Stories of Little League Teams of the Past

Jack Rosano, Bill Lewis, Rex Higgenbotham Reminisce about the Old Days in Albany Little League

The greater Albany community was treated to a special afternoon of stories and fond from past ALL presidents Jack Rosano, Bill Lewis and Rex Higginbotham at the on Sunday March 18, sponsored by the . As most veterans are fond of doing, they traded stories about the old days, remembered friends, and unanimously declared that they were some of the best years of their lives.

One of the biggest items for discussion was comparing and earlier times. Bill Lewis recalled the first girl who was allowed to play baseball in Albany in the 1970s: Amidst hoopla and television cameras and reporters, Lewis (the coach) sent her in during the third inning to replace the second baseman.  The second baseman objected vociferously: “Dad!  What are you doing to me?”  (Apparently, feelings have healed over the years on the substitution.) All the participants agreed that the girls were real assets to the teams.

Longtime umpire and chief umpire Gene Hellwig had more than a few stories to tell (not surprisingly), most of them about obnoxious parents calling him and the other umpires “blind.” (Hellwig wittily countered when he organized all the umpires in the league to march in the annual parade with dark glasses and white canes!)

According to Bill Lewis, one of the most obnoxious parents to prowl about the Albany fields, barking at coaches, kids, and whoever happened to be in his way also turned out to be a very high official at Cal—the highest, in fact! The chancellor developed such a reputation that Lewis was forced to inform him that he could take his act back to California Hall. Despite the chancellor’s threats to bring down the heat on the league, Lewis persisted. (Lewis was apparently unperturbed by the threat of a whole row of U.C. chancellors yelling at him in Latin.)

The league has had its ups and downs over the 55 years that it has been in existence: Participation dropped quite a bit in the 1980s and ‘90s, largely due to two influences, according to Rosano: soccer and video games. (One took away playing fields, and the other took away attention spans.) While soccer and video games are still around, all the panelists were pleased to hear that participation in has been booming over the last few years.

Rex Higginbotham recalled one of his favorite stories about Albany Little League, when the league finally created grass infields so they would be able to host an all-star tournament. After all the time and trouble, the Albany all-star team lost in the second round, and had to play the rest of the tournament in the losers’ bracket. They were able to claw their way back to their brand-new field by some amazing base-running by (see blog post ""). And no baseball blather session would be complete without a rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” accompanied by Higginbotham on guitar.

The afternoon gave a powerful sense of the strength of Albany as a community:  not just little league baseball, past and present, but generations of real people bound together by friendship and tradition that goes beyond words, and finds some of its finest expression on the diamonds just west of San Pablo Avenue. It was a great pleasure to take part in it.