Another Centenary baseball season is in the books for us (we don't usually travel to the SCAC tournament which this year is somewhere in Texas.)

This year Centenary finished atop the SCAC standings with a 15-3 record, just ahead of Trinity at 14-4.  A lot of the games were away games this year, it seemed, and the ones early in the season that were at home were often cold and rainy, so we didn't make as many games this year as we usually do.  But when we are there, well, it's just good baseball.

It's been about four years since I did a post about the program; we've seen these boys start as freshmen, grow and develop their game, and move on.  It's our own little version of the Durham Bulls!  The atmosphere is like family and over the years we've developed friendships with faculty, coaches, parents, and other locals that just come out in support.

Each team in the conference has a sort of reputation too: some are better sports than others, some are hostile to referees, some are as nice as they can be and invite you to visit their city.

But always it is just good fun.  We've had some really memorable times!  And we've seen some really standout players.

One of the standouts this year was senior Chris Zapata who is an outstanding catcher and a real power hitter.  As pitcher, and first-baseman, Cole Lavergne was really exciting to watch; he threw some truly wicked pitches in the game today.

It is universally true in baseball that each pitcher and each batter has his own stance and his own quirks.  There's the batter that always crosses the plate with his bat, or the one that stands just outside the box, then charges into it and takes his stance when he's ready; there's the pitcher that prowls around the mound like a caged tiger, scratching the dirt with his cleats, and the one that deeply arches his back and stares over his glove before he throws.  They are all unique and entirely wonderful to watch.

But of course, it takes an entire team to produce a winning record like the Gents have done.

The parents are always great team boosters and at every home game can be seen boiling crawfish, frying fish, or grilling burgers, ready to feed the hungry players after the last pitch.  Then there is Coach in the concession stand fixing up delicious Nathan's hot dogs or serving roasted peanuts; it just wouldn't be a game without that!

One of the joys of these games to me is seeing the children who come out: sweaty little boys with their baseball gloves thundering down the stands, running at breakneck speed to retrieve foul balls.  The boys look with such admiration at the grown players and you can just see the dreams in their eyes.

Of course, the players can act like kids too - because really they still are; they're just about to launch into adulthood and are hanging on to this boys game for all it's worth.  I watch the dugout as much as I watch the game because the players are always cheering each other on, yelling, singing, waving their arms, jumping around to the music playing over the PA, doing all kinds of crazy things.  They are having a blast, which is the pure joy of baseball.

Cheering on teammates returning from the outfield

And the dogs: oh my are there dogs.  At any game you can count on seeing four or five dogs from tiny Yorkies to full grown Labs.

The best part?  It's free.  So when someone comes and sits down in front of you in the fifth inning, and pops their umbrella...

There goes my view of home plate.

...you can just move.

Yes, this season is done at Shehee Stadium but next year will come soon enough.  Until then, there's this video of the final out today and the celebration after.  You can see Cole Lavergne on the mound and the fans stand up, applauding, to cheer him on...



God I love this game!  And I love you, Centenary Gents!  Thanks for another great season, and good luck in the tournament!

Postcard photo by Neil Johnson of Fair Grounds Field

I've got baseball fever.  Spring is coming; I can almost see it from here, and spring means baseball.

Shreveport does not have a professional baseball team; no minor league team, no independent team.

We had the Shreveport Captains, the Shreveport Sports, and  the Swamp Dragons, among others.  Now we have nothing. Our taxpayer-funded, once beautiful baseball stadium sits as an example of urban decay at the Shreveport fairgrounds serving primarily as a home for the city's bats (and I don't mean baseball bats.)  The stadium opened in 1986 and the last baseball game there was in 2011.

It is a crying shame.

In 2015, KTBS reported that the City of Shreveport still spends $200,000 per year to maintain the facility:

It costs $200,000 to maintain it but this isn't money the city is actually spending on the park. They're using staff and supplies from neighboring Independence Stadium to walk over and do things like maintain the exterior and power wash to keep down the smell of the poisonous bat droppings.

Now the field is covered in weeds and trash. SkyPixel has several drone photos of the park from 2015 which show an overgrown field, broken seats, broken windows in the press box, and with home plate and the pitcher's mound still covered as if someone is actually coming back to play.

In recent years there has been talk of demolishing the stadium which would cost about $450,000.  On the other hand, there are people in this community who would like to save Fair Grounds field and offer, if not professional baseball, something else there for people to enjoy.  There is a Facebook page, Rescue Fair Grounds Field, with over 500 followers, but nothing has happened.

In Shreveport we can still see baseball at the college level.  Both LSUS and Centenary have excellent teams and our community colleges also have baseball.  The Centenary field is within walking distance from our house and I can hear batting practice from my front yard. There is no sweeter sound.  We regularly attend those games and it is great fun!  Wouldn't it be fabulous if the baseball community came out to watch, too?  We sit among parents of the student players mostly.  There is little community support, although there is some.

There is no charge to get into a Centenary baseball game: it is free.

There is something about the game of baseball that is just magic to me.  I don't understand all of it and I'm not a lifelong student of baseball although I have always enjoyed watching it.

When we go to the Centenary games, I love sitting in the warm spring sun, getting that first blush of tan on my winter skin, listening to the songs on the PA system, the walk-up songs, the chatter and laughter of the parents around us.  Most of the time there are parents in the parking lot boiling crawfish or getting some BBQ feast ready for after the game and the scent infuses the air around us. I'll get some hot roasted peanuts and a coke, prop my feet up on the rail in front of me and get lost in the game before me.  The antics of the boys in the dugout are always hysterical; I love their camaraderie and love for each other and the game.  It's all-American.  There is nothing better.

I recently watched The Battered Bastards of Baseball on Netflix.  It's a 2014 documentary about the independent Portland Mavericks who played for five seasons under owner Bing Russell.  Narrated by his son (and former player himself) Kurt Russell, the film is a hilarious and nostalgic romp through the life of this team.:

Built around speed and reckless play, the Mavericks were initially looked upon as a joke - until Mavericks pitcher Gene Lanthorn threw a no-hitter in the team’s first game, and it was off to the races. The Mavericks proceeded to clobber their competition and set attendance records, becoming overnight media sensations covered by NBC, Sports Illustrated - even The New Yorker.  

 With a roster of ragamuffin players culled from open, public tryouts, the Mavericks shocked the baseball world in 1977 by achieving the highest winning percentage of any team at any level of the game (.667). The Mavericks became the team nobody wanted to play - a cocky, hard-partying Wild Bunch that regularly whipped squads boasting future major leaguers like Ozzie Smith, Dave Henderson, Dave Stewart or Mike Scioscia.

All that's missing is Annie Savoy.

But the documentary also makes one painfully nostalgic for local baseball.  One point the film makes is that the fans knew the players and the players were part of the community.  There is archival footage of the players in uniform sitting among the fans during the game. The locals supported the team in record breaking numbers. When corporate baseball came and forced the team out, attendance dropped like a rock.

So baseball comes and goes within a community.  It's a business -- a big business these days with million dollar contracts and personalities.  The price of a professional baseball ticket can set you back some serious change, but whenever we go to Des Moines we always go see an Iowa Cubs baseball game which is excellent baseball and costs a fraction of what you'd pay to see the Chicago Cubs, for example.

Is Shreveport a sports town?  Is it a "baseball town"?  We have hockey, rugby, soccer, even roller derby.  Will this town support minor league baseball? 

In 2016 a new independent league was announced: the Southwest League, which will include Louisiana.  They will reportedly begin playing in 2019 with six teams in Texas with growth expected in coming years. 

Could we tempt them to come to Shreveport?  Do we have anyone with the cash backing to lure them here?

Baseball started in Shreveport in 1872 and existed under various teams and leagues until 2011.  Isn't it time to bring it back?

What is stopping us?



Related:
Roy Lang:  Fair Grounds Field turns 30 Today (April, 2016)
What's to Become of Fair Grounds Field?  (KTBS, 2015)
Cal Ripkin, Sr.  Foundation
LSUS Baseball Schedule - 2018
Centenary Baseball Schedule - 2018
For the Love of the Game: Talking with Kurt Russell about The Battered Bastards of Baseball
The Southwest Baseball League

That was the fastest three months I've ever seen.  It flew by.

I am referring, of course, to the Centenary Gents baseball season which began February 8 and ended this past weekend.  Oh, there are a couple of playoff games left -- it's not completely over, but those games are in Texas.  The 2014 season at Shehee stadium is finished.

And I'm sad.  I miss them already.

There is nothing like baseball to herald in spring.  After the long, cold winter (and we had a few cold days down here in Shreveport!), and the endless dull gray skies, it is pure joy to walk into the baseball complex to bright green grass and the players warming up on the field.

Overzealous, perhaps, Steve and I showed up at a couple of those February games a little unprepared for the cold wind that left me frozen by the end of the ninth.  By the April 22 game the girls were all in shorts, tanks, and sandals soaking up the sun while others took shelter from the blazing sun under umbrellas.

The April 12 game against Austin College was blessed with perfect weather.  We had a mild 75 degrees and a mellow breeze that whistled gently as it blew through the protective netting above us. That was the first game where you could discern the scent of sunscreen in the air from the fans in the bleachers. Centenary won both games that day.

Steve and I started following the team last year after talking about it for ages.  We finally got around to going and have been hooked ever since.  For years I would sit on my deck or in my swing under the magnolia tree in the front yard and listen to the ping of bats as the team practiced.  Sometimes I could hear the music from the PA system as they practiced.  The stadium is within easy walking distance from my house, and we have indeed walked to a couple of games (not the cold ones).


Centenary was in a sort of growing year this year; they lost some good seniors last year and so there were several new players this year.  In fact, there were only three seniors on the roster this year.  They're three pretty good ones though:  first baseman Mark Martinez plays with all of his heart.  At 6'1" and 220 lbs., he's not the fastest runner on the team but when he connects with his bat, that ball just soars.  He's a dynamite first baseman and it will be odd seeing someone else at that position next year.  One of the highlights for me this year was when Mark hit a triple against Austin College; like I said, he's not the fastest runner on the team, and I think everyone in the stands was cheering for him as he breathlessly arrived safely at third.

Another senior saying goodbye this year is outfielder and sometime pitcher Nic Parrott.  We saw Nic sail a couple of beautiful homers this year.  Also leaving this year is pitcher Jake McFarland.  I hope they're all on to bright futures and take good memories of their time at Centenary with them.

Next season looks pretty good as Centenary retains many players from the current roster.  Assuming they all come back, and there are a few new recruits to replace the departing seniors, it should be an awesome team.  There was some great hitting this year and the pitchers have been fun to watch.  Very promising is sophomore pitcher Holden Novak:  he's a tall, lean, 6'4" and he prowls all over that mound as he prepares to take charge with his arsenal of pitches.  He's got a mean fast ball, and a great curve ball.  He's exciting to watch.

I'm also looking forward to watching Christian Sebastien (C-Bass) for one more year before he moves on.  He's a very powerful and athletic player who has no problem with his bats.  Outfielder Chris Jones is faster than lightening and he makes plays happen.  As a freshman, he plays with a great deal of confidence and he will steal a base if you don't watch him!

We've had a grand time watching "our boys" this year.  The fans are great and we've met some really nice people, most of whom seem surprised, and pleased, that we are just neighborhood riff-raff showing up to watch baseball.  "Who's your son?" we get asked all the time.  They're all our boys now.  (My daughter graduated from there, if that counts.)

And the dogs.  Oh my, the dogs.  There's the lady with the yellow retriever and the brindle boxer - beautiful dogs!  And Izzy!  (Izzie?), the wonder dog!  She's just precious.  There are dogs of all sizes that come out
with their owners to watch the game.  Most of them just go to sleep, some watch the other dogs, and some beg to retrieve the balls that sail overhead toward the snack bar or the drainage ditch.  Every time a ball fouls out of bounds by the batting cages you can hear a thunder of sneakered feet as little boys run with their gloves to get it first.

The students that come out to watch their friends play are first class.  A highlight of the season for me, and I still laugh about it, was the basketball team who comes out to support the baseball team.  The baseball team does the same for them, and there's a tradition of heckling the other team that goes on.  Sometimes, I guess, people get a little sensitive about their kids out there on the field, and on one occasion (team shall remain nameless!), some mamas got mad at the heckling.  I have to admit, it might have been a little far when our basketball players were ribbing one of the guys on the opposing team about being, well, vertically challenged.  "Hey!  You need some phone books to stand on while you bat?"  "Hey ump!  How can you call a strike - he's so short the strike zone is too small!"  "Do you need a Fisher Price bat?"  Yeah, it was pretty intense and there was some mama drama, but when the basketball team showed up the next day for Game 2 with a dry erase board depicting a ruler and a sign that said, "You must be this tall to bat," well, you had to be there.  But it was pretty funny.
I can't believe the season is done.  I have to wait until next year for my peanuts and diet Coke, kicked back in my seat behind home plate (did I mention it's absolutely free to get in?), listening to horrible country music during warm-ups and between innings.  Really, I can live the rest of my life without Joe Diffey's John Deere Greene, but then again, it now has a sort of soft spot in my heart.  You can occasionally hear a fan or two holler at the box when they play the same old songs.  Last week during an especially tense game against Trinity, the person doing music played Jason Aldean's See You When I See You and a girl turned around and yelled "Quit playing the depressing music!  We're trying to win a game here!"  It was pretty funny.  All in good fun.

Yes, the sights and sounds of Centenary Gents baseball is over for now.  It's been a wonderful season, and we'll be back next February.  With blankets.  And until then, I'll always think of you, Centenary, when I hear this one:

My ears are ringing with the angelic sounds of Mozart's Grand Mass in C Minor.

Steve and I attended the performance today at First United Methodist Church; the First Methodist Chamber Choir, the Centenary College Choir, and orchestra were simply superb.

The story behind this piece of music is fascinating.  The work is unfinished and is believed to have been written by Mozart in celebration of his wedding and also to appease his father with whom Mozart had a difficult relationship.  The piece was written in 1782-1783 and is technically very challenging, but also shows Mozart's creativity.  It's just beautiful.

The choirs were simply angelic in voice and Soprano I Lori Lusted was pitch perfect.  I'm no operatic expert by any means but Miss Lusted's voice was beautiful to hear.

Kudos to Centenary and First Methodist for the free public event.

On the way out Steve and I were behind two of the musicians, one of whom said to his friend, "Wow - four months of work and it's all over, just like that!"

It was worth it, my friend.  Job well done.

A YouTube performance of the Benedictus:



(Photo credit:  Steve and his Blackberry)

(Thanks to Robert Trudeau for the tip on the event.)

There's nothing like a little snap of spring in the air to make one's heart long for baseball.  The crack of the bat, the satisfying smack of ball to glove, the chatter from the dugout...it's pure heaven.



Steve and I live within a good fastball of Centenary College and I can hear the baseball team's batting practice from my house.  So we decided this weekend to venture on over to Sheehee Stadium and check out some Gents baseball.


We went yesterday for the first game of a double-header against the University of Dallas; Centenary lost the first game and won the second.  It was cold and windy so we only made one game.  We were surprised to learn there was no admission cost; we asked a couple of people if we needed tickets or needed to pay and everyone looked at us with a quizzical expression and said no.

As the weather was much warmer today, and no wind, we headed back out to catch the last game in this series against Dallas.

It was a small crowd but everyone was settling in for a nice afternoon of baseball when we got there; this lady was working on her tan while cheering on her team:


Parents and photographers:


Even Sock Monkey had a front row seat:


As the game began the Gents lined up to cheer on their batters (note all the baseballs on the roof of that building on the right):


Play ball!


Dallas had some really good hitters:


And the game stayed close.

A view from our seats:


Faithful fan Princess comes to every game:


There were several dogs there today.  All very well behaved, of course!

A respectable crowd stayed until the very end today:


This is the concession stand; yesterday we kept them busy selling coffee and hot chocolate because it was so cold.  Today we had hot dogs, peanuts, and cokes!  What else are you going to have at a college baseball game?!


The game was tied going into the ninth:


And the suspense was high:


At the top of the ninth it was all tied up:


When the Gents came up to bat, no. 25, Jemari James hit a ball down the first base line, Dallas had a little trouble fielding it in the corner, James rounded second and ran to third;  the ball was overthrown toward third and James made home plate.  Gents win!


After a wild celebration at home plate both teams shook hands and another game is in the books.

It was an exciting finish to a good game.

The Gents will be at home again next weekend against Trinity University with a Saturday double-header.  The schedule is here.

If you're looking for a nice way to relax and enjoy some top notch baseball, keep the Centenary Gents on your radar.  It's a great way to spend an afternoon!


Take a Trip to the 2012 Defenders of Liberty Air Show at BAFB
Take a Springtime Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden, LA
Take a Trip to Logansport, Louisiana
Take a Trip to the Lock and Dam on Red River
Take a Trip to the 2012 Barkus and Meoux Parade
Take a Christmas Shopping Trip to Second Hand Rose in Minden
Take a Trip to the Fourth Annual Barksdale AFB Oktoberfest 
Take a Trip to Grand Cane's Fifth Annual Pioneer Trade Day
Take a Trip to the 2011 Highland Jazz & Blues Festival
Take an Autumn Trip to Jefferson, Texas
Take a Fall Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden
Take a Trip to the 8th Air Force Museum at Barksdale Air Force Base
Take a Summertime Trip to Grand Cane
Take a Trip to Desoto Parish
Take a Summer Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden
Take a Trip to Natchitoches and Melrose Plantation 
Take a Trip to Ed Lester Farms and a Random Antique Stop
Take a Trip to the Norton Art Gallery and the Masters of Cuban Art Exhibit
Take a Trip to Natchitoches to See the Christmas Lights
Take a Trip to the Third Annual BAFB Oktoberfest 
Take a Trip to Natchitoches and Oakland Plantation
Take a Trip to Jefferson, Texas
Oktoberfest at BAFB

This Friday Centenary College and the Van Thyn lecture series will commemorate the 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz:

The all-day event will honor the memory of local survivors Dr. Rose and Louis Van Thyn and feature a continuous screening of their video testimonies on their struggles during the Holocaust. The screening is free and open to the public and visitors may stop in throughout the day.

"Sadly, we will soon be in a world without any living Holocaust survivors to teach us about the dangers of hatred and intolerance," said Dr. Lisa Nicoletti, Professor of Art and Visual Culture. "Collections such as this one are vital to Holocaust remembrance and education. For the last decade, Dr. Rose with Louis by her side, regularly spoke on our campus about life before, during, and after the Holocaust. We miss them terribly."

• What: Van Thyn Holocaust Testimony
  
• When: Friday, January 27, 8:00 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
  
• Where: Kilpatrick Auditorium, Smith Building
  

This showing marks the introduction of Centenary College as the first Shoah Foundation Visual History Collection in the state of Louisiana. The College will provide the public with free future access to these testimonies, which will be housed in Magale Library. The testimonies are from the archives of the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education.

Steven Speilberg created the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation in 1994 when he was inspired by his experience making Schindler’s List. The Institute aims to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry—and the suffering they cause—through the educational use of the Institute’s visual history testimonies that it gathers from survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust.

More here.

If you're not local and can't attend, I encourage you to listen to Rose's story here.  I heard Rose deliver her testimony a few years ago; it's an amazing story and one I share with my students each year.  While I've met Louis (he was always beside Rose when she spoke), I've never heard his full testimony so this will be an experience for me.  These were two very special people. 

Never forget.

(H/T: Nico)

Update: 4/28/09: Sorry - The Times link in this post is no longer active. I should have copy/pasted the article!