From Al’s Fastball
Mon, 14 Nov 2005

“Choice, not chance, determines one’s destiny…..”
–unknown

I’m looking forward to joining forces with classy Kyle Beane (and one of the Major game’s top sluggers) & The Midland Men in Orlando at Disney in January of 2006. Alex Linares & Ken Hackmeister truly put on one of the finest men’s open fastball tourneys known to the sport. Disney, known for its kooky fantastical characters, clears the decks for some hard-core spikes-up reality action when the men’s fastball teams come to town from all over the hemisphere.

Quality always speaks for itself, doesn’t it? Witness the fact that Disney has become the second-largest men’s open fastball tourney in the world. Some of the finest umpires in the game, such as Brian Sharples all the way down from Canada, make it a point to journey to Orlando, often at their own expense, in order to “see the good stuff” and fine-tune their game before the Major circuit commences. The reality, the truth.

“En su equipo de beisbol es la verdad.”
— roughly translated, from the Spanish: within your baseball team you will find the truth.

One of my finest memories is of our initial foray into the Dominican Republic. Courtesy of Frankie Perez, one of the classiest ballplayers ever, FedLock had the opportunity to compete against the Dominican National Team. Frankie took care of us, and I will always remember his actions as one of the true statesmen of the game. My original report may still be on
the superb fastpitch site, www.fastpitchwest.com.

Ball teams from around North America and the Carribbean and Latin America
and South America will present a spicy international flavor to the AAU
gig. It’s always a classic match-up to see a steely-eyed, grimly quiet Canada-based team square off against one of the chatty, boisterous South American teams with their raucous, drum-beating South American fans. The game is always intense & beautiful. The opponents have completely
different styles of play that make for a fascinating war of cultures, a strong-arm contest of the minds, the game within the game, and yet each is playing the game as they know how, with all that they have. “Leave everything that you’ve got on the field” rings crystal clear.

Several FedLock vets, and previous Orlando champions with FedLock, will be joining up with our “conglomerate” in Orlando. Paul Walford and Kenny Coles are making the trek, specifically to be with the fellas again. Walford and Coles, two of the most passionate ballplayers ever to
lace ’em up & run rampant in a ballyard. And I’m fortunate indeed to see ’em staring hard at me from the batter’s box, waiting for a sign, then stepping in and swingin’ some serious metal.

In a tourney now in the past, FedLock won the Orlando event with a similar motley crew of ballplayers. Lineup cards were sent in on the backs of ripped up softball boxes. Caps were $ 3.00 models of tackiness with disco-gold initials emblazoned on the front. Jerseys? Oh, no: tee shirts that didn’t make it through the weekend. And a 55 year old pitcher with 10 stitches in his chin gutted it out to pitch the final game to win it. I recall that team with great fondness, because it exemplified what the game is about. Great FedLock pitching in the form of Gerald Muizelaar, Brian Urquhart, and Ricky Plangger. Wild & effective coaching from Nick McCurry. Great defense. And a mixed motley lineup that went out there & played the game.

“Problems can not be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.”
— Albert Einstein

Ah, the game of fastball. You think you’re playing a game. And one day you look around and you realize the thing is inside you. Sometimes, it’s not only inside you, hell, you realize that it has become you.

It can be unnerving that way. One wonders what has happened, what has changed, has anything changed at all, what matters other than one’s team, the dedication the passion, the fear and the glory. That glory that is so rare. Doesn’t matter that crowds have diminished, doesn’t matter that the game’s caretakers have fumbled the legacy so badly, doesn’t matter that the
media doesn’t even know about these superb ballplayers on several continents. It’s all about your guys, really, the ones who take up the cudgels of the sport, who take the ball, exhausted, again and again. Because it ain’t about all that hype & beer tent yakkety yak. It’s about your mates and that’s it. And very, very few people understand that. Your wife, as much as she claims to know you, may not understand the powerful forces that the team will always be in your life.

Ah, yeah, riding into Fargo, North Dakota on a late summer’s night, a van load full of Americans, Kiwis, Canadians, black guys, white dudes, Christian, Jewish, you name it, something on the sound system that everyone is singing along with, happy to be alive, happy to be together with men who they know they can depend on, going to the Worlds. For many fastball players the ultimate achievement just to take the field at The Show.

A sidelight: For years, two of my guys on FedLock were Kenny Coles (2b) & Chop Brewer (book). Both originally from inner-city Washington, DC. And I had a couple guys from New Zealand on my team, Darren “The Chicken” Davies and Gareth Cook. All four cats, total class guys. And when these guys first encountered each other , they literally could not understand
each other. All of them spoke English, sure, but black American English and Kiwi English were from different zones. But. These guys found their own solutions. Until they could figure out what the other was saying, which took weeks, they just smiled at each other & said “ok, bro!” or “yah, mate!” It was quite an interesting experience to see the American guys explaining the meaning of “bro” and the Kiwis in turn explaining “mate.” Watching a bunch of guys from different cultures, as vastly different as you could possibly imagine, start to work it out with each other in the course of a season, forging bonds that will last lifetimes, knowing in their gut the power of it all…………. but not ever acknowledging what it really means……………. probably not realizing what it all meant until they get older someday………………later, sitting, in the quiet moments……… you may think about that guy you were teammates with long ago, and how powerful that was, how it was the truth, the most valid thing you’d ever encountered in a
lifetime spent struggling to make it, to be who you are, in a world where you never really know who you can count on. Nowadays, you just never really know, do you? Yet, there was a time when you did. In a ballyard. And only you know it, only you know what that truly meant.

Life.

And all of its heartbreaks. And disappointments. And quiet joy.

You always discover a man’s true character on something that provokes extremes. On a ballfield one can always see heart. Or lack thereof. Players who play “through” pain. Ah, what a crock, no one ever plays through pain, it’s breaking the guy down every minute, and yet he wants so badly to keep going, until he has to be dragged from the field. What defines incredible champions when the mind & the heart overwhelm the body’s pain ? Jody Hennigar in St Joe, 2001, inning after inning in 110 degree plus heat until he literally had to be carted off in an ambulance. Gareth Cook, ignoring a severe quadriceps tear to go 11 for 11 in Waterloo with 3 home runs, and play the field without uttering a word of complaint. The list of warrior / ballplayers is endless. “Just tape me up, I ain’t sitting out, get me out there with the fellas.” These are the warriors.

Ah, yes. I’ve always been impressed with the intangibles of the game. We (FedLock) were in Orillia one year when one of our American outfielders just tore up his back. Couldn’t play, could barely walk, in extreme pain. Paul Barnetson, the Orillia Gem, asked a local doctor to look at our
guy. It turns out that the doc was not your average bones. He was advisor to the Canadian Olympic Team. And he not only takes care of our guy, he stops by the hotel to see how our guy is doing. And provides extra treatments for the entire weekend that we are in Orillia. What I’ve come to tell people is typical Canadian hospitality for guests. Stunning for an American observer, I must say.

Another intangible: Matt Birmingham, broadcasting game after game for Porcelli’s teams. Thankless, endless tasks. Putting his words out into the air, not knowing if 10 or 10,000 are listening. Doing it every time, for the love of it and because he believes in what he is doing. The
intangibles of the game. Endless………Endless. One hopes, eh? One hopes for endless memories…

Fastball. Fastpitch. It’s hard to explain, some people say, how the game gets hold of you. But I always say, nah mon……it’s not hard to explain at all. Anyone who has a competitive bone in his body, and passion, and an understanding of this thing called Life……..they get it. They know. Deep down, in the gut, they know. Even as winter sweeps over the North American landscape, they intuitively understand. You step back and you close your eyes and you remember and you know……..you do know……….So there you have it, something that I’ve been mulling over for a long time. Many more thoughts, but perhaps another time, eh, somewhere down the road?
If you’ve read this far, I commend you…….

Regards,

Mike
Always FedLock

Michael Groves
Vice President
Federal Lock & Safe, Inc.
5130 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22205
USA
falcon(at)fedlock.com