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Field Of Dreamers
| Article
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10532 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1993 |
3,218 Words |
| Author
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Steve Salerno
Steve Salerno's book on selling is called The Newest
Profession. He is contributing editor at California Business
magazine and has written for Harper's and the New Republic. A
movie based on his book Deadly Blessing was recently produced
for ABC by Warner Bros. |
It's a perfect day for baseball, a crisp and cloudless break in San Diego's winter rain. One would expect the manager of any team to thrill at being the recipient of such meteorological fortuity. But at this moment, the manager of the Vista Cardinals, Jeff Kemper, is feeling more beleaguered than blessed.
For the past quarter-hour, Kemper has been attempting to communicate to his middle-aged players the nuances of the time-honored run-down play, wherein the defensive team seeks to retire a runner who has been trapped off base. Alas, the guys have contracted an acute case of the giggles; they are, after all, in a sport where irreverence is indigenous. And so, despite the 50-ish temperatures, sweat has begun to bead on Kemper's furrowed forehead as he kneels in the midst of the ragtag group.
Meantime, the players concocted an impromptu bit of puerile intrigue wherein they nod in mock earnestness when Kemper looks their way, then tacitly engage in covert mischief when their mentor turns to address a player on the opposite side of the circle. Eventually, Kemper catches on to this minor mutiny. For a moment, he surveys the smirking group, fixing each member with a dyspeptic glare. There he says, "Do I need to remind you guys that you're gonna be facing John D'Aquisto in three weeks? Three [gerund form of popular expletive] weeks?" The reference to the fireballing alumnus of the Baltimore Orioles has its intended effect. Indeed, it's almost as if a collative gulp reverberates.
CATCHING ON
Phenomenon is a hackneyed term in contemporary journalism but it is safe to say that since its inception in 1986, adult amateur baseball has become an authentic phenomenon. Enrollment in the San Diego-based National Adult Baseball Association has doubled each year. As you read this, 125 NABA teams in California are breaking out the bats, balls, and Ben-Gay. And while California, with its year-round baseball climate, may be a hotbed of such activity, it is by no means its exclusive habitat. Last year, NABA cofounder and present commissioner Mike Micheli took the concept national; within five months, he was overseeing 450 teams in 25 states.
As the NABA moves east, a competing organization, the Men's Senior Baseball League, expands westward from New York. This, mind you, in marked contrast to Florida's moribund experiment at launching a senior pro circuit composed of former major leaguers. Says Kemper, "A lot of guys must figure, 'why watch a bunch of
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