eyed children in awe of American Legion baseball. Rowan center fielder Nick Lefko remembers when he and his teammates from a Little League all-star team stood along the first-base line for an introduction before a Legion game.
Like everyone else on the team, left fielder Jimbo Davis grew up playing baseball, from tee-ball to coach-pitch to Little League. When he wasn’t playing, he wanted to watch.
“He had those wonderful, idyllic dreams of being a professional ballplayer,”said his father, James. “Part of that is going to Legion games and seeing your heroes. There was that glint in his eye, the hopes and aspirations that maybe one day he’d play Legion ball.”
For others, it was a natural progression — father to son.
Derry Steedley played on the Rowan County teams of the mid 1970s. Son Spencer serves double duty for this year’s team as a pitcher and designated hitter. Julian Sides put on a Rowan uniform in the late ’60s and now watches the younger Julian star from the pitcher’s mound.
“It’s really a thrill to see him playing on the same field for the same team,”said wife and mom Terry Sides.
More than anything else, Legion baseball is family. For 42 nights in the past two months, moms and dads, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles — you name it — attended every game, took in every inning, thrilled at every great play.
Before, during and after the games, they chatted in the bleachers about work, kids, baseball. Everything. And nothing.
“Your life revolves around baseball and the families of these boys,” Terry Sides said. “It’s a family atmosphere with all the kids. You celebrate with them when they do something great, you agonize with them when they make a mistake.”
They watch the younger children play — Nick Lefko’s little sister, Nancy; Drew Davis’ younger brother, Spenser; and others — and marvel as they grow older and taller seemingly from game to game.
Monica Goodman, Phillip’s 15-year-old sister, babysat for some of the younger kids.“They’ve grown up as one big family,” said Sandra Goodman, their mom.
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Sandra Goodman sits in the stands all summer watching Rowan County play, but she still hasn’t made it to a more famous set of bleachers. Sandra was a big fan of Chicago Cubs star Ryne Sandberg, so she and Steve planned a trip to the Windy City.
As usual, baseball got in the way.
“For our 10-year wedding anniversary, we were going to Wrigley Field,”she recalled. “We got to go to Kansas City with Phillip’s AAU team instead.”
Summer beach trips have given way to less-than-exotic vacations to Granite Falls and Garner, sites of the Legion state tournament this year and last. Drives to distant foes in Surry County or King replaced day trips to the mountains.
“It’s eradicated everything we know about vacation and time away,”James Davis, Jimbo’s dad, said. “I’ve had an upset stomach for the third straight week. I don’t know if it’s all the hot dogs with onions. … We just laugh and eat more junk food.”
James often leaves straight from his law office, getting an assist from wife, Carlene, who brings clothes for him to change into before they race off to another ballpark.
“My wife and I both work jobs with long hours, and we’re home after midnight night after night. We’re flat wore out!”James Davis said. “We need toothpicks for our eyes, but it’s more important for us to be here. We’re having the time of our lives.”
Sandra Goodman said she enjoys baseball, which makes the summer much less of an ordeal. Instead of baking on a beach, the family channels its energy into cheering.
“Monica’s given up her vacation the last three years now,”Steve Goodman said of his daughter. “But she’s one of (brother Phillip’s) biggest supporters. You can pick her out during the game. She yells for him constantly.”
Gantt appreciates the sacrifices Rowan’s parents make. For the players who can’t drive, parents have the added responsibility of getting players to the games and practices on time and picking them up later.
The long summer slate isn’t easy for the coaches, either. As head coach of the Catawba College baseball team, the sport serves as Gantt’s full-time job. But assistants Michael Lowman and Sandy Moore juggle jobs, too.
“It’s definitely a commitment,”Gantt said. “You’ve got to really love it. It’s more than a passion.”
It’s a way of life, one the parents, players and coaches never seem to tire of.
“We complain because we have a game every night, but when we don’t have a game, we wonder what we’re going to do,”said Terry Sides with a laugh.
Added Steve Goodman, “In between series when we didn’t have a game, I was bored.”
Rowan County must win the state championship this weekend in Garner to advance to the regionals in Albany, Ga., and extend the season. As the long summer draws to its inevitable close, either this weekend, or the next, or the one after that, it brings mixed emotions.
“It’ll be good to get some sleep, good when life goes back to normal,” James Davis said. “But sad, too. We treasure this.”
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All the sacrifices, all the hours of hard work, melted into one shining moment last week.
A cast of thousands turned out to Newman Park for Rowan County’s tilt with Asheboro. Both teams already knew they were in the state tournament, but Thursday’s Game 7 was for the Area III championship.
On a hot, humid night, with the fans screaming and on the edge of their seats, Rowan County came up one run short and had to settle for second place.
“I tell him (Jimbo) this all the time: Baseball is like life,”James Davis said. “Some days it’s great, some days it’s tough. The great lesson is that you always have to hang in there.”
Despite the loss, Rowan’s players still marveled at the scene. Catcher Drew Davis said he’d never seen a bigger Legion crowd.
The crowds have been larger in the past— during Rowan’s regional championship in 1996, its state title season of 1993 or any of the prior four championships.
“There’s a pride you take when you put the Rowan jersey on,”Drew Davis said. “The tradition Rowan has … . It’s not do or die, but Rowan people expect you to win. That’s what Rowan has always done, and we’re expected to keep that tradition going.”
That’s why the players do it, night in and night out.
“They need to enjoy their summer, but playing baseball out here, like this, that’s special in and of itself,”Gantt said. “That’s not going to last too many more years.”
“It’s been the greatest summer of his life — by far,”James Davis said of Jimbo. “He loves these guys, and the experiences he’s having, he’ll never, ever, ever forget.”
The best part about it is Rowan returns 16 of its 17 players next summer, losing only infielder Shawn Trosper.
That leaves Rowan County’s boys of summer one more chance to live out the dreams they’ve shared for so many years.
“I’ll definitely miss it,”Drew Davis said. “I’ve been playing ball with most of these guys since I was 9 years old. I enjoy playing it, coming out here every day. I like it.”
Then, after a second’s pause:
“I love it.”
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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4287 or shanf@salisburypost.com
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