The Rookie Year - 1985 Whittier Little League AAA Royals

This is the year my passion for baseball hit a new level: 1985. When the season began, I was 8 years old. My parents had asked me the previous year or two if I wanted to play and I had always said no, mainly because I was shy and wasn't sure about the whole thing. Finally they really urged me to try it, and good thing I did!

I think this year was also a blessing in a couple of ways. First of all, I had never played in a league before and had no idea what to expect. Secondly, while most of my friends were at the AA level, I started off at AAA, which is the next level above AA. Finally, it was a blessing in disguise, but I'll get to that in a minute.

I don't remember a whole lot about this season. After all, it was 25 years ago. (Man, that's a long time ago...am I really that old?!) And now, into the memories...

There is one game I remember. I played second base that year and I loved it. I had no problems playing the infield. I have no idea how I got chosen to play there, but that's irrelevant. In one game, I remember ball after ball getting hit to me in the game. I know there were at least 10, and keep in mind we only played 6 innings. Each one I fielded cleanly, threw to first and got the runner out. It was a great game and I remember my parents being proud of me after that game.

Another memory was the the game our own catcher shoved our pitcher at home plate when he was trying to tag out the runner coming home. Needless to say, we threw our own catcher out of the game. The catcher's name was Thomas Ebbitt, or something like that. It's just one of those things I randomly remember.

The next thing, I don't remember, but my parents have reminded me of frequently, was that our coach quit part way through the season. I think that's a sign that the season was less than ideal for a rookie Little Leaguer.

Another memory was our opening day game. Believe it or not, that first game is still the worst defeat of any team I have ever been on (part of the blessing in disguise). We lost that first game 32-2! That's right, 32-2!!! We were blown out many times during our 20 games that year, which brings me to the main reason this season was a blessing in disguise. Of the 20 games we played, we LOST ALL 20! This was a blessing in couple of ways. First, if I still liked the game after a horrible season like that, you know it was part of me, possibly in my DNA, to love baseball. Secondly, no matter how long I played baseball, I could never be on a team that did worse. I had nowhere to go but up. And that is certainly the way things went.

Below I have posted some pictures from that season and a little caption explaining each one. Enjoy!

Here is my first baseball picture!

Here is our team waiting to get our team picture taken.

Here is the team picture from that year.

This is me. For what it's worth, I wore #5.

Here I am swinging at a pitch, and you can actually see the ball coming. Looks like it was going to be a strike.

Getting down and dirty...sliding into 3rd base. I love the action shot! Not bad form for a rookie.

I scored!