Memories of championship fever running wild in Johnson City

Every year around this time I think back to the annual spectacle in Johnson City that was known as the Little League city championship game. Johnson City was home to three Little League organizations back in the 1990s - the American, National and Major leagues. Every June, the teams from all three of those leagues would play in a tournament that culminated with the city championship game around the Fourth of July. Little League baseball reached its high-water mark nationally in terms of participation around 1997. Here in Johnson City, hundreds of fans would fill all available space around the diamond to see the two best teams in the city battle it out for the title. The chase for that championship kept all of us kids abuzz from the start of the season in March until we were inevitably eliminated in June. There was no social media back then, but word got around fast about who the good teams were in the other leagues. Kids spoke in hushed tones about the juggernaut that was the Rotary team that was running roughshod over the American League in those days. I played for the legendary Arthur Lady in the Major League. At the time, our home field was called Steve Spurrier Field, but it has since been renamed after Lady, who coached for more than 30 years. Lady coached a team called the Legionnaires, which you probably already guessed was sponsored by the local American Legion post. He brought our bats, helmets and baseballs to the field in old military surplus gear, so when we helped carry those olive drab bags to the practice field, it felt like we were shipping off to the Pacific Theater. In those days, many of the coaches were institutions. Arthur and Henry Joy had both coached for around 30 years by the time I rolled in as a 10-year-old. Other coaches like Houston Bacon, Jimmy Sluder, Kenny Arrowood and Jim Bullins were mainstays in the Major League, as were umpires like Billy Hutton and John Mashburn. Rosters were made up of players ranging in age from 9 to 12 years old and included a wide range of kids. Some of them were just out there to learn the game, others were destined to go on and play in high school and college. Many a night you could find a wide-eyed 9-year-old trying to hide in the corner of the dugout to avoid getting an at-bat when 12-year-old giant Jeremy Bullins was out on the hill throwing fastballs that arrived in a blur. Pitchers like John Crowe, Larry Miller and Ben Pollock were no fun to face. Blake Caylor didn't have a lot of speed, but his mix of off-speed pitches frustrated a lot of hitters in my time. On those special days when things went right and you scored a big win, your coach was likely to bring you across John Exum Parkway from the field to Dairy Queen for some ice cream. I recall we were warming up for the late game one night when our infield drills were interrupted by noise out on the four lane. The entire Civitan team, which had just beaten the Lions Club, was piled in the bed of Sluder's pickup chanting at the top of their lungs on their way to get a post-game Blizzard. My 12-year-old year, our team entered the city tournament playing some good baseball, and hopes were high that we might contend for a city championship. To provide some extra incentive, Arthur's assistant coach Gene Williams promised us a trip to Atlanta to see the Braves play if we made the city championship game. By the time the semifinals rolled around, Gene was hard at work on the logistics, trying to figure out how many players he could fit in each hotel room. Unfortunately, we ran into the Lions Club, and our dreams were dashed. Today the landscape is different. Youth baseball is still widely popular, but Little League plays a much different role than it did all those years ago. Travel ball is the path for competitive players hoping to play in college and beyond. Little League baseball is still closely aligned with its original goal of introducing young people to the game of baseball and providing quality instruction while building community. Kids who play today are undoubtedly making their own memories out on the diamond, and I can promise they'll last a lifetime.