The "And Yet Another Generation Of Baseball Player" Story

The new Hempfield Knight with his mom.

It was an ordinary day.  Just got off the phone with my grandson Caden who called to tell me that he made his high school's baseball team.  Caden is a Freshman this year and just tried out for the baseball team.  He has been playing baseball since he was 8 years old and just loves the game.  Last summer his 14U (under 14 years old) baseball team won the Lancaster County Championship and he contributed with a few good innings of pitching, a spectacular squeeze bunt to tie one the the games and a shot over the left field fence in another game.  Caden was very apprehensive about tryouts at his Hempfield High School since it is perhaps the largest school in Lancaster County and the baseball team had openings for about 8 new players.  Over 40 boys tried out for the team and he needed to perform his best in order to make the team.  It was back in late January when I was keeping the score book for Caden's recreational basketball team that a young man sat down next to me to run the clock.  I got to talking to him and pointed to my grandson and said he loves to play baseball.  He told me he was a senior at Hempfield High School and played 3rd base on the high school team and thought he recognized Caden from pre-season workouts at the high school.  Then he looked at me and said, "He's a pretty good ballplayer!"  I told him I would have to tell Caden that, but never did.  So when tryouts started the beginning of this week, I had a sneaky suspicion that Caden might just be one of those couple of players that made the team.  Caden's height of over 6 feet and weight of about 200 pounds makes him a great threat for hitting the long ball as well as pitching.  And what's scary is that he's only 14 and still growing.  He told me today when he called that there was a sophomore who was also trying out and the coach put both of them at 1st base.  He told me the other boy did not make the team so he assumed that he may be in line to play first base on the JV team.  His dad, my son Derek, was one of the top pitchers in the Lancaster-Lebanon league in the late 1980s and received a scholarship to pitch for Division I Villanova University.  He still holds several records at his alma mater, Manheim Township High School.  I too played baseball for many years and was on a State Champion team when I was 14 years old.  So, it looks as if we have another generation of baseball players in the Woods family.  I can no longer throw a ball very far or even hit the ball, but I can sure cheer him on during the coming high school season.  Anxious to head to a game so I can walk through the crowd and see whom I might recognize in the stands that perhaps I played with, or against, in the 50s or 60s.  Ah, take me out to the ball game, please!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.