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SPORTS
Ceremony opens tournament
Teams parade to Dreamland Pool as the opening ceremony for the Tournament of State Champions for age 9-10 Little League Baseball is held on Friday, July 30, 2010, in Ceredo.
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CEREDO-KENOVA -- A curious Little Leaguer wanted to know because, well, everybody that's played in Major League Baseball was a great power hitter.
Right?
"How many home runs have you hit?," asked the 10-year-old.
"Home runs? Next question," Doug Flynn responded slyly.
If there was ever a better role model for aspiring young ballplayers to look up to, he was standing a step in front of the pitchers mound at Mitch Stadium on Friday.
Flynn, who played 11 seasons in the big leagues, was the guest speaker at the opening ceremonies for the Little League Baseball age 9-10 Tournament of State Champions.
He was a player who earned his paycheck -- and his Gold Glove in 1980 -- with hard work and defense, a pair of basic baseball principles that sometimes get lost in this current highlight-crazy, offense-driven state of the sport.
"That's all you see on ESPN," Flynn said with a smile. "But back in those days, the Buddy Harrelsons and Doug Flynns and Ozzie Smiths -- our job was to control the defense and make the teams strong up the middle."
Flynn's importance to a team is evident by the two World Series rings he earned with the Cincinnati Reds in 1975 and 1976.
But his road-to-success story, one that he tried to stress to the 100 or so 9-and-10-year-olds sitting in front of him, starts earlier than that.
"I was out with some buddies one night and I was the designated driver," Flynn said, starting his tale. "And they said, 'We're going to go try out for the Reds tomorrow. You want to go?' And I said, 'Sure.'
"So we get to the ballpark and I said, 'Anybody got a glove and shoes?' And they said, 'Yeah, we got a glove and a pair of shoes.'
"And they said, 'You go first.' They had no intention of trying out."
So some friends, one night in the early 1970s, took their buddy Flynn, who hadn't played competitively since a stint in junior college, hooked him up with some gear and dropped him off with the Reds.
Flynn made the first cut in Somerset, Ky., the next in Frankfort, Ky., the next in Cincinnati, until finally making and signing with the Reds in his hometown of Lexington, Ky., for the humbling price of $2,500.
Talk about an education in hard work.
"Yeah, they didn't come knocking down my door to come get me to play ball," Flynn said. "But I think the majority of people are like me, who haven't fully matured, might be late bloomers.
"My message is 'Keep playing and you never know what could happen.'"
What happened to Flynn was a career in baseball that is a lesson to all youngsters.
That's why he was happy to welcome the youngsters participating this week at "The Mitch."
"We have to realize how fortunate we are to play a game like baseball because it goes by so fast," he said. "So I want them to be able to enjoy it. ... They say, 'Play ball,' not 'Work ball.'"
MOUNTAIN STATE MOMENT: West Virginia's champion, which hails from Bridgeport, is really feeling the moment this week, the chance to represent the state on such a stage as Mitch Stadium.
Or at least the coach feels it, anyway.
"My kids really don't understand what's going on," said Bridgeport coach Todd Hineman. "Bob Williams, my assistant coach, and I, as we were walking on the field, as they were announcing our name, both of us had tears in our eyes because we understand what it takes to get here.
"These kids, they're undefeated, they've won it all, and they don't understand the situation of what's going on."
West Virginia's first game is against Clarksville, Tenn., at 8 p.m., Saturday.
SOUTH FT. MYERS HERD: South Ft. Myers (Fla.) Little League had to have impressed the locals with their attire when they entered Mitch Stadium.
They were rocking Marshall hats.
"It's a neat place," said Wilson Lorenzo, Florida's coach, of the Huntington area. "There's a lot of people here who have a special spot in our hearts.
"It's a good relationship with you guys and South Ft. Myers."
Lorenzo's boys finished runner-up in least year's Tournament of State Champions, played in Huntington.
