Anyone who has read my bio on this site is familiar with my background in Dixie Youth baseball. I originally started in the Little League program, and then moved to Dixie at age 14. While participating in Dixie Youth, I played in three district tournaments, one state tournament, and one World Series.

The Dixie Youth World Series, while somewhat of a misnomer (there are only eleven states involved), is a highly underrated baseball experience. Players converge on an allegedly centrally-located city (usually one very inconvenient for those of us in the Mid-Atlantic portion of the Dixie coverage area), where they are greeted with meal money, host families that cater to their every whim, and opening ceremonies that are truly entertaining — if not a bit long and ill-planned. When I went as a player in 1992, we had the tournament at Paterson Field in Montgomery, Alabama, and the opening ceremonies were held at the Montgomery Zoo. As a coach in 1999, we had opening ceremonies at the Parks at Texas Star in Euless, Texas, where the tournament was also held. Jim Sundberg was the guest speaker, all the players got introduced in rock-star fashion with spotlights and dry ice, there were fireworks afterwards, the whole deal.

My father still coaches in Dixie Youth, and since going in 1992, he has always wanted to attend another World Series. I managed to convince him to come down and visit during the week of this year's tournament. With the 2002 World Series for the 15-16 age group being a mere 115 miles away in Guntersville, Alabama, I decided to suggest to my father that we attend some of it. He agreed, and off we went. Two baseball junkies in a Ford Escort on a 100-degree day...it gets no better.

Guntersville is a neat little lake town located between Gadsden and Huntsville on US 431, and both ballparks in town present a wonderful baseball atmosphere. The Dixie Youth ballpark presents a very interesting landscape — short fences and humid air. There is a large body of water behind the left field fence (it is either Lake Guntersville or the Tennessee River — I have not been able to tell which), and bermuda grass that plays just like turf on the field. The high school field at Guntersville High School plays slightly different. This is a considerably larger park that is down in a ravine, so the ball carries slightly better. I decided I would see one game at each park on a "comparison" basis. OK, so maybe there was no "comparison" to it, as I've been to both parks before.

The first game I saw was at the Dixie Youth facility (Ogletree Park, I believe), and it featured South Boston, VA vs. Valdosta, GA. Georgia usually sends a powerful team to the World Series, as I have been on the losing end of games with Columbia County, GA's franchises as both a player and coach. Virginia, by contrast, usually does not send a very dominant team to these tournaments, as their southern brethren are able to play many more games and log much more time on the field than our teams back home do. This game, though rather sloppy (bad outfield play and baserunning) saw Virginia defeat Georgia 4-2. That victory would be the only one Virginia would see in this tournament. Georgia was eliminated in their next game by Mobile County, AL.

We then trekked across town to the high school facility to watch Goodlettsville, TN take on Nacogdoches, TX. These two programs had good years, as they placed multiple representatives in different age brackets throughout Dixie Youth. We went into this game expecting a solid game, and were not disappointed. The pitcher for Tennessee had a no-hitter through 6, and Tennessee wound up winning an extremely well-played game by a 3-2 score. Tennessee finished the tournament as the runner-up to eventual champion Laurel-Jones Co., MS. Texas finished fourth, being eliminated at the hands of the same Tennessee team.

It really was good to get back to my "roots", as they were. Four dollars for admission to the park, one dollar bottled sodas, and sno-cones...complete tones of home. I saw the real *game* again — kids giving it everything they had on every play, emotion hanging on every pitch, and the rise and fall of the fortunes of many in clutch situations. I felt a little better about myself and about the sport after I left the ballpark.

If summer ever finds you here in the southeast, find some Dixie Youth baseball being played. See what the game was once — and still is — about. My father and I sure are glad we got the chance.

File last modified May 15, 2011