Low numbers, high spirits as alumni retake field
Staff writer
In between smoking cigarettes, crushing beers, and reminiscing about old classmates, the Peabody-Burns baseball alumni realized they didn’t have enough players to field a team.
The alumni were scheduled to scrimmage a formidable group of coaches and players, led by Jim Philpott, during the first day of the under-16 Babe Ruth baseball tournament in Peabody’s city park last week.
But by game time, only seven or so alumni had gathered beyond the right field foul pole. Some, like Darren Pickens, weren’t even planning on playing.
“I got a bad knee,” he said. “The last thing I need to do is turn it out of shape. I’m too old for that crap.”
Pickens was a shortstop for the Peabody team in the 1980s. Although the alumni were different ages, all lived in town and were close, he said.
“I’m friends with all these guys,” Pickens said. “We all hang out.”
Pickens’ mother, Sharon, was in attendance. Her husband Dennis, who played baseball in Florence and was a charter member of the Peabody team when it joined the Babe Ruth organization, was honored at the tournament.
“We lost him in September, and baseball was his life,” she said.
Sharon, known as “Mama Pick” to many around Peabody, had grandkids playing on the current Peabody team and knew every alum.
“Some of them I babysat,” she said.
Robert Turner, who was on the Peabody team for “one game in 2001” as a catcher, leaned against a pickup with a cooler of beer in the truck bed.
He departed Peabody after graduation, but has since returned and lived in town for 12 years.
“We’re hoping a couple more show up after golf night,” he said.
Turner eventually competed in the scrimmage as an alumnus, but he, like Pickens, was worried about his stamina.
“They got the bases set at 90 feet, and I like 60 feet in softball,” he said.
The actual Babe Ruth tournament also struggled to draw competitors.
Though organizers said before the tournament that they expected eight or more teams to compete, only three showed up — the Fredonia Yellowjackets, the Humboldt Cubs, and the host Cottonwood Valley League team, which consisted of Peabody-Burns’ roster and a handful of players from Hillsboro, Chase County, and Marion.
“I think a few teams boycotted because there’s not any hotels within five minutes,” Turner said. “It would have been nice to have more competition.”
Coordinator Jonathan Richstatter said that football camps, students going on summer vacation, and fatigue after a long baseball season contributed to teams dropping out.
“There were a lot of conflicts,” he said.
Still, the tournament drew a solid crowd, propelled by the strength of the home team, which eventually defeated Fredonia and Humboldt to become under-16 Babe Ruth state champions.
“You get some years where you have a group of them, and they gel together, and that’s this class right here,” Turner said of the Cottonwood Valley League team. “They read each other’s minds. You don’t always get that, especially in small groups.”
Before any official games was Wednesday’s scrimmage, which eventually took place after other attendees, including the young son of an alum and a Record reporter, were invited to fill out the alumni team.
The coaches took an early lead and held on for the victory, but the alumni showed strong spirit throughout, leaving the field with joints achy, shirts dusty, and heads held high.