Cooperstown Dreams Park

Man, that sounds like fun. Is that like sledding in the summer?

 

cooperstown college players

Seth Maness ECU
Michael Knox UNC
Michael Rooney UNCW
Austin Johnson UT football
Dustin Harrington ECU
Patrick Johnson UNC
Michael Caddell USC Sumpter
Logan Isaacs Pitt County
Richard Royal USC
Brett Eibner University of Arkansas
Matt Zeblo not sure where he is playing

There were a few more but that is all I can remember off the top of my head.

 

Best of the Best

No wonder the team did so well. Outstanding players.

 

Matt Zeblo is playing at Belmont

 

Been to Cooperstown twice with both sons. Best youth tourney in America. We experienced some very good and some very bad.

My oldest son went with a very good team. While he had fun, this team went to win and they did. However it was a tough week for my son and I. Let me explain.

We got to town early and fished for a day or so, after stopping at Camden Yard for the Red Sox and O's. We stayed out on one of the lakes. 2 other Dad's and their son's were with us. We wanted to spend some time together as our coach wanted the boys to stay on site at all times. No issue with that.

The first day he got to close out a game, pitching two innings and DHing. He was so excited to pitch there. he was probably the 5th pitcher on the team so to get in the first day was a thrill for him. There was a large gap between games so I went back to the cabin.

Between games the team went to batting practice in one of the 40 batting cages inside the compound. When my son finished his round he begin walking up the sidewalk toward his cabin. he had just left the cage area when he was walking up the sidewalk and heard a coach talking to a kid on another team. He heard the coach say something about getting extension with the bat through the zone. Then the coach preceded to show the kid. My son saw a flash out of the corner of his eye. The coach swung the bat on the sidewalk and hit my son square in the face. His coaches were not around. I was told he staggered and then went down in a heap with blood everywhere.

I got a call from a coach on our team about it and flew back to town. The coach said it wasn't too bad but I was in a panic. Plus my wife was back home. I got there just as the ambulance was taking him to the hospital. When I saw him at the hospital, it hurt. It turned out his nose was broken in 3 places and 8 more bones were broken in his face, including his orbital bone around the eye area. I couldn't believe what he looked like when I saw him. We spent the night in the hospital.

WE never found the coach that hit him. All we knew is that he was with one of 2 teams from Utah. The coach did buy him an autographed ball and drop it off but he still never came forward. I put up signs but Cooperstown took them dow. I wanted to find the guy. My son wasn't mad. he just wanted to know why the coach left him there. A coach from New Jersey found my son and stayed with him. It was starnge going to the site where it happened the next day and seeing my sons blood on the sidewalk.

Believe it or not, things got much better (couldn't get worse). We stayed in the hospital one night. The next day he checked out and was going to stay with me. He sat around the cabin for about an hour and said he wanted to go back and stay with the team. Mom would have probably never allowed this but I let him go. He got up the next morning and I met him at the game and when I got there he was in uniform. I said "what are you doing?" He said, "I'm playing." The doctors did not want him playing at all but they said it was up to us if he wanted to bat. His Right eye was totally closed and his face was purple and his nose was so large it was closed off. And yet, he seemed happy, cheering for his team, and all excited.

His team got up big in the game and the coach asked me if it was OK to let him bat. Being a dumb Dad, I said sure. His Mom is mad to this day. Not to worry Mom's, the other team Mom's were ready to kill me.

The coach and I never really saw eye to eye on much of anything however this day he pulled his own son and let my son hit. I'll always appreciate that. I'd love to tell you he hit a HR but it didn't happen. He hit a fly ball to right that was caught as the kid hit the fence. When that ball was in the air everyone was watching in antiscipation. We all wanted that miracle. However I was still very proud. I was probably more disappointed than my son. He was just thrilled to get in. He batted the rest of the week with only one eye and got to play in the championship game (we did find a helmet with a mask). he had a few hits for the week and actually had a pretty good average. I'll never forget the smile he had on his face when he got his ring before the final game. He was smiling broadly as he ran across that field. He reminded that there was a miracle. It was miracle he wasn't killed and a miracle he even got to play. I'm upset that he didn't get to play more and pitch and he is just thrilled to play a little. I realized he is the one that had things in perspective.

When the week was over Walt told me it was the most fun week he had ever had. I had been upset all week and apologizing to him. He said it was better than any vacation. How he found happiness in that week with what happened I'll never know. We prayed about it trying to understand why this happened. It took years before we would find out.

We returned home to 3 surgeries, massive bills and a lot of legal wrangling with Cooperstown but it all worked out. He's now on the Heat Showcase team with a couple of guys that were there that week from the Greenville Gators.

The story doesn't end there. My younger son got the chance to go to Copperstown 2 years later. We stayed out on the lake, fished, kayaked, swam, had cookouts with the boys, just a great week. But something else happened that made the whole week. My younger son has always been in his older brother's shadow when it comes to baseball. He was always Walt's brother no matter what success he had on his own. In his first game my younger son smoked a pitch with his team down 5-0 and hit the first home run of his life in a game (practice doesn't count). When he returned to the dugout he walked out of the dugout and went and retrieved the ball. While walking back to the dugout he wrote a note on it and came on the field and ran down to right field where the parents sit and gave the ball to his brother. he gave his 1st home run ball to his brother telling him it was his home run ball, just 2 years late.

They remain extremely close to this day. Since then I have realized that while the baseball is important, the men my boys are growing up to be is all I could ever wish for. Everything else will work out. Cooperstown will always be special to our family.

 

WOW

Thankgoodness this story had a good ending. That must have been tough to go through. Glad both your boys got the chance to play in Cooperstown.

 

Cooperstown

I loved Cooperstown.I actually went and worked in 2004.I stayed in the village where the kids stayed.I was there for about 7 weeks.Went to town alot,and of course the hall of fame.Best part of the trip was that i was able to trade pins and have a lot of them.I would love to go back and work.The family was great.

Coach Michael

 

Amazing

Starting in 1999 the annual summer beach trip for my family was replaced with a trip to the Dreams Park. I went when I was 10 and played until my elgibility ran out in 2001. Then my brother played when he was 10 in 2002 and played up until he was 12 in 2004. In 2004 my father was the head coach, I was an assistant coach, and my brother played. I must say we made a pretty good combo as we made it to the final four that year and lost to a team that we defeated earlier in the week. By far one of the greatest trips one will ever take. Each year we made a side trip either before or after our week of play and visited a major city/baseball stadium. I think overall we visited New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philly, Pittsburg, and even stopped by Niagara Falls and continued on up into Canada and saw the Blue Jays play. Needless to say it puts the beach to shame.

 

Vacation anyone

No doubt about!!!

the game, good looking mom's, sun and hot dogs....it don't get any better.

 

Good times...

My son went with his team, the Sanford Buzz, when he was 12. He and a boy from Moore County were the only ones not from the Sanford area. My son and that boy, Carson McClean, are now teammates again at UNC-A! To say this was a team of little "country boys" would be an understatement! They all had so much fun and ended up 6th or 7th that week. The previous posts are so accurate in the experiences both players and families have at Cooperstown.
A side note... A couple of the other families pulled their campers up there to stay in for the week. We thought that would be fun so we rented a camper up there and stayed in the same camp ground... "The Cooperstown Family Fun Tent and Campground and Lollipop Petting Zoo"... I kid you not! That was the name of the place! Our two girls, who were eight and four at the time, had a blast. The place smelled a little funky and we were awoken every morning by peacocks calling. But I wouldn't go back and change a thing.
Another side note... One night we went out to eat at a place that served live Maine lobsters. My oldest daughter has always been our most adventurous child. I talked her in to trying the lobster. Well, they brought the lobster out and placed it in front of her. She just stared at it for a moment... and looked at me and said "Daddy, it's a BUG!" She did try a few bites, but couldn't get past the "bug" thing... I ate very well that night!