Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 52

14E THE DETROIT NEWS SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 1991 State of PSL baseball 1 2 Moberts builds interest by being his brother's keeper 1 i- DIANEWEISS The Detroit Newt Travis Roberts, a coach in the Catholic Youth Organization, believes in communicating with his players and teaching them. Teacher: CYO "coach eives his kids jsome lessons in life through baseball. -'By MichaelJames. J4EWS I The; park at the corner of Junc-, tion )d Konkel sits across the street Ifipm Southwest Detroit's St. which seems more a monastery than an elementary school.

To the east is a vacant, decaying tomb of a building. It used to be a Cadillac plant, Travis Roberts says. "They uied to build Fleetwoods there." Railroad tracks border the south side, where sit more dilapidated, scarred structures, reminders of De-tfoit's industrial heyday. In the middle of the ruin, kids play baseball, oblivious to all around them. It's much the same as it was for Roberts when he played there before graduating from St.

Hedwig in 1987. Now back as a coach in the Catholic Youth Organization, he believes it is better that his kids remain this way, until they are better prepared to understand that life is much more complex than the games they play. 5 Elsewhere in the inner city, pf summer Shun baseball youngsters are abandoning organized baseball in favor of more street-oriented activities. One exception is the St. Hedwig program Roberts has run for two years.

"Am I my brother's keeper?" he asks. The answer is an emphatic, "Yes I am." Adopted from the film New Jack City, the line has become his credo as he struggles to keep his little brothers' attention diverted from Detroit's mean streets and focused on baseball. The bare trees sprinkled about the park yield the slightest trace of green, and the cool breeze carries sounds of a rite of spring. "Come on. Hit the ball, man." Giggles.

"Who you think you are? Jose Canseco? I don't think so." More laughter. 'x-'xJ fx coach who had another job and made $40,000 a year," Roberts "He didn't have to be here, but he came anyway." By example, a man with little teaches those with less the. joys of simple things. His fifth through eighth graders, a microcosm of the surrounding community, largely Hispanic and sprinkled(with blacks and whites, are playing the game just because it's fun. "You shudda saw me hit it yesterday," brags 14-year-old Juan Mauri-cio.

"I hit it to the street." Of course, the street is too far away to reach but that does not seem to matter. "Yeah, then he woke up," quips a teammate. Kevin Wood, 12, recently admonished for throwing a helmet, forgets that he just struck out, when asked why he likes baseball. "This is it. It's just fun.

I don't know what it is," he rattles on. "I just like to play baseball and hang out with my friends." And about throwing a helmet after striking out, the youngster ad- mits: "Coach was right. I did some- thing wrong." Something has been learned. Sportsmanship and values. Take care of what you've got because it's all you've got.

All this from a simple game. "I wasn't gonna play but I didn't DIANE WEISS The Detroit New Smith looks on. by," he said. Martin Luther King Coach John Wilson has run one of the PSL's most-successful programs, even though he has had assistants in only three of his 19 years. "I'm by myself now," said Wilson, whose teams won city championships in 1988 and '90 and played in the title game five times during his tenure.

"In the suburbs, they have coaches for varsity, junior high and ninth-grade ball. A lot of times I get kids who've never played ball or played three or four years ago. But with hard work, we've been But the PSL still does have its stars. Cass Tech's Shandel Currie, an outfielder professional scouts consider the league's top prospect, will go just about anywhere to play baseball. "I've been working hard since I was little," said Currie, 18.

"All my friends play baseball and we sit around all the time and talk baseball. We do what teen-agers do." Currie caught the eye of scouts while playing summer league ball with a suburban team, after searching and finding better facilities to hone his skills. And there were other suggestions for rebuilding pride in the game in Detroit. Henry Washington said black kids need to be exposed- to baseball more. PSL baseball players, even the good ones, are rarely re- cruited by major colleges, some said.

"When I was playing Division I and II baseball at Oakland, I could count on two hands the number of black players I saw," said Washington, who had a short stint in the minors with the Tigers' organization. No Detroit baseball team has ever won a state championship, but 20-0 Western advanced to the title game in 1972, where it lost 3-1 to Royal Oak Kimball. The next year, Detroit Henry Ford and Western finished in the top four. The PSL hasn't mounted a serious bid since. .4 ki have much else to do," says Jose Calles, an eighth-grader.

"I have fun. What else would I be doing now, you know? Hanging in the streets with 'j my friends just getting into And there are the Anasco broth- ers, 15-year-old Rommel, who gradu- ated to Alphonsus; 12-year-old Anthony, a sixth-grader who now 1 1 1 plays witn tne team; ana Marx, a fifth grader too young to play with the team but certain to be there next "Mark's going to be a good one," Roberts says as young Anthony pops one over second base with a bat nearly as tall as he. Already, a youngster has some-1 thing to look forward to. now in high school, has decided to; trade baseball for football but he says he will be around to teach his little brothers what he learned here. And the program goes on.

-j "We're planting a seed here," Rob-1 erts says. "We're going to be here for long time." Roberts is 'more than a baseball coach to his kids. Sometimes a friend -j or a Other times a father figure. Is Roberts his brother's keeper? Well, he's certainly not Jose Canse- co. Ex-coach laments decline By Michael James THE DETROIT NEWS Ron Teasley remembers howjj baseball was in Detroit when he was a kid.

He began playing when he was 12 and the game became his life, i whisking him through the minor and Negro leagues and on to a successful coaching career at his alma mater, Northwestern High. During his 20 years at Northwestern, a 1 Ron Teasley teams won ,13 district titles and 10 PSL championships. By the time he retired in 1989, Teasley, now 64, was a bit disheartened that his beloved baseball wasn't the way it used to be. "The diamonds always used to be! filled and there always seemed to be adults available to coach kids," he said, "but it's not that way anymore. Toward the end of my career I wasj having a hard time fielding a team.

Any kid who would come out would! be a member of the team. If he could throw and catch and not hurt him-' self, he was on the team." This is especially sad to Teasley; because baseball here offered him a chance to see parts of the country he might have missed had he not fallen in love with the game on the sandlots of Detroit. i While a student at Northwestern in the early 1940s, he was the first; black captain of the basketball team. After graduation in '45, along with sandlot baseball sensation Sammie Gee, became the first two blacks from the citv to be drafted bv a professional baseball team. The two played a year for the old Brooklyn Dodgers farm team in Ole-an, N.Y., in the New York-Pennsylvania League in 1948, but were cut while doing surprisingly well.

Teas-ley was leading the team in home runs and batting .267 while Gee, who played less regularly, was batting above .300. "I (remember) there was a shortstop who struck out every time we played and they kept him. We couldn't figure that out." Despite his disappointment, his love of the game kept him going. Teasley played semi-pro ball in the Manitoba-Dakota league in Canada for several years and later moved to an independent league with the New York Cubans. After spending 16 months in the Navy, he started an intramural athletic youth program in Detroit's St.

Antoine-East Canfield area. In 1969, he took at Northwestern and won a PSL championship that year. 1 Now, even -in retirement, he yeams to help the kids. "I always felt kids at school should be involved in some extracurricular activity," said Teasley, whose .500 batting average at Wayne State University in 1945 is still a school record. "I think at most private schools, they try to get kids into something." This summer who was inducted into the Afro-American Hall of Fame in 1989, plans to help with a little league-type team sponsored by the Hall.

This is how retirement goes for a man who has given to others all his life. He will what the game taught him. I "Don't you throw my helmets," Roberts barks, his shrill whistle silencing the laughter. "What's the he asks. 1 "Don't throw the equipment," about 18 voices respond in unison.

Rules are what it is all about for' Roberts and his three volunteer assistant coaches, who juggle several jobs to teach others the game they love. They are here two hours a day, five days a week, trying to give a little back. "When I was coming up, people didn't have a lot but they wanted to play," Roberts says. "We've got 20 kids on the roster and we didn't turn any away. We would never do that." "There's only two reasons for not playing here.

Either the kids didn't get the paperwork they needed to play or they aren't getting the paperwork they need in school." A second-year head coach, he's also an assistant for the basketball; team at the school. There's not a lot of money here but he says that's not important, Interest in the game is dwindling and Roberts wants to keep it alive. But this is not just about sports. He teaches discipline. Love.

Responsibility. Family. Everyone deserves a chance and everyone gets a chance. "See, when I was here, I had a 's 1 -1 lot of good declared. Hard economic times and the increasing numbers of one-parent households were also seen as major factors.

Others cited cuts in evening recreation programs in neighborhood schools. These extracurricular programs cost money, something in short supply in the PSL. "Things are just not available like they were when I was coming up," 'Cass Coach Arnold Apple said. "We had companies and organizations that donated the balls and the shirts. We don't have that anymore.

I think we can get the kids back if we pump some money into them." Unlike football, a revenue sport that boasts a budget, baseball does not generate income. In addition, football and basketball have paid assistant coaches; only the head baseball coach is on the Board of Education payroll. The board pays transportation costs and umpires' fees. Each school gets its $525 for equipment a PSL-wide total of $11,550 out of the league's current school-year budget of $1,636,884 $811,000 of which pays coaches salaries. "When I toached at Northwestern, I had to have candy sales, too," said Roy Allen, PSL athletic director.

"Nobody's got enough money. I know the facilities are bad. This problem is enormous but there are a lot of different reasons for it. If we're really talking about a valuable program, then we all have to make some sacrifices." But some coaches believe that the board considers baseball a second-class sport. "It sends a message," Redford's Lipon said.

"It's hard to get the kids to respect the facilities and the school in general if there's no money put in to Bhow it's important." Through fund-raising and money donated to the PSL by former Piston Eave Bing, a Detroit businessman, ipon got a $1,300 pitching machine baseball and a $700 pitching machine for girls softball. "We scrape King Coach John Wilson uses a baseball bat to drive in a spike at second base as assistant coach Dennis PSL baseball, school From page IE A drop-off in parental and community involvement: This, the coaches said, was second only to tjjie burgeoning popularity of football and basketball as a reason kids are moving away from baseball. That support was seen by many as. the game's only hope to, continue to flourish. i Tight money: PSL baseball coaches are allotted $525 a season for equipment, and all said it's not nearly enough that just purchasing baseballs eats up most of it Some are to raise money through candy sales and raffles for other items, such as Uniforms and bats.

Some uniforms are 10 years old. schedules: PSL teams receive Board of Education transportation "money for only 10 games a season, and consequently are not able tb compete on a statewide, or even Metro. Detroit, level. Transportation fdjr additional games must be acquired through fund-raising efforts oi come out of the coaches' pockets. A) a result, PSL teams are often at a disadvantage 'against Catholic LeagOe or suburban schools, many of which play 10 to 20 games more.

Shabby fields: Most of the diamonds are in disarray, with overgrown grass and weeds in the outfield and gravel in the infield Though the task of maintenance is the responsibility of the cash-strapped school bOard, Redford Coach Michael Lipon often, mows his school's grass with hiaown lawn mower. The specialists: Many youths see basketball and football as a way to 'college scholarships and future fame and fortune, and concentrate tljeif year-round efforts on those spcflfts. That few PSL baseball players are offered scholarships by major-cdllege'programs is seen as a contributing factor. Academics: To participate in spoltsf PSL student-athletes must maintain a 2.0 (C average) on a 4.0 scale, higher than the of 1.0. This is true in all PSL spoTts but is felt heavily in baseball, where the number of prospective players is small to begin with.

fl Decline of Little League-type programs: Hundreds of such teams across the city once served as feeders tq area high schools. Now, outside of the Police Athletic League and sever-all summer recreation programs and church-affiliated teams, there are few places for young players to learn tHe fundamentals of the game. The decline in youth baseball isn't limited to the PSL, though it is more pronounced there. "Baseball seems to have been diminishing for as long as 20 years," said Bill Schudlich, Midwestern scouting supervisor for the Detroit kids who have the ability go out to the suburbs, but even out there the programs get weaker every ygat I played in the Detroit city league for years and years and I've scouted the area for 25 years and I've sled it. It's really too bad." Though the PSL coaches pretty much agree on what the problems are, few believe they have a solution, other-than, perhaps, an infusion of Longtime Northwestern Coach Rfm Teasley figures the decline began sometime after 1977, when spring sports were canceled for a year because of a school board budget cg'sis "Wet never had trouble getting kids, to come out until after that," sfidTjeasley, who retired in 1989 Northwestern to 13 district titles and 10 PSL champion- School Coach YHC PTPC Cass Arnold Apple 2 3222 Central Steve Mitchell 1 1713 Chadsey Morris Blackwell 3 1610 Cody Vernon Brown 6 3016 Cooley William Sanford 1 1212 Denby Darryl Weaver 1 3014 Finney RonSyme 14 2814 Henry Ford James Ford 12 814 Kettering Leroy Bougard 13 3515 King John Wilson 19 3819 Mackenzie Bernard Hill 9 3518 Mumford Fritz Schippert 6 4030 Murray-Wright Earl Moore.

3 812 Northern George Jones 10 3016 Northwestern Keith Golden 4 1 31 3 Osborn Nick Thomson 12 2514 Pershing Fred Wade 3' 1812 Redford Michael Lipon 8 3020 Renaissance Charles Turner 1 3222 Southeastern Henry Washington 11 1815 Southwestern Ray Stephens 1 3022 Western Franco Gonzalez 2 1614 Key: YHC Years as PSL head coach; PTPC Number of players who tried out for the teamnumber currently on roster. by school was thriving in 1959, when a sophomore from Northwestern named Willie Horton blasted a homer into Tiger Stadium's upper deck during a PSL championship game against Cass Tech. Horton would become a Tigers star, a hometown fan favorite and a key member of the 1968 World Championship team. During the late 1950s and" early '60s, hundreds of Little League-type teams flourished under the sponsorship of local companies and community organizations. "Pepsi Cola had a team and so Hid Hires Root Beer," said Charles Turner, who took over this season as Renaissance High coach.

"Now, you don't have that." Where did it all go? Kettering's 13iyear Coach Leroy Bougard thinks a lot of it was lost when parents began giving their kids too much leeway. "The Btreet is gobbling up a ships during his 20-year career. "After that, we had to insist that kids start coming to practice." Af the time, Teasley, who was preparing his team to defend its second title in three years, noted that basketball and football were spared. "I guess it's where you put your values," he said. Fast-forwarding to 1991, it appears he was right.

Every PSL coach has taken notice of the decline in students trying out for baseball. Osborn'B Nick Thompson, a 21-year PSL coach, used to have 80 to 85 players turn out. "When I was at Osborn, we would have maybe 100 kids come out," said Thompson, a 1964 grad. "This year, half of them weren't eligible. I got 25 who were eligible and I'm carrying 14.

1 don't like to have kids sitting on the bench." Support for baseball on all levels.