Why do once thriving communities die? It's mostly likely due to economic factors. Across the border from northeast Oklahoma in Kansas there was a town in the 1950's that was growing rapidly. It was the home of Mickey Mantle as a youngster. His dad worked in the lead mines and when they dried up the town went belly up.
I've written before about my community, the one in which I was born, and stayed until I was eighteen. It's name then and now is Boone, Iowa. Boone was a railroad town. Blue collar workers abound. White collar workers ran the downtown businesses; the shoe and clothing stores. The pinnacle of success was Dr. Mandersheid's home. It sat back two hundred yards or so from Story Street. All the stately homes were on Story. It's where the 'Big Dogs' lived. I read last year the Manderscheid home sold for $1.2 million.
In 1955 the City started Little League Baseball for kids between 8-12. The first year games were played at McHose Park on the south side of town. The infield was skim and the outfield fence was a snow fence. Even so, it was baseball. In 1956 the City built a real ballpark for Little Leagurers. It was located across the Chicago & Northwestern railroad tracks in a vacant field. The outfield fence was adorned with signs of local businesses. In centerfield there was a sign above all the rest sponsored by the Boone Dairy. If a kid hit a ball over the fence he earned a gallon of ice cream.*
Behind home plate there was built a large building. It housed, among other items. a place for the local radio station to announce the games on KWBG. The celeb announcer was Mo Kelly. Mo is still around today and a very personal friend of mine along with a gazillion other people.
At the inaugural game in 1956 all the teams, six of them, opened the season. The field was dedicated to former Chicago White Sox player Jimmy Archer. By the way, and it's a bit of trivia, Archer was the first major leaguer to throw a runner out from a crouched position.
Baseball in Boone was bigger than big. Shortly thereafter a Babe Ruth League program was begun for boys between 13-15. In 1960 or '61 the local high school initiated its program. Over the course of the years Boone has had a great deal of success in high school baseball. During my senior year we made it to the state quarterfinals. The next year the team won the whole enchilada. Five years later they did the same.
So, why am I writing this piece? Well, it's because not only has Boone dropped its Little League but has also eliminated Babe Ruth baseball. Some will say the COVID had a great deal to do with it. Others will tell us there is a problem with getting managers. Hogwash! I say there has to be a dad who has a kid with marginal talent who would shake heaven and earth to see his kid play. Granted this information is second hand and it's more than possible I'm not receiving the big picture but let's assume for awhile I am.
The local high school has stepped in, though. Their head baseball coach, a young man named Charley Eastlund has made a proposal to the Board and it has been accepted. I have a vested heartfelt interest in this. Charley's dad, Tommy, played Little League ball for me in 1966. The high school will have have teams for the 8th and 9th grade. This is good. My question is, what about the boys from ages 8 to 13 who will spend their time on their ridiculous little iPhones instead of being out in a field enjoying the benefits of a glove, bat and a ball and God's green grass?
*In my last at bat for the Knights of Columbus Giants I hit a home run over the scoreboard off of the great West Boone Dodgers pitcher, Terry Sparks. I never received my ice cream. Maybe it's because I didn't go pick it up.
