Gutless Punks Vandalize Baseball Field

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  – Parents are worried about their kids safety after vandals robbed and left some alarming trash at a local high school ball field.

Rio Grande High School parents are frustrated according to local sources. One parent with two kids on the team, Jerry Lopez, helps clean-up and repair the baseball field.

“The week before tryouts, that’s when I came out here to start cleaning the field,” Lopez said. A hypodermic needle and a bottle of Fireball whiskey was discovered in an area where the players practice.

“Let’s say a ball rolls and a kid goes and picks up a ball next to the needle. It was uncapped, the needle was exposed,” Lopez stated, worried about the students' safety.

With a fence no longer fully enclosing the batting cages and equipment, thieves and vandals have been attracted to prey on the field. “The first thing that we had stolen was our water jug stolen, $100 water jug. It was brand new,” said Lopez.

The thieves have stolen two water jugs, two trash cans and have destroyed safety netting. “We found the entire batting cages, both sides were down on the ground and all the holes that you see where I patched,” Lopez said.

Although Lopez and his son spent eight hours on a Saturday repairing the net around their batting cages, someone keeps putting holes in it.

“It’s frustrating. It makes me angry that we’re not getting any help,” Lopez said. After reaching out to the administration he still has received no word.

The Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority, or AMAFCA, has a large flood reduction project that meets the field that they have been working on, and the Executive Engineer said Albuquerque Public Schools complied with their request to remove some fencing for the project.

“One of the reasons APS wanted to remove all the fencing is because they wanted to keep it for their use,” Lovato said. However, Lovato said AMAFCA’s work shouldn’t have been affected by the fence that surrounds the baseball team’s field and practice area.

“I’m not sure why that section of fence was removed,” he said. APS said the fence was removed a couple years ago, but as for when or if it will go back up, a spokesperson only said the school will schedule a meeting for Tuesday morning to discuss the future plan there.

Parents said they have been pitching in to help repair the old, damaged equipment in an attempt to avoid using fundraising money that students collected to fund necessary equipment and gear like uniforms.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Baseball Training System

88 Game Winning Streak Coach Dehmer's Program

MLB Coaches Train Kids On India's First Professional BaseballField

Several years ago, two childhood friends Raunaq Sahni and Jackson Golden, began Grand Slam Baseball with expectations of crafting the mainly American passtime in India. They worked together with many private and public schools in Delhi to teach kids baseball.

Previously, baseball enthusiasts only had the American Embassy to enjoy the sport. However, not everyone got access because of the high level of security protocols. With about 600 children in its program, Grand Slam Baseball gave an alternative. But something was still missing.

"When we spoke to Major League Baseball, they told us our kids are getting sufficient practice but they need many more games to take it to the next level," says Sahni.

That's when the idea of the 'Field of Dreams' came up. India's first regulation size baseball field.

The field, nestled in the farms in Pushpanjali near Delhi's IGI airport, was opened last week in the presence of around a dozen coaches from MLB. A two-week camp to train not just 100 kids but Indian coaches as well was held under the guidance of their American counterparts.

"The name of the stadium is borrowed from an American movie in which a man has a dream to open a baseball field in his backyard. He believed if you make it, they will come. That's what we believed too and MLB indeed came. We thought the time is right. The talent is available in India," Sahni adds.

Shane Halley, a former Colorado Rockies player and now Head Coach for MLB in China, is one of the many coaches who trained kids at the camp. He agrees that India's affinity to cricket makes Indian kids naturally better at baseball too.

"What we saw here are a lot of athletes. Cricket and Baseball are similar but also very different. But the hand-to-eye coordination of kids here is much better because of it than other countries."

In the age of glamorous sports leagues, Grand Slam Baseball wants a bottoms-up approach, than the other way round. They want to develop enough talent at the grass roots level first before starting a league.

The field, which has become self sustaining, will now hold practice for the kids under their program and will be leased for corporate events on weekends.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BASEBALL TRAINING PROGRAM

Quarterback Chooses Basesball

COLUMBIA — Brandon McIlwain is at South Carolina on a football scholarship. But this semester, baseball will be his priority.

The sophomore plans to be more of a fixture this spring at Founders Park, a contrast to a year ago when the quarterback and outfielder appeared in just eight games on the diamond as he juggled both baseball and spring football responsibilities in his first semester on campus.

“I feel like these coaches have done a great job of figuring out a schedule for me, and figuring out that I can do both,” McIlwain said Friday on the Gamecocks’ opening day of baseball practice, and in his first comments to reporters since arriving at USC.

“Like what’s going on now, this semester, they’re giving me a great opportunity to play baseball, and do the things I need to do to compete in baseball. So I feel like I’ve had a great opportunity to compete in both, and all the opportunities that coaches have promised me have been there. So I’m happy with both. I’m happy with what I’m doing in both sports.”

A projected high-round baseball draft pick as well as a standout quarterback in high school, McIlwain committed to the Gamecocks with the intention of playing both sports. But his baseball activities last spring were curtailed as he tried to get up to speed on football, emerging as a top contender for USC’s then-vacant starting quarterback position. McIlwain ended up getting just one hit in 10 at-bats.

“Definitely I was hoping to do more, because I’m a competitor. Because of the time I came in, I came in in the middle of January, I hadn’t been doing much here around the (baseball) coaches, and I was also brand new,” he said.

“I was a second-semester (high school) senior coming into college, and it was a difficult transition. There was obviously more that I wanted to do. But I’m happy with how everything went, I’m happy with what I’ve learned through the whole process, and I’m excited for this year.”

Head baseball coach Chad Holbrook said McIlwain excelled in individual workouts, and “he’s hitting the ball out of the park.” The sophomore could contend for time in centerfield, with Alex Destino and T.J. Hopkins of Summerville the leaders to start in left and right, respectively.

“He seems like a kid again,” Holbrook said. “He’s smiling, he’s having fun. I might have thrown too much on him last year at this time with all that was going on and all the expectations that were upon him in both sports. Now he’s focusing on baseball. He’s going to get his football responsibilities in on his time, and he’s going to play baseball. I think that’s relieved him a little bit. There’s not as much stress right now.”

McIlwain said he will study the football playbook and watch film in his free time. Asked if he’d be at Founders Park on Feb. 25, when USC opens spring football practice on the same day the Gamecocks host Wright State in baseball, he answered, “Yes sir. Baseball is my priority right now.”

He added: “Baseball is my priority for this semester, and wherever the football things can figure themselves out, I’m going to be there. I’m definitely going to continue to meet and do things on the football side, but baseball is my priority.”

McIlwain started three games at quarterback this past football season before head coach Will Muschamp switched to true freshman Jake Bentley, who led USC to four victories in its final six regular-season games. But McIlwain said he didn’t consider moving to baseball full-time.