Leominster squad adjusts to rules of the pandemic
Leominster baseball team adjusts to pandemic guidelines
At its roots, this summer is no different for the team accustomed to playing American Legion ball in Leominster: it’s baseball.
Throw the ball. Hit the ball. Catch the ball. Seven innings at Pin Cannavino Field.
From there, the similarities end for the team normally known as Post 151.
For starters, there’s no American Legion affiliation this summer, as the program was shut down nationally due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. The most simple of the changes this year is the league and name: Leominster 151 is playing its 2020 campaign in the Worcester County Baseball League.
“Different in name, but it’s the same philosophy,” longtime Leominster manager Jeff Dedeian said Monday night. “It’s the same thought process. We’re just trying to get guys on a field to play baseball. For a lot of these guys, they haven’t done anything involving baseball in a while.”
Perhaps the biggest change for players in the WCBL is the relocation of the home plate umpire to behind the mound, calling balls and strikes from the same vantage point of the pitcher.
With dimming light at times Monday, subtle shifts and framing jobs from catchers led to delayed strike calls. In fact, Leominster’s 3- 0 loss to Shrewsbury ended with the tying run at the plate on a disputed check swing strike three call made from the center of the diamond, as with runners on, both umpires were behind the pitcher’s mound.
“It’s a lot different and it’s a factor at times, like tonight when you have a game end on a check swing,” Dedeian said. “It’s tough to see out there sometimes. But it’s what we’ve been offered to get the kids out there playing and in the long run, that’s all that
matters.”
The season is an abridged version of the normal American Legion one, though most of the teams from Zone 4 are participating. With the vast majority of the league’s players having not faced live pitching or fielded balls in game situations since last year with the cancellation of the spring season, rust has been evident at times.
The lack of a season to showcase skills in the spring has also led to expanded rosters in the WCBL, with Dedeian carrying in the neighborhood of 24 players, an increase of about 33% over a normal American Legion season.
“It’s good and bad because we’re trying to get guys playing time and it’s tough figuring out how to do that,” the skipper admitted. “We’re trying to be fair to all the guys who deserve playing time and want to get looks. We’re working it out.
“These guys have been great so far, sticking together and tak
ing advantage of the time when they get their chances.”
By their nature, players have celebrated big plays early this season in their usual fashion, but have begun to catch themselves in doing so, Dedeian says. Many Leominster 151 players wear neck gaiters, masks that can be pulled down when distance can be kept from others and pulled up when needed.
During Monday’s game, high fives were limited, as were normal baseball activities like spitting.
“Some guys have (neck gaiters) on. We’re trying to stay socially distanced, but by the third innning, you look over and guys are closer together. They catch themselves,” Dedeian said. And when we tell them to do something, they listen.
“We’re just doing whatever it takes to do to be able to have a season.”
Leominster’s season continues Thursday, hosting Grafton Hill, but playing as the road team at 6 p.m.