Lakewood Ranch Little Leaguers persevere through pandemic

Some of the saddest moments of my childhood came on rainy days.

It was because I couldn't play baseball.

I loved baseball so much I would put on my scratchy, wool uniform ... stirrups and all ... hours before my Little League team was scheduled to take the diamond in Otisville, N.Y. The field was surrounded on all sides by corn stalks, and the outfield fence held five or six advertising signs. We all dreamed of hitting the Krogslund Motors sign in center because it was rumored we would get $50 if we did.

It was my Yankee Stadium.

So even if it was pouring, I was going to be ready. God wouldn't, couldn't, take away my chance to hit the Krogslund Motors sign.

I would sit with my grandmother in front of our picture window, staring at the little circles each drop of rain would make in the puddles.

"It looks like it is clearing up," she would say as the proverbial buckets of rain were turning everything into a muddy goo pit. She knew how much it meant to me.

Gosh I loved baseball.

So when I went out to the Lakewood Ranch Little League fields Nov. 20, I saw a couple of hundred kids who probably love baseball every bit as much as I do, or at least did. They were playing the final games of their fall season, one that began in October in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fall season? Wow! These kids are lucky. We had a window of about three months each year to play baseball, and that was it. Here in Florida, they play two seasons.

At least in a normal year they play two seasons. When we look back, 2020 is not going to be a normal year.

While I had to worry about rain in my day, these kids are going to tell their grandchildren about the pandemic of 2020. It wiped out their all-star tournaments and the end of their spring season.

Little League Baseball came to a halt in East County Feb. 27. Douglas Kovatch, the president of the Lakewood Ranch Little League, knows how tough that is.

"We lost the all-star season," he said. "It is what every Little League player looks forward to. They can never have that back."

Fortunately, by September, the league was going to play with restrictions. Only two fields of the complex would be used and only parent per child (no brothers or sisters either) could attend games. Parents could not attend practice. Things eventually went back to normal Oct. 15.

Kovatch looked around him as the action was set to begin Nov. 20. The players were on the fields or warming up. Parents were out in full force and their non-playing children were using the space between the fields as one big playground.

Two kids buzzed past Kovatch, who took a quick step backward to get out of the way. He was wearing a big smile.

He missed dodging kids as he goes about his business running the league. It's natural.

COVID-19 is not natural and Kovatch knows it. He knew Lakewood Ranch Little League had to present a safe environment if a fall season was going to be played. 

"We had one team on quarantine for two weeks," he said. "That was it for the season. Before we went back to normal on Oct. 15, I was the jerk who had to tell parents they couldn't watch their kids."

Denise West's 12-year-old son, Kayden West, plays in the Intermediate League. She held her breath a bit during the fall season.

"I am so happy the kids are back in sports," she said. "The kids need to be out here."

Was she worried?

"For the most part, people practiced social distancing," she said. "I was cautiously optimistic."

Most parents felt the same way. Last year the fall league had 325 players. This year it had just over 300.

The fall season now is a wrap and Kovatch already is looking forward to the next season opener Feb. 27. He knows COVID-19 is spiking in many places around the country but like West, he is cautiously optimistic that baseball will be back.

Until then, we'll all be staring out our picture window, hoping the storm blows over.