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Boys of summer tickle fancy of kids at the parkBy JACQUIN SANDERS © St. Petersburg Times, published April 1, 1998 They are brother and sister, 7 years old, but not twins. (1990-91 were busy years for the parent Smiths.) The children condescend to talk a little baseball. "This Devil Ray hit a fly ball to centerfield ..." Matthew began. "You were playing the Devil Rays!" said the stranger, unbelievingly. "Odessa Little League Devil Rays," Matthew's father explained. Meanwhile, back to that long fly to center. It arched downward, dropped into Matthew's glove. He held on. "Nobody thought I would catch it," Matthew said, still delighted with the memory. "My coach congratulated me. Kristyn is a couple of inches shorter than her brother but not about to let him go one up on her. "Once I hit a ball," she said. "Oh, I hit a ball so hard. So hard it went into the street." "Was it a home run?" The child puzzled over the word, then decides to go along with the question. "Sure, a home run." She nodded enthusiastically. "What's a home run?" Children were all over the stadium on Tuesday. Especially little boys and their fathers. Edward Rolax, 9, plays right field for a team with the Southside Boys and Girls Clubs in St. Petersburg. His father, Edward Rolax Sr., is a volunteer coach. Edward started to talk about a recent game. He was on first base, the batter hit a line drive that got between outfielders and Edward took second and headed for third. "What he's grinning at," said Edward Sr., "was I was third base coach and I waived him into home plate and he got thrown out. Well, it was my fault and I take the blame." The boy looked fondly at his father, who grinned and said, "Well, I didn't want him taking the blame for my bad call." Ryan Glass, 13, and his brother Jackson, 9, brought their baseball gloves to the game. "Catching foul tips into the grandstand is my favorite part of baseball," Ryan said. Of course he is only a former baseball player. Ryan made a career decision recently; he dropped baseball. "It looks like I'm going to be tall," he said, "so I took up basketball." Not a bad move. At 13, Ryan is already 5-feet-10. Kyle Harris is only 5, but success on the Sarasota fields of play have made him confident. "I never make an out," he said. And added: "I think I can win every time." At age 3, Christopher Miller can catch a ball and hit with a bat. But he can't get into a game. "We have to play at home," said his mother Teresa. "They don't have leagues for the under-4 set." Kid baseball isn't the inexpensive game it used to be. Patric McArdle, 11, plays for Lagasse Plumbing in Sarasota. His father Pat explained: "You need sponsors to help with the equipment, the trips and all the rest. Our 32-team league in Sarasota has a $50,000 budget." All those storied barefoot boys never had to pay much more then a quarter for a ball and $5 or so for a glove. They made their own bats. McArdle got into a fund-raising auction for the ball teams and ended up forking over $1,500 for two Devil Rays Opening Day tickets for himself and Patric. At least the sound of money hasn't taken the edge off the boy. "I like stuff being thrown at me from the stands," Patric said. A rightfielder, he wants to play catcher "because I like to block things." Mariffa Niemeyer, 9, came to the game with her father, Russell. She doesn't play baseball, though she says she likes to watch. She's a cheerleader, says her father contentedly. Mariffa shrugs. The game began shortly after 5 p.m., and badly, with the Devil Rays giving up clusters of runs in the early innings. "I don't care," said George Mayochek, 11, who was waiting for his Uncle Dave who was in a short food line in the corridor behind their seats. "The hot dogs are going to be good. And wait till we get to bat again in the next inning."
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atthew and Kristyn Smith, blond and smiling and missing nothing, waited like two confident little Vikings at the gates on opening day at Tropicana Stadium.
