A Special Coach

First of all, my apologies. This is probably not the best forum for this kind of post, and the post is a tad long and rambling, but I just felt I had to do this.

The Canadian team going to Williamsport this year (sorry, I am not sure how the LL World Series is organized, so that there may be actually more than one Canadian team) is a team called the "High Park Braves". It is a Toronto, Ontario team (you know, the Canadian team in the AL East).

Of course, none of this is particularly remarkable. High Park is a good team, but there are other good LL teams in Canada. What is remarkable is the influence of one MR. DICK PERRY on the High Park organization. I do not think he actually coached the rep team, but I know he coached house league right to the bitter end.

You see, Mr. Perry had coached LL at High Park for at least 30 years before passing away just as his beloved High Park Braves won the Williamsport berth. I know he has coached at least this long, because he was MY Little League coach back in, as accurately as I can remember it, 1970(ish), and I read in the paper that he continued to coach LL up until his death of cancer.

Now, was he a really great LL coach? From a technical perspective, how would I know? I was a kid, and in those days, as I recall, kids went to LL right out of T-ball. So, did I know whether he knew the art of pitch-count, strategic small ball, or anything else? Of course not. He told me what to do, and I did it.

But I do know he was a great LL coach. Testement to that is the fact that I know his name 30 years later, and had meant to go visit him one day to tell him how great my kid is doing and how much I have continued to love the game of baseball, largely from my days of LL with him! I only regret that it is now too late to do so.

Now, High Park is sort of a ritzier than average neighbourhood nowadays, but back then, it was working class at best, and indeed, probably considered "inner city" by the people in the 'burbs. Not only did Mr. Perry coach us, but he took us (a bunch of inner city kids) to tournaments as well. Unlike today, where parents are booking luxury hotel accomodations for their kids, in the "old days", Mr. Perry and his assistant coach would pile the kids into their cars and take us to the tourneys themselves (i.e. without parents). I remember the whole team slept in one hotel room (which he must have paid for, since I never recalled paying), and hung out at the host team's local public pool (the things we remember from back then!). Furthermore, Mr. Perry would take us places. For instance, I remember seeing my first "crash-up derby" compliments of Mr. Perry -- cheap seats no doubt, but the thrill of a life time for me). All of these little side trips were not necessary for LL, but was everything for many of us whose parents worked hard and did not participate in childhood life in the way we now expect parents to do as of right.

Don't get me wrong, Mr. Perry wasn't just a feel-good nice guy getting the sympathy vote from near-ghetto kids. We also played competitive LL baseball. Everything was competitve back in High Park then, and there simply was no distinction between "recreation" and "competition". We took our baseball seriously and always wanted to win (which no doubt came, at least in part, from Mr. Perry). Case in point, as best as I can remember, in 1971, Mr. Perry's High Park house league team, the Orioles, went 20-0!!! Can you imagine how it felt for me, a rookie, playing on that team?! More importantly, Mr. Perry made it clear to everyone (including the right-fielding, bottom of the order batters like me) that it was a team win and that everyone had a role to play in that stellar performance. I remember that season more than any other year of baseball. I ultimately went on to two further years with Mr. Perry's Orioles and continued with High Park through midget and playing one season of juvenile with another organization before packing it in.

Furthermore, for Mr. Perry, this was not a case of coaching his kid's LL team. As far as I knew, he had no kids of his own (or if he did, they either never played or have long since stopped playing), yet he coached nonetheless. I think he just genuinely loved kids and loved baseball.

This is not, of course, going to be one of those "How a LL coach single handedly kept me from a life of crime and now I am the president of the United States" type of story. Maybe Mr. Perry didn't exactly change my whole life. But, from working class roots, I ultimately graduated from university and became a corporate lawyer on Bay Street (sort of the Canadian equivalent to Wall Street). I cannot, of course, attribute all of this to LL or to Mr. Perry, but he did instill in me a love of the game, which, together with summer jobs (which we all took at early ages back then), kept me busy for many summers to come. Maybe, just maybe, keeping me out of trouble all those years was just the ticket...

Now, as my son is LL age, my passion for baseball has been rekindled (indeed, I am even trying to get back into shape to try my hand at adult hardball!). Of course, there are others who played a pivotal role in my love of the game (Jimmy Wynek, also at High Park, comes to mind), but they are all still around and I will have time to thank them in my own way. Alas, Mr. Dick Perry is not.

Thank you for everything Mr. Perry, and for those of you in Williamsport who get to see the High Park Braves from Toronto, Canada, please give a prayer for Mr. Dick Perry and be grateful for all of the other LL coaches throughout the world like Mr. Perry.

Regards.

Jeffrey Lem from Canada.