Junior All-Stars represent Sandpoint with pride

Editor’s note: Tony Butler is the President of Sandpoint Little League, and recently coached his son and the Junior All-Star team from Sandpoint as it represented Idaho at the 13-team Western Regional tournament in San Jose, California. He shares some of the journey below.

By TONY BUTLER

For the Bee

There’s a saying in sports that “If you’re not winning, you’re learning,” and I can tell you school was in session for Sandpoint. We started off against Juneau, Alaska which I thought was a good draw thinking they were a cold weather state that had to battle field conditions more than we did this year. There was some truth in that this was one of the few games they played where it wasn’t raining this season, but they were a well-disciplined team that was loaded with pitchers and hitters and weather was not going to be a factor. From the top to the bottom of their lineup, we did not see a weakness and we threw them off speed pitches to our best fast ball pitching and they were able to place the ball effectively with each hitter.

We played some of our best defense of the tournament in that game and they just beat us in all phases of the game. I was impressed as much as you could be after suffering a 19-0 shutout. Coincidentally, all but one game played on opening day was decided by mercy rule. I also learned from the Alaska coach that they have an indoor facility and a baseball club that travels to Arizona, Washington and California in the winter to enter tournaments. These kids are going after competitive baseball opportunities to help strengthen their program.

Next up we played a team from Nevada who lost to the host team on opening day. This was the first time the town of Boulder City had sent a team to this tournament and in talking with their coach there were some strong similarities to Sandpoint, primarily in the size of community they came from and local baseball opportunities. Boulder City is the town that was created in order to build Hoover Dam, which now has a population of about 16,000 people.

Although increased playing opportunities are not that far away in Las Vegas, for the most part the kids playing baseball are the same ones who would be late to the start of football practice which was commencing that week, just like Sandpoint. The kids who are playing baseball are also playing football and basketball and they don’t have the 11 month dedication to one sport we saw from the warmer weather states from larger communities.

In this game our bats were more active and we had baserunners, but stalled out when needing RBI hits and stranded runners. We also increased our errors and when playing at this level if you give a team a couple extra outs in an inning they will make you pay for it. We lost 14-1 by mercy rule again which ended our tournament play and placed us into a consolation game against Montana.

Montana experienced lopsided games as we did and were anxious to start the drive home with a win just like us. The game was much closer as the teams were more evenly matched, but Montana made the plays needed to win 8-2. Similar shortcomings for Sandpoint as the previous game; bases left loaded twice and multiple base runners in scoring position stranded in other innings. Errors were costly again, both offensive and defensive.

Although performance was disappointing, I don’t think you’ll find a player or coach who regretted making the journey. I stayed around for a couple days after we exited the tournament to watch other teams play and talk to their coaches and families and it was very educational. We were the youngest team there while some teams were loaded with players who will be sophomores this year as league age 14 year-olds.

But more so than player age, I saw teams who were very cohesive, errors were minimal, and their pitchers had good ball control. I was most impressed with the team from Oakland who lost their first game, and then pushed Southern California to a winner take all game in the finals. When I first saw the team I thought they were a 12U team who came to watch the bigger players play, but they were a team who played well together with confidence. The coach was very energetic and positive in how he talked with the players and he helped them find their potential in every game.

Participation in this level of Little League is falling off across the State of Idaho as players move onto other baseball programs, but I think it’s one to continue pursuing if the interest is still there. It is a very high level of baseball that may be difficult to duplicate at regional tournaments, and the experience of representing the State of Idaho in itself is something these players will not forget. The big road trip, staying at a hotel with your buddies, Opening Ceremony, hanging out with players from other states in the tournament playing wiffle ball at the hotel and trying to move more water out of the pool than is in it is all part of the fun and experience.

Losing stings at the moment, but there was a lot learned to what the commitment and performance needs to be in order to be successful and I’m confident we can achieve that.