from Mariah Leavitt (her blog)
Mariah with (another Academy girl) Stephanie Corey’s son Nathan last summer.
I’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home to Virginia, but I hate leaving California. A very large part of me wants to stay out here, move out here, to live near my family. But leaving Virginia would be hard as well. I feel really torn. I think the solution will be to come live out here for a few months at some point, find a job, just to see if this is where I need to be.
I think the hardest part of not being in California is not being able to watch Chris and Hannah grow up (younger cousins). While I was here I got to go to Hannah’s gymnastic practice and Chris’ baseball games, I wish I could go every day! Hannah is so talented. I know that when it comes to your own family its hard to see them not being the best, but I truly think that with Hannah’s raw talent and dedication to what she is doing already (she is only 9 years old) she could go very far with it. And if you know me at all, you know my addiction to baseball. Chris seems to really like it. I think it would be fun to work with his teams.
Boy do I miss baseball. I moved to Virginia to try to get further in baseball, to do something to accomplish my dreams. Unfortunately, living expenses got in the way of my dreams. You have to have a job to pay for food; unfortunately that job takes up so much of my time. And now I have been away from baseball for two years. I almost feel like I’m setting myself up for failure, how can I succeed in baseball if I’m not working in baseball.
I love my job; it’s an incredible work environment. You are constantly challenging yourself to do better then you did the day before, and better then everyone else, so the personal growth I have experienced is far more then I could have ever expected. But no one, I MEAN NO ONE, would have pegged me for a girl that worked at a tanning salon.
Sundays (the tanning resort I work for) doesn’t give me the same feeling that baseball does. When I walk into a baseball stadium nothing can bring me down. There is honestly no place I would rather be then at the stadium on game day. There is electricity in the air and intensity in the game that only a few people notice. You can catch a shift in weight out of the corner of your eye, and immediately the possibilities of what is coming start flying through your head. Its one of the hardest things to describe to someone who doesn’t see baseball in the same way you do. Even most of the players and coaches I know don’t have the same passion for the game. I remember reading Alyssa Milano’s book “Safe at Home” – the whole time I was thinking “FINALLY! Someone who understands where I’m coming from!”
Recently I’ve been trying to find a baseball related job. The first question is generally, “well, what do you want to do?” Most people take my response as indecision, but its not – it’s honestly just a pure love for every aspect of the game. “ I want to do anything, as long as it has to do with baseball.” When I worked for Eastern Connecticut State University I did everything. I kept track of the guy’s grades and made sure they were staying out of trouble, I ordered equipment, I ran fundraising, and I put together promotional material. I kept stats – I created a whole new statistical analysis for our team. I kept track of the money. I answered mail. I cleaned coach’s office. I worked with recruiting & I worked with scouts. I did whatever needed doing, which was pretty much everything, and I did it with pretty much no recognition.
Working for Eastern gave me a goal in life. To open up a Baseball specific training facility that not only developed the skills of the athlete, but also developed the skills of the person that was wearing the uniform. I want to help players get from high school ball to college ball and college ball to the minors. There is a lot of raw talent out there that gets over looked because the coach’s priorities are within the game. Of course that’s where you want the coach to be focused, but in order to play the game after your four years, whether it be high school or college, you need an advocate that knows how to market your brand. And that’s what I can do.
I think every college program should have an agent of sorts. Let the coach focus on the skills, that’s their job. Let someone like me market your players; get their name out there. Don’t wait for the scout to find you, find the scout. I want to create a baseball network. The Majors already have one, but what about college, and what about high school. I can be a hub of baseball player information. The coach from, lets say, Dartmouth calls me and says, “I need a second baseman that is strong in fundamentals.” By knowing my players and knowing their capabilities and goals, I not only can find a good fit for the team but a player that will be academically sound. If we create an environment for success on and off the field, we can create power players that can be noticed. There is talent on every team, even the losing ones. Even superstar pitchers can be on a team that loses every game. Scouts are busy, if the team isn’t winning, they aren’t likely to come and watch.
Then you encounter money. To raise a child to be a good player and be noticed costs a lot of money. It is very uncommon that a kid can go through high school only playing high school ball and still make it to the college stage. Most of your successful players have had separate coaches outside of school, travel teams, hitting practice, camps, and showcases. How does a lower class family get their child noticed? That’s where the businesses come in. SPONSERSHIP. Adopt-a-player branding, if you as a company make it possible for this player to utilize this program, I will advertise for you, be a part of something bigger. Use it to benefit your company. And with the economy in such a rut this is really the time to make this plan work.
I haven’t found a place yet that facilitates the long-term baseball and personal success in our athletes. (After rereading this I’m starting to feel like Jerry McGuire putting out his memo.) We need to start caring about our athletes and using that to cultivate the best. The baseball industry needs some steroid free quality. Teach them how to train, teach them quality, teach them to use what they have. The baseball world is ready for some positive growth, but that will start in our backyards not in Yankee Stadium.
Nothing compares to watching a pearl white baseball in flight against the deep blue skies of summer. Or the distinct crack of the bat (wood not aluminum) as a hitter connects with a 90 mile per hour fastball and sends it screaming out to a deep green outfield where a fleet footed centerfielder chases that little white sphere down. Last year, in just one week I attended a Double A game at Dodd Stadium on a Saturday. The following Wednesday and Thursday I attended two Triple AAA games in Louisville KY and watched some talented minor leaguers, some on their way to the “Big Show”, and others with careers on hold. My baseball dream week ended on Sunday with a Red Sox vs Orioles slugfest at Camden Yards…Red Sox scored 18 runs and Baltimore had 10 of their own! It was the biggest offensive display of the season for the Sox! Truly a week in baseball heaven. Mariah, follow your baseball dreams! And for today I am “Umpire 77″ and not teachref09!
I was lucky enough to be in Pittsburgh in grad school during the days of Roberto Clemente and Willy Stargell. I definitely remember the crack of the bat when Roberto would hit his line drives and Stargell would hit his homeruns some of which went over the roof of the third deck in right field at Forbes Field. I think Clemente was the best player I ever saw. He would throw hitters out at first base from right field. Mariah and I also enjoyed Will Clark and Matt Williams at Candlestick Park playing for the SF Giants in the early 90s. And I can still recite the Yankees starters in the early 1950s.
Yogi Berra (8), catcher; Bill Skowron, first base; Gil MacDougald (12), second base; Phil Rizzuto (8) my favorite, short stop; Andy Carey (6), third base; Gene Woodling or Irv Noren (14 and 25), left field; Mickey Mantle (7), center field; Hank Bauer (9), right field; and Ally Reynolds, Whitey Ford, Eddie Lopat, and Vick Raschi pitching.
Rizzuto won a world series game on a bunt squeeze play scoring Joe Dimaggio (I did not see this myself). But someone said this was the greatest play he had ever seen.
I enjoyed the Eastern games also the year that Mariah took them to the DIII World Series.
Several years back, I met a very nice man whom I was told used to pitch for the Boston Red Sox at one time. His name was Ray Jarvis, but I can’t be sure I’m spelling his last name correctly. I also don’t know a thing about his baseball career. I’m a baseball dummy, but an outstanding Nascar fan!
I was a Washington Senators fan in the early 60s and went to many games in the summer of ‘61. I have a foul ball hit by Mantle. I have fond memories of players like Brooks Robinson, Jerry Adair, and Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles, and Al Kaline of the Detroit Tigers. In ‘61 for the Yankees Bobby Richardson was at 2nd base, Kubek was at short, Clete Boyer at 3rd, and Maris in right. Berra was sharing catching duties with Elston Howard. Gene Woodling had actually gone to the Senators, which was an expansion team after the old Senators left for Minnesota. These were great games to watch in Washington’s old Griffith Stadium, which was along the lines of Fenway Park. I did see Clemente once when the Pirates played an exhibition game with the Senators. What memories!
Maris played for the St. Louis Cardinals in the late 60s. I sat behind him in right field at Forbes Field. The previous time I saw the St. Louis team was in 1952 (my first game) when they were the Browns. This was in Yankee stadium. The Browns brought in Satchel Paige with his windmill windup to pitch to Berra in the last of the ninth. Yogi hit a bases loaded homerun to win the game.