With the bases loaded, our runner on third having the potential to score the tying run, two outs and a full count on the batter, it would have been an exciting point in any baseball game. Usually after this bottom-of-the-fourth inning, though, there would be two innings left, plenty of time to see who wins or loses. The fourth inning of this particular game, however, was the last, meaning this could be the final out, final at-bat, the end of the game.
You see, the time was 3:10 in the afternoon and, the visiting team had to leave after this inning to catch the 3:45 ferry back to Portland. Organized youth sports on Peaks Island provide for special challenges and rewards.
Our Peaks Island team, Hannigan’s Market, of the Portland Bayside Little League baseball program, deals with many challenging situations, such as the one described above, that all island residents become accustomed to dealing with regularly. The ferry determines more than game schedules and practice times. It requires parents to make arrangements that regular carpools don’t cover. They have to assist one another when one is working in town and their son or daughter needs to get to practice on the island. It requires our teams to make arrangements for the visiting teams, making one feel like more than just a home team. As hosts, we meet the visiting teams at the ferry to either provide rides or give walking directions to the field, about a mile distant from the ferry landing. Travel entails either car rides provided by parents or walking over paved road, then dirt road, then a path through the woods, “’till you see the field directly in front of you.”
Still, our baseball program, like any one of our organized sports programs out here, provides many rewards that outweigh by far any minor challenging quirks. We are rewarded with strong community support, a beautiful field and a great group of kids.
We are consistently rewarded with community support. Island businesses donate much needed sponsorships. The American Legion puts on a barbecue after we participate in their Memorial Day parade. The Lions fill additional equipment needs. Parents, in addition to arranging rides for visiting teams, contribute or arrange for private donations towards the need for such things as a scoreboard or a set of soccer goals. A resident donates an unused shed for our field house. An island plumbing contractor installs a water fountain. Former players and coaches help coach practices, umpire games or line the fields, contributing their time long after their kids have outgrown the activity.
Another reward is our Peaks Island Field, which could serve either as a ballpark or a nature preserve, equally well. Both a soccer field and a baseball field fit on this pastoral greensward surrounded by trees. Horses or deer occasionally stroll the perimeter. Tadpoles perennially hatch in the nearby pond. Geese on the neighbor’s farm honk intermittently. Only an airplane, periodically passing overhead reminds one of civilization.
Our greatest reward, however is the knowledge that we are helping to contribute in some way to the growth of some very special kids. Because the island defines the neighborhood boundary so well, they generally all play together on the same team, in whatever sport or activity. Thus, from T-ball on up, they all develop physically, mentally and emotionally together. One is physically stronger, or more coordinated, another is more mentally cognizant, another may be more emotionally mature. They know each others’ strengths and weaknesses from being stuck with each other by the geographic realities of the island. Until their middle school years, when their athletic opportunities become more diverse in town, they are all forced to learn to grow successfully with each other, as members of one team.
Back to the game that got me started. Our batter struck out, ending the inning, so we lost our only game of the season. Instead of blaming it on the ferry schedule, however, the kids blamed it on one of the umpire’s calls. I guess they’re just regular kids after all.
James C. Carlson coaches Peaks Island’s farm league baseball team.