On Sunday morning at Penn Field in Oak Bluffs, Little League umpire Wally Gold asked for some water before the major league championship game began. He wanted to make some mud.
A new facility for youth mental health services and a new field for Little Leaguers received funding Tuesday night as the recently established MVYouth community fund presented its first two expansion grants, part of a $1 million yearly campaign to help the Island’s youngest residents.
On Saturday morning, starting at 10 a.m., Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs will be closed to traffic, but that doesn’t mean the street won’t be packed. In fact, it will be bursting with color, as all the kids from the Martha’s Vineyard Little League celebrate in uniform the opening day parade, beginning at the Oak Bluffs police station, running down Circuit avenue and finishing at Veira Park.
One game ended with a huge hit to center right field driving in the winning run and the other game ended in a strikeout to secure the lead, but the reactions were much the same. Little League players raced from their dugouts to swarm the teammate who had clinched the win and secured the trophy.
Tuesday night was the first home baseball game of the season for the Sharks and kids from all the little league teams around the Island were invited to take part in the festivities. Teenagers to tee-ballers as tall as a Shark’s backpocket came dressed in their uniforms with gloves at the ready. The competition on the field was first rate. So, too, were the scrambles for foul ball souvenirs.
It’s hard to miss the Astros. Dressed in blazing orange uniforms, the players would stand out in nearly any environment, but against the bright green grass of the regional high school field, the contrast seems all the more dramatic. The Astros, a squad of 14 and 15 year olds, are a bridge, the final stop in Island youth baseball on the way up to the big leagues of high school ball.
A friend’s son recently started playing Little League and my friend was philosophically relaying the fact that his son was playing right field. There was disappointment in his voice. I said that I had heard over the years right field had actually become less the place to hide a poor player and more the place to put a kid with a strong arm, a la Roberto Clemente. I’m not sure where I had heard this.
