Club ball goes high-tech

Okay, you old guys. Remember the days back when...when we played sandlot ball and played until the sun went down. Or, if we had no one to play with, we'd find a tree, get some string, attach a tennis ball to the string and practice our hitting. Or, you guys from back in the eastern part of the country - say in St. Louis or New York City - would play the game of stick ball in the streets of your neighborhood. Boy, have times changed.

I went to the first day of my grandson's club ball tournament at Mike Jacobs Sports Park yesterday. A bunch of 11 and 12 year-old ball players were spread out across four annex fields playing the game of baseball and each one of them looked like a pint-sized major league Alex Rodriquez.

Take my grandson's team for example, they carry or roll in their own bat bags, and have in their possession, or at home, five sets of uniforms. One of the coaches, uses an iPad instead of a score book. With the tip of his finger, the coach can keep score, adjust batting averages...and more. Another coach has a radar gun on hand to record their 65+ fastballs. These kids are throwing from 50 feet to a catcher who will gun you down, more times than not - if you try to steal.

Some of the players I saw perform yesterday were 6-2, maybe 6-3, and could send an inside fastball across Ina Road. As for the parents, it is not like the old days when you pulled up in the 1954 Chevy, sat on the hood and watched your kid beat out a hit to first base. At Mike Jacobs Sports Park, you can go to the two snack bars, grab a Bud Light, go back to your seat and enjoy the game. Guys, we were simply born to early. But, you have to admit, even our old timers' league is improving. We have a pitching machine and a small college in Holland, Michigan is sending us a truck load of one-year old aluminium bats. We have two sets of uniforms and our players at Tucson Udall Park are getting younger. Our 70-year old players are playing like they're in their 50s and the 60-year-old players are playing like a bunch of 40-somethings. If you happen to be a pitcher in our old timers league, you better be ready, you're likely to get a shot or two up the middle.

It isn't like it used to be, or is it?