Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991 TAG: 9104130085
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BETH MACY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Dust blows from the infield. The smell of a freshly mowed outfield is in the air.
And in front of the dugout at the Mt. Pleasant Park baseball field, coach Roger Likens is giving his first-of-the-season bunting demonstration. His knees are bent, his bat held at eye-level, and he's talking about the importance of tapping a good squeeze bunt down the base line.
"I want to see our little players be aggravating with this," he says to the fastest runners of the squad, explaining that a properly executed bunt can be a sacrifice at worst, a base-hit RBI at best.
Meaning, there's nothing sissy about it.
His little players - base-stealers like Brent Cochran and Josh Thompson - nod and spit, digging their rubber cleats around in the dirt.
Aggravating? No problem. The Mt. Pleasant Giants aim to please.
Spring is here, which means Little League diamonds across the country are blossoming anew, an American ritual returning to the mound for its 52nd season in a row.
The Giants have had five practices so far this month in preparation for their first game April 23. Most of the boys have spent the past four summers playing tee-ball and pee-wee baseball, moving up to what's called the major-league division of Little League this year.
A relatively young team, the Giants are largely comprised of 11-year-old boys competing in a league dominated by 12-year-olds. Which doesn't sound like a big deal, until you witness the way a summer's growth spurt can cause serious size differences among players.
All but three of the team's 13 sluggers hail from the fifth-grade class at Mt. Pleasant Elementary, the same rural school their 38-year-old coach went to. Most of the players aren't strangers to Likens, either, having been coached by him before, either in recreational basketball or baseball.
Roger Likens is to sandlot baseball what Little League is to the national culture - solidly dependable, and you wouldn't want it any other way.
He's coached the past five years, moving through the ranks alongside his son, Justin, whom he's drilled on and off the field since the youngster was old enough to play catch in the yard.
This year the Mt. Pleasant Recreation Club talked him into coordinating the league, too, so he's doling out uniforms to the 100 players in the conference, scheduling games and finding umpires.
As Likens puts it, "There must be a sign on my back that says `dummy.' . . . You can get outta marriage easier than you can get outta this," he says of volunteer coaching.
Not that he'd want to get out of either. Likens seems to know kids as well as he knows the merits of a back-handed scoop and a line drive up the middle.
He knows, for instance, that when the first practice of the season turns out to be a windy, blustery Monday, you don't mess with fly balls and grounders. You do what kids like best - you let them swing the bat.
And he knows that it's best to break bad habits early on in the year: No one-handed catches allowed. No fielding grounders from the side. And - for the sake of Likens' graying hairs - call the ball so you don't run into each other, OK?
Over the course of those first practices, Likens etches a few other rules in the dirt: Always hustle. Don't whine when you don't get to play the position you want - especially first base, a mysteriously trendy spot. And never ever get down on another player on your team.
Particularly if that player is your pitcher, a lanky fast-baller named Paul Michaels, who had the misfortune of walking a few too many in a row during a practice last week.
"Let's get this out of the way right now," Likens scolds the team. " Do not give your pitcher a hard time. Throwing a baseball for strikes is the second-hardest thing in sports, and if I hear any of this knocking the pitcher again, I'll yank you from the game then and there. We're a team."
Likens never does reveal what the first-hardest thing in sports is, but with a schedule of 15 games to come, it's bound to come up.
And how is the season shaping up for the Giants?
After that first cold-weather workout, pretty rough.
After the second, well, grounders were still passing through legs. That, and hitting some of the boys in, shall we say, embarrassing places.
But a few practices later, the outlook seems hopeful. Sure, a few of the guys are still getting bonked in the knees by bad-hop grounders, but it seems like it's hurting less. Or at least they act like it.
Asked to give a season forecast, coach Likens looks thoughtful. "I've been at this a while, and I know that winning isn't everything.
"But I have coached both winning and losing teams, and I can tell you this: The boys have a whole lot more fun when they're winning."
First face-off: Mt. Pleasant Giants vs. the Vinton Dodgers.
Likens hopes his boys will be aggravating to the last out.
Memo: CORRECTION