A Field of Dreamers

Leveling the Playing Field

I had never been to the field house before, so my expectations were only to see a few dads on the turf, throwing baseballs back and forth with their sons.

Instead, in the middle of January, in Park City, I saw a facility operating at full capacity with baseball players of every age group imaginable.

There must have been over 80 players and parents on the turf that day, everybody working hard, everybody having fun.

In mid-January.

As we walked onto the field, all 4 drop down batting cages were being used, and a drop down divider split the middle of the turf field in half, allowing players on one side to throw, while the other side was set up as an infield where players were taking fungoes.

In one corner, a man was giving pitching lessons on one of the temporary mounds. The instruction looked serious, but not in a bad way. These kids he was teaching appeared to be really into what the man was saying.

That man, I would later learn was Gorman Heimueller, who at the time was the roving pitching coordinator for the Philadelphia Phillies. During the baseball season, Gorman would travel to all the minor league teams throughout the Phillies organization, and work with the coaches and players to develop players coming up through the Phillies farm system. In the off-season, Gorman taught pitching to players throughout the State.

Also on that same field that day were Mike "The Nomad" Morgan (2001 MLB world-series winner and former-MLB's most-traded player ever) and Steve Garvey – specifically, first-baseman, Steve Garvey of Dodger and Padres fame, and one of the baseball idols of my youth. Gorman's off season home was in the Salt Lake Valley, and the Morgan and Garvey families had recently moved to Park City to raise their young families.

Our friend Matt, who helped manage the facility saw us in the lobby and walked up to us and said hello. Matt was also one of the high school teams' assistant baseball coaches, and all-around good guy.

"Is this your first time here?"

"Yes, it is. I am surprised it's this busy on a Sunday," I said.

"From January until the snow melts, its' always this way – It's the only way we can knock the rust off the arms and get the kids ready for the season.

"Before this, our only options were to go outside on the high school parking lot on a sunny day and use the snowbanks for a backstop, or use the high school gym. Even then, we only had one batting cage, and infield practice used to be done on the girls basketball court. With the fieldhouse, we now have the ability to use two infields, and the 4 cages, and it gives everybody the chance to get ready for the season - regardless of the weather."

"This really is something I did not expect," I said, "and I certainly never expected to see so much interest in Baseball up here."

Matt just smiled. "You haven't seen anything yet, Lee, I promise. It's been real difficult in the past for us to find the kids to play, and be competitive; but this facility levels the playing field for the program, and for the first time, gives us the chance to get the kids prepared for the season, then get out there and compete with other teams throughout the State that don't have to deal with the snow, like we do. Today, we're a competitive program, and with our growing success, more kids like yours are coming out, wanting to be a part of the Program."

Matt noticed a group of players coming off the field and pointed towards them, "There's an opening over there on the field, why don't you take the boys over there and get those arms warmed up?"

We all said goodbye to Matt, and the boys grabbed their gloves and ran to the opening on the turf.

We started to warm up.