CityView Magazine

14 | April 2016 Spring only officially arrives in Eastover when traffic stops on NC 301 Business for about 20 minutes on a Saturday morning, during which time all the community sandlot baseball teams parade ¾ of a mile on homemade floats from Armstrong Elementary to Ballpark Road. McFadyen's Musings BY BILL MCFADYEN The First Day of Spring F or 10 years, I towed or rode one of those floats. I started at the front of the procession with the tee-ballers and the coach-pitch teams. By the time my coach- ing career was over, I was at the back with smelly post-pubescent teenage boys who re- ally wanted to ride the floats like children but who realized that cute was no longer cool, so they acted bored and miserable. When I grew up, Little League baseball was awash with big-moneyed corporate sponsorship. It was most likely the prede- cessor to Major League money-ball, which led to the steroid era, and therefore the poisoning of every statistic ever formally held by Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. Ask any native Fayetteville boy now in his 50's that grew up proximal to Fayetteville Tech to name those giant corporate sponsors. I guarantee he will be able to name at least a couple: M&O Chevrolet, Hutson Typewrit- er, Markham Drugs, Player Construction, NCNB, Pepsi Bottling. When Eastover parents entrusted their beloved boys' baseball education to me, they certainly had no clue as to my credentials. I am the only coach that I know of who was cut from his Little League team. Markham Drugs coach Al Kulig draed me. Coach's son Steve became a swell pal. I only remem- ber garnering one base hit that year. It was a banana slice to right field that somehow got into the corner, probably because Little League right fielders then and now are oen not the most adroit athletes on the team. I played right field. Steve was a year older than me and so he and Coach Kulig graduated to Pony League. I was averse to my new coach, and he was none too happy about my constantly being un- happy that he was not Al Kulig. So he cut me. Jim Maxon was the man in charge of Honeycutt Park. He called our house want- ing to know why I was not playing baseball for Markham Drugs anymore. He placed me on M&O Chevrolet with my friend Wil- lie Smith. e team party aer the season was at Willie's farm. He showed all us boys the calf that he was raising for 4-H Club. He told me how sorry he would be when the calf grew big enough to sell because it meant the cow would end up in the grocery store. I only remember getting one hit that second season. e bases were loaded and I screamed a worm-burner toward the sec- ond baseman. ankfully, scorebooks in those days were discarded aer the season, so no one can prove if it was really an error, and not the base hit I call it today. Nonethe- less, when the umpire called "Time!" I was standing at second base and we had three more runs. I peeked into the opposing dug- out and saw their first-year coach of my old team looking out at me, possibly wondering where he had seen me before. When I became the coach, my Jamie- boy was admittedly always my favorite kid on the team. e difference in us was that Jamie was really athletic early on. Like most dads, I figured him a shoe-in for Yankee pinstripes. at will not be the case. Still, he was way better than I ever was. Every team in every league has three or four boys like him who stand out. None of those boys ever have to play right field. I re- member very clearly being the right fielder. I remember vividly my two base hits because their rarity makes them memorable. When coaching, I always figured that the other team's first four were about like mine. I adopted a plan of pretty much letting their dads keep right on coaching them the way they always had. I decided to coach the ones that most reminded me of me. I figured that if we could get our bottom six on base more than the other team could, if I could get my right fielder to somehow stop, drop and roll 1239 Fort Bragg Road Fayetteville, NC 28305 (across from Hilltop House) Custom Monogramming • Custom Appliqués • Women's Apparel • Children's Apparel • • Custom Monogramming • Custom Appliqués • Women's Apparel • Children's Apparel • Custom Monogramming • Accessories • Monogramming and Custom Designed Appliqués By Kellie 910.423.2623 www.rsballroom.com Ballroom ESTABLISHED 1962 Roland's Studios Get in shape mentally & physically We are your dance family! American & International Ballroom Wedding Shag Salsa Argentine Tango

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