So about that pitch. Former Shocker big man Darius Carter, all 6 feet 7, 245 pounds of him, recently threw an honorary first pitch for League 42, the blossoming baseball program that is bringing America’s pastime to hundreds of enthusiastic youth in the Wichita area.
Decked out in sweats and a white Wichita State T-shirt, Carter certainly looked the part, rubbing the baseball, which seemed to disappear in his massive hands, while eyeing the little catcher behind home plate.
Carter grinned as he unleashed his huge frame and delivered the pitch and ... well, he certainly was a good basketball player for the Shocks.
The toss was, as they say, just a bit outside. And low.
Not that it mattered. The catcher scooped up the ball. Players cheered. League 42 officials smiled.
For all concerned, Carter’s pitch was a perfect strike – belt high, right over the middle.
A bit later, after fellow basketball player Zach Brown threw out a first pitch of his own, Carter explained how rewarding it felt to give back to the community by supporting such a worthy organization. In this regard, he spoke for many in the Wichita State community.
The arrival and growth of League 42 has been one of Wichita’s greatest success stories in recent years, and Shockers have been at the forefront of the league, which is enjoying its second season at McAdams Park in northeast Wichita.
The league’s eye-catching logo, which features a large 42 (Jackie Robinson’s jersey number) overlaid on a baseball diamond, was designed by Wichita State grad and graphic designer Markus Ristich ’07. Shannon Boone ’97 reaches out to the community as media relations director.
Alex Pemberton ’14, a business administration graduate who majored in entrepreneurship and real estate economics, is one of the youngest volunteers. A former high school player at Fort Scott, Kan., he shares his knowledge by coaching the Diamondbacks, a 9-11 aged team. Just the other day, one of his players told him that he might play in the big leagues some day.
Bob Lutz ’84 shared his thoughts as co-host of the popular “Sports Daily” radio show for 13 years, and it’s likely he has written more words in the Wichita Eagle than any other journalist in the newspaper’s history. (Presented with this notion, Lutz is self-depreciating: “But how many of those words made sense?”)
He blogs and Tweets.
So anyone paying even casual attention knows what Lutz enjoys (movies, the St. Louis Cardinals, Don Henley and the Eagles) and what he generally holds in low esteem (the sport of soccer, Doug Gottlieb).
An old-school newspaper man’s newspaper man, his personality can be “caustic, acerbic and sarcastic,” and we feel safe with that description because Lutz used those exact words when he left the radio show in 2013.
“But, listen, I hope I go deeper than what the general public thinks about my personality,” he says.
League 42 has definitely allowed Lutz to show a softer side.
For years, Lutz had been concerned about baseball’s absence from Wichita’s inner city – a situation he says is unsurprising, given the lack of African Americans in professional baseball. After he mentioned the topic on his radio show, a listener offered a challenge through email: You talk about the problem. But when are you going to do something about it?
“I don’t want to be seen as someone who talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk,” Lutz says. “To me, it was a crying shame that so many kids in this community didn’t have the opportunity to play baseball. When I was growing up in Derby, everybody played baseball. Everybody, it’s just what kids did. You ask kids in this area if they play baseball, and 99 percent will say no.”
League 42’s mission is “to introduce baseball to the youth of Wichita who may not have had a chance to experience the game.” The organization’s tagline is “Bringing baseball back to Wichita’s heart.” The league’s popularity has surprised even its most optimistic supporters. After signing up 210 players in the inaugural season, League 42 has grown to more than 400 kids and 29 teams this year. On any given night, you’ll see plenty of pig tails sneaking out of baseball caps as 20 percent of the players are girls.
“It’s just exploded,” said Wichita State grad Todd Johnson ’86, who serves as vice chair of the league.
League 42, a non-profit organization, is open to youth ages 5 to 14 for a more-than-reasonable fee of $30 per family. The league provides all equipment and uniforms, which, Lutz stresses with pride, are brand-new jerseys not hand-me-downs – a fact that isn’t lost onthe players.
“I got a little teared up watching the kids when they got their jerseys, because you just knew it was probably the best thing they had,” says Mel Gregory ’73, a volunteer who shoots pictures for the league.
On a Tuesday night early in the season, Lutz arrived early, as usual, to put out the bases on both fields before taking a seat behind the backstop of a coach-pitch game. Dressed in a grey League 42 sweatshirt and a green
League 42 cap, he watched as 8-year-old boys and girls played catch in the outfield and took practice swings in the on-deck circle.
“This is what happens when you give kids the opportunity to play baseball – they fall in love with the sport,” he says. “League 42 has struck a chord in Wichita, like I knew it would. It’s very gratifying. And we want to be about more than just baseball. We care about academics, too. Every time I talk to one of these kids I try to ask them about their grades, so they know we care about that, too.”
Later in the evening, Lutz shifted from baseball fan into business mode while addressing League 42 board members sitting in the bleachers of the east field. The agenda included the necessary minutia – keeping the fields clean, an upcoming garage sale – but, as expected, the game was more interesting.
A little girl playing first base fielded a grounder, dropped the ball, picked it up and raced to the bag, just beating the runner. The girl grinned and parents cheered and Lutz nodded to the field.
“I don’t know how anyone could come out here and not be captivated,” he told the board. “You’ve got kids, you’ve got baseball, you’ve got a beautiful venue. It’s fun.”
It’s not all touchy, feely at the League 42 diamonds, however. Lutz requires that players dress properly for games, which includes tucking in shirts and wearing the baseball hat the traditional way. “We want to look like baseball players,” Lutz says.
And Lutz is demanding of fans, too.
At one game earlier in the season, a man in the stands yelled “easy out” when an inexperienced batter came to the plate. Lutz immediately addressed the man and later wrote a blog post about it:
“We stand for sportsmanship.”
When Wichita State outfielder Daniel Kihle was little, playing “baseball” consisted of heading to the backyard pond in Goddard, Kan., where he and two older brothers used a stick to hit pine cones. By the time he was 10, Kihle was showing promise and taking the sport seriously, practicing almost year round and playing over 100 games a season on a competitive travel team based out of Westurban, a local youth league.
“It was an insane amount of baseball, but I was in love with the game so it was a lot of fun,” Kihle says.Kihle, a member of the WSU Athletic Director’s Honor Roll, loves to share his passion for the game of baseball, so he was tickled when the Shockers hosted a clinic for League 42 participants. Kihle was in charge of a hitting station.
“Some of the kids were so little they could barely pick up the bat, and they would swing and swing and swing, and when they finally hit the ball it was pure happiness. They were just thrilled, and it was incredible to see their reactions. I don’t think it’s about finding a super star, really. It’s just giving these kids the chance to have fun. I think every kid ought to have the chance to play baseball.”
Shocker coach Todd Butler agrees. Butler has been one of League 42’s greatest advocates, hosting players and coaches during clinics at the team’s indoor practice facility and inviting League 42-ers to games. Having knocked off Oklahoma three days earlier for his team’s fourth straight win, Butler was already in fine spirits as the team bused its way to Springfield, Mo., for a series with Missouri State. Discussion of League 42 seemed to brighten his mood even more.
“It’s been a true joy for our coaches and players to be involved,” he says. “We want to continue to do more and more. We love working with League 42 and having them as a part of our program. It means so much for these young kids to look out on the field and know Bob Arens and Daniel Kihle and Sam Tewes. We want to continue to build those type of relationships.”
Of course, Butler’s primary responsibility is to recruit talented players and win baseball games, and he sees WSU’s connection to League 42 as one day being mutually beneficial.
“I have no doubt,” he says, “that one day you’ll see a kid from League 42 wearing a Shocker uniform.”
