Ronick - I can be Centerfield

Little League slideshow of Ronick from June 21, 2003

I was organizing photos on my hard drives as per usual. Saw these pix from 2003. With Game 1 of the World Series today, I guess baseball was on my mind. Helping Ronick practice were Vince, Tita Lila, Tita Nene, and Papa. Music: CENTERFIELD by John Fogerty.

Watching the MLB playoffs recently, my dad brought up having watched me play softball back in the 90's with Vince and Fidel, and how we were pretty good. I told him, "Dad, we weren't good. We were the Champions of B Division that year in Greater Vallejo Recreation District (GVRD)."

He even remembered I played first base. Great memory Dad. I would've wanted to play centerfield, but I was playing on a torn ACL at the time. I tore my ACL in spring 1991 and didn't get it fixed until 1996. We were in the league likely in '92 or '93.

One big regret I have I never having played Little League Baseball. I remember Carlos Martinez in St. Sebastian trying to recruit to play, but I knew funds were short so I never brought it up to my dad. But living in the shadows of Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs (we lived only an easy 15-minute walk from our apartment in Barr Tower), baseball was everything to me as a kid in Chicago. Baseball was my best sport back then.

When I wasn't watching cartoons, I was watching the Chicago Cubs on WGN. I initially wanted to play shortstop, but quickly got enamored by the centerfield position and centerfielders especially Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays. DiMaggio and Mays are two of the players Fogerty sings about in the song.

If it were baseball season back then in Chicago (meaning there was no rain or snow on the ground), I was playing one-on-one baseball outside with an older kid. My close friends were home playing on their Atari so I had to play whoever was there looking to play a game. As long as we had a wall with a painted batters box, a ball and a bat, "batter up."

Interestingly enough, Fogerty recorded and released CENTERFIELD in my senior year in high school. No wonder I love the song.

Btw, Dodgers fans, sorry about the loss to the Braves.

Maybe next year pic.twitter.com/Uitv8r5gpw
— KNBR (@KNBR) October 24, 2021

CENTERFIELD - LYRICS

Well, I beat the drum and hold the phone
The sun came out today
We're born again, there's new grass on the field
A-roundin' third, I'm headed for home
It's a brown-eyed handsome man
Anyone can understand the way I feel

Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield

Well, I spent some time in the Mudville Nine
Watching it from the bench
You know I took some lumps
When the Mighty Casey struck out
So say, "Hey Willie, tell Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio"
Don't say it ain't so you know the time is now

So put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield

You got a beat up glove, a homemade bat
And a brand new pair of shoes
You know I think it's time to give this game a ride
Just to hit the ball an' touch 'em all a moment in the sun
It's-a gone and you can tell that one goodbye

Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield

Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Look at me, gotta be centerfield
Yeah

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Fogerty John Cameron