Just Baseball

Tim Botos: Red hair dangling below the edges of his ball cap, Coen Wilson's 10-year-old legs chugged deep into center field. His eyes fixed on a baseball that seemed to carry forever into the mid-morning summer sky at South Park Field No. 5. He twisted, turned and leaped. His Dave Righetti-model glove opened.

The ball plunged, then splat!

Right into the pocket.

Out!

Willie Mays would be proud.

Almost on cue, Pink's "Raise Your Glass" blared from the portable stereo planted on the bench of the first base dugout.

"Play of the day … Facebook that guy!" shouted Kevin Miller, a middle school science teacher and former high school baseball coach. On mornings such as these, though, he's what used to be called an "all-day pitcher." Glaringly absent from the "SportsCenter" moment were applause and cheers from parents.

Just a pair of empty bleachers.