My first full season as a high school baseball coach has finally come to an end.  For the grand finale, we were able to hook the C-teamers up with a dream come true…playing at Ricketts Park.  They got the whole deal, including pre-game batting practice on the field.  Watching the grins roll across those 8th and 9th graders faces reminded me just how special Ricketts is.  I couldn’t help but smile too, seeing as how this was my first time coaching on Ricketts as a Scorpion.  It is that unforgettable feeling, that you can only get when you play baseball on Ricketts, which is acting as the inspiration for this piece.
Growing up in Farmington, New Mexico has allowed me to enjoy one of the greatest treasures that baseball has to offer, Ricketts Park.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Farmington, or Ricketts, let me tell you about this ball field.  It is a spectacular yard.  Its dimensions are 330’ down the lines, 370’ to the gaps, and 400’ to dead center.  The wall is approximately 20’ tall, give or take a few feet.  The outfield walls are covered with two rows of signs advertising for local businesses.  Surrounding this field is a stadium setting, similar to a spring training or minor league yard.  The seats extend from behind home plate, down the lines, but not all the way out to the fence.  Seating is arranged in two tiers.  The lower tier has actual stadium seating, while the upper tier is comprised of bleacher seats.  The stadium holds over 6,100 people at full capacity.  If you would like to see larger pictures of this high-desert oasis, please click on each individual photo:

Ricketts Park holds a special place in a local baseball player’s heart.  As a young child, it is where you can go with your family to watch big kid baseball.  As you age, and enter high school, it becomes your goal to make the varsity squad and play and practice on the field daily.  At age 16, you have your first chance to play in the Connie Mack summer league whose games are played on Ricketts.  And if you win that summer league, you are invited to partake in one of the greatest amateur baseball tournaments this world has to offer…The Connie Mack World Series.  Teams from all corners of the nation come together in Farmington, for one week, and play on Ricketts in front of a packed house until a champion is decided.  It is one of the greatest weeks of the year for me, as well my fellow blogger, Dee.  See, Ricketts means something special to baseball players in Farmington, New Mexico.  Every age group sees something special about the place.  It is a diamond in the rough.  It is THE landmark of the entire city.  Ricketts Park is baseball.

This is simply an introduction.  It is the first in a series of pieces on Ricketts Park, and what it means to a kid who grew up playing baseball in little, old, podunk Farmington, New Mexico.  I feel truly blessed to have this baseball field in my hometown.  Hopefully, piece-by-piece, I will allow you to experience the joys of baseball at Ricketts vicariously.  Hopefully.  One.

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Late one evening, my assistant coach-for both my high school C-Team and my summer league Connie Mack team-his girlfriend, my girlfriend and I were entertaining ourselves with some rather deep conversation about teaching techniques.  By around 12:15 a.m. an epiphany had found its way through to my brain.  We all began discussing different success stories of education, via public high school, baseball coaching, or as a full-time educator in a youth detention center-better known as juvie.  I am a first-time, 9th grade English teacher, 3rd year baseball coach (first time high school), that coaches the Farmington High School C-team in the baseball program.  Jeff Rogers, the aforementioned assistant (the coaching variety, not upper echelon society) is a rookie in the coaching department and has a ton of new insight due to virgin eyes, so to speak.  My girlfriend, Jenna, is an educator inside the Farmington Youth Detention Center and has insight into teaching from a point of view that deals with some of the most unfortunate minds that America has to offer.  To be short, we are a group of educators that cover the gamut of educational opportunities.  During this conversation I found that every story had a common denominator; they all dealt in small group scenarios, where the learners felt that they were learning something that was uniquely new to their group and not to any other group of the population.  They felt that they were the new holders of knowledge.  Specialized learning is common place, even to the first year teacher.  How does that carry over to baseball?

By creating an environment that feels specialized (read as personal) the learning experience holds deeper within the young mind.  Thus, the educator must create small group areas in order to promote proper learning.  I have personally seen the production of teaching multiple techniques/practices, to particular groups of 3-4 players/practice and have found the turnouts to be just short of extraordinary.  For instance, with my six 8th graders ,I have two who are above the rest.  I am able to group them with a couple of the lowest freshmen, and teach one principle for a round of BP.  For another group of my most superior players, I am able to teach a much more sophisticated approach to what hitting is and means.  There are about 2 more distinct groups of players, such as speed guys and pitchers, that I end up being able to talk about my true passion in 4 different ways each and every practice; five ways if you count the average kids in the middle, right on track.  This is simply amazing.

I now have, maybe, the truest experience of baseball one could imagine.  I am able to focus the majority of my skills and prior practiced/played experiences on my one true passion in life (except for my previously mention girlfriend Jenna.  She’ll never be #2); baseball.  The pleasure brought forth, through realization of this, has made my most recent 45 minutes post-enlightenment, pure bliss.  I feel like I am living a dream, fuck the cliché.  It is this joyous, slightly extravagant, excitement that makes me thank baseball for my life.  It has lead me down a road that I am forever thankful for finding.  Baseball has taken all over the place.  New Mexico. Arizona.  California.  Colorado.  Wyoming.  New York.  Omaha, Nebraska.  Texas.  Missouri.  Simply put, it’s provided me with the chance to experience an eclectic environment and way of life (especially baseball life) that is unique.

It is unique in the same way that the teaching is unique.  From the immaculate artist, locked away, to the 8th grader who has never had proper coaching, to the kid who asks to ignore The Odyssey for a day, and find out how to eliminate the national debt.  Sure they are once in a blue moon, both the class discussion with freshmen and truly gifted baseball players, but that is the beauty of it.  It provides multiple opportunities to discuss some personal interests.  A personal investment is the most efficient fuel towards true education.  I feel lucky to have had baseball in my life.  Thank you baseball.  Thank you for leading me to where I have landed.  I am the happiest man I could be.  And all along the way, you have helped me discover a better way of educating.  Two passions for the price of one.  (Hey, I had to bring it all around full circle somehow.)  One.

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