Monday, August 19, 2002
College players keep skills sharp in summer league
By BRIAN BENNETT
The Louisville Courier-Journal
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A meticulously manicured baseball field sits just off Poplar Level Road, tucked behind the Watterson Expressway and guarded by trees. During summers some of the area's top high school and college players gather twice a night four weeknights and three times on Sunday to match skills.
Welcome to Derby City Field, home of the best baseball you've never seen.
“This is the best-kept secret in Louisville,” said Cyril Allgeier, who helped build the field 28 years ago.
But just about anyone in the area who plays the sport seriously knows all about the field and its summer league. High school standouts, college signees and veterans and even former professional prospects clamor for a spot on one of the eight amateur teams that compete from late May until the end of July.
“It's a real good way to keep your skills up during the summer,” said Jon Mitchell, a 19-year-old Ballard High School graduate who now catches for the University of Illinois.
“There's nowhere else around here for college-age kids,” said Brooks Sketo, a Western Kentucky University sophomore. “There are some Babe Ruth leagues and stuff like that, but the competition is not nearly as good compared to this league.”
Some commute from as far away as Campbellsville three times a week to take part in the league. The rosters mostly feature high school and college players from the Louisville area.
“It's a bunch of local kids who know each other, and that's what makes it fun,” said Brandon Lady, 20, an Eastern High School alumnus who just finished a year of junior-college ball in Kansas. “We go away to school in the fall and come back here in the summer.”
The league operates under the National Amateur Baseball Federation, formed in Louisville in 1914 and now headquartered in Bowie, Md. At the end of the two-month season, the top teams qualify for national championships in the open and college divisions. Derby City Field has played host to the NABF open-division World Series for all but one of the past 28 years, and Star Drywall, home of many of the league's best older players, has won the title four times.
Three years ago Spalding University made Derby City home for its startup baseball team in exchange for overseeing the field's maintenance. Spalding coach Kevin Kocks can be found mowing the grass before the games begin each night.
The league's entry fee is $2,000 per team, much of which sponsors pick up. All the proceeds, including the $1 admission price each night — free for those 14 and under — are used to maintain the field.
“The competition is on the level of college baseball,” said Keith Shartzer, 47, who has coached the league's RiverRats the past three years. “You have guys still in high school or college trying to get ready for next year and older guys who still want to play but aren't ready for softball yet.”
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College players keep skills sharp in summer league
