History, the love of the game.

[Mike**Mize]

Hi Guys,
Just for the fun of it I thought it might be interesting to list some of the team names we've played for. Here in NYC over the years I've pitched and played a lot of 1st base for a number of teams. I started as a catcher years ago (1957) so I guess it makes sense that someone would discover that I was also a pretty good catcher. Anyway here it goes;

Portland, Oregon Dodgers (Little League)
Darien, Ct. Fire Dept. (Little League)
Darien Ct. Dodgers! (Babe Ruth League)
Darien High Blue Wave
(Years later...)
Canon's Bar Renegades Won two Championships in about 12 seasons.
NYR of Books Battlin' Books (I designed the logo for this one based on the Red Sox batting Sock except that it was a book with an anglophile monicle.)
Moondance Diner
Lucy's Surfateria
Live Bait
and finally;
The City Raiders
By the time I hit my final years with the City Raiders
(we wore Colorado Rockiers stuff for the CR, I was about 48 and the next oldest player on the team was maybe 25. Still pitching, catching and playing an occasional 1st base.
In my final game I think I went 3 for 4 and started a double play from 1st, snagging a grounder, stepping on the bag and throwing home.
Must be because I miss it so much that to this day I'm looking for great gloves.
Anybody else want to chime in?

Mike

[vintagebrett]

Here's my list:

T-Ball (don't recall the name)
Barkhamsted Pirates (LL - Minors)
Barkhamsted Red Sox (LL - Majors)
Barkhamsted Lions (Babe Ruth)
Northwestern Regional #7 Highlanders (MS and HS)

[Rickybulldog]

Here's my list:
Redlands Giants (farm,minor,bronco)
Redlands Tigers (pony minor, pony major)
Redlands Twins (colt)
Redlands Red (Palomino)
Redlands Terriers (HS)
University of Redlands (college)
San Bernardino Cardinals (adult)

Started pitching in high school which helped continue my career in college. Never swung the bat in a "real" game after my freshmen year in high school. Apparently curve ball....Bat is afraid!!!!!!! Ha!Ha!

[Mike**Mize]

This is great. the more asides and stories the better. It's funny. When I was playing, I'd throw my gloves in my dusty bat bag, park it by the door when I came home and only pick it up again when it was time to go and play again. Now my gloves are all conditioned and displayed as if I were a curator. One thing remains the same. The game itself with all its wonderful details. Watched the Yanks lose to the Rockies last night. I had to admire their players. The whole town of Denver is looking for the NYC club to be like mythical gods. We scored 1 run. Fogg and Co. pitched a smart game. As they say, That's why they suit up and play'em.
Any more team names to report?
This could be great if we get enough folks involved.

Mike

[mittmutt]

In my little league days our teams were named after the sponsers. The league was called Seagull league and I was on the Sudbury foodtown team. The next level was sponsered by the local Salt Lake City police dept and was refered to as the cops league and we were the ponies and or course then there was high school, the mighty Granger Lancers. I wasn't on the team my senior year, football injury, but the Lancers were state champs that year, one of only two state championships the school has recorded in any sports since 1958. My fantasy tells me that had I been healthy I would have been the winning pitcher that year.

[mittmutt]

How about a parent/coach story. When my oldest son was 8, I and a neighbor coached their peewee team, regualr baseball, not tee ball or coach pitch. We played in Kearns, Utah, a subburb of Salt lake with a population of about 25,000. Out team, the Cardinals, took first place and we were able to coach the allstar team. On that 8 year old team we had 5 players go on to play college ball and 2 of them went on to pitch in the bigs. One of them, Brandon Duckworth is still on the roster for Kansas City and the other, Ryan Jensen had a short stint with San Francisco. Needless to say, that was a pretty good team of peewee's.

[Cowboy7130]

let me see ... Eastern Little League, Abilene, TX 1970 ... minor league Tigers .... 1971 ... minor league Giants ... 1972 and 1973 ... the Starlite Inn Starliters ... still one of my alltime favorite team names ... (The team names were based on the sponsors: The Cactus Lions (Lions Club), the Lennox Coolers (Abilene Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning), the Quality Printing Printers, the Superette Super Sonics, and the Civitan Club Civitans ... and of course the Starliters.) Now THOSE were some cool team names, not borrowed or stolen from pros or colleges.

1974 and 1975 - Pony League - Ravens
1976 "Colt League" - Southwest Optimists Club ... what else? ... the Optimists ...

and then I was bitten by the football bug and spent my springs and summers in the weight room .... and I have regretted it for the rest of my life. ...

[BretMan]

Good thread!

At 47, I'm still hanging in there, playing weekly in a men's fastpitch softball league. The other day I was doing some rough calculations and figured that this is my 26th consecutive year of playing either organized baseball or softball!

I played lots of youth baseball, there was a gap after high school, then I played my first slow pitch game at the ripe old age of 21. That started the string that survives to this day. It has consisted of slow pitch and fastpitch softball, plus MSBL adult baseball.

Now I'm almost too darn old to remember the names of all those teams from that far back! But some I remember:

Metro Heating and Cooling (current team- nice solid, industrial name).

Columbus Redbirds (MSBL adult baseball. The Redbirds were the Cardinals minor league team in Columbus, Ohio from the 1920's through the 40's).

The Boneheads (a slow pitch team, naturally).

Rangers (MSBL team that consisted of a half-dozen police officers- get it?).

The Reds (softball team with red jerseys and Cincinnati Reds hats- looked good, played like crap- just like the real Reds).

The Northern Columbus Athletic Association Bears (PONY league- won it all in 1975!).

McKenzie's Raiders (team had FIVE brothers named McKenzie).