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Show Fridoy, Morch 23, 1984 Venial ExpfOSS 9 Once again it's baseball time in the Uintah Basin as basketballs have stopped stop-ped bouncing as far as high school athletes are concerned and now it is time to try hitting, throwing and catching cat-ching the little white ball. The Uintah Ute baseball team dropped drop-ped a doubleheader to Grand Junction Central, Monday and the ball games were the first time on a diamond for the Ute crew this season as the snow and wet grounds had the Utes taking part in batting practice and playing -" mu . ...i n., j r , J P 3 THE BASEBALL is ripped by David Murphy toward a fielder dur- ing Uintah High School baseball practice, Tuesday. The Uintah .'ft .... .. ;. A K r !' -l ' ill V UINTAH UTE head baseball coach into good shape and getting rid of catch indoors. The Utes were able to get a bit of action outdoors in the batting bat-ting cage, but running on the bases and working on infield and outfield defense was out of the question. After the games on Monday the Utes were able to get in a full day of practice prac-tice outdoors Tuesday. They worked on running skills that help to get them in good shape and then it was time to play catch. Coach Vic Anderson had them move farther and farther awav from each other when they had their arms in good shape for long distance throws. The next item was a visit to the batting cage and then the baseball players worked on running, hitting, throwing and catching skills on the diamond. Baseballs getting tossed, hit and caught bring back memories of my baseball days of the past. My dad, Orlando Rachele, was the coach of the Roosevelt Minor League Program, which prepared baseballers for the Little League Program and the number one item was fun. Winning or Vic Anderson puts the baseball a baseball during throwing ex losing wasn't important, just playing the game of baseball and having a good time. Teams would be chosen and it was time to play the game of baseball in-the in-the Roosevelt Minor League. Baseballs were sent into orbit by eager sluggers and dust storms were created because of mad dashes around the bases. , I graduated from the minor league program and competed in the Little League Program. I was a Little Leaguer, but when it was time for minor league I went along with my dad and helped him out. The helping out consisted of playing baseball with the young athletes in the Roosevelt Minor League Program. It was fun and I wasn't a bench warmer in the Roosevelt Minor League Program. I blasted the baseball and got to run around the bases and in general have a real good time in the baseball slugging slug-ging world. The Little League, Pony League and the Roosevelt Minor League programs Utes will host Orem, March 31 ercises is Ute baseball team had one director over all the programs. pro-grams. Little Leaguers weren't supposed sup-posed to play in the minor league program. pro-gram. The Roosevelt Minor League program wasn't a competitive program pro-gram and there weren't any organized organiz-ed teams. I was one to two years older than the Roosevelt Minor Leaguers, but they were pretty much equal to me as far as baseball skills were concerned. concern-ed. The players and the coach didn't mind that I played in the league, but the director of the entire baseball program pro-gram had different ideas. He just didn't want me to play in the league because I was over the age limit. When the boss over the baseball program pro-gram would arrive I would have to pretend that I was just picking up the bats after they had been used and tossed toss-ed away. If I was caught in the act of hitting a baseball I would just remark that I showing the younger baseballers how to hit the ball, but in reality I was just trying to hit the ball myself. Sometimes it got so bad that when in the region opener, member David Murphy, rieht. the head of the baseball program was in the neighborhood I would go hide in my dad's car and when the coast was clear I returned to the wonderful and joyful event of blasting a baseball into in-to the clear blue sky on a hot summer day. I attended baseball practice at Uintah Uin-tah High School Tuesday as the Vernal Ver-nal Express Sports Editor and I heard UHS coach, Vic Anderson say to his fielders, "Use your mitt to block out the sun so that you can see the baseball and catch it." I wish my Little League baseball coach would have taught me how to block out the sun with my glove. That would have been a very useful skill because the sun was always shining in the Little League outfielders' eyes and my position was right field. A ball would be hit in my direction and everyone would shout that a fly ball was approaching. I would wave my mitt in the air and with the sun in my eyes I couldn't see the ball. I would Jay Burr places 1st Jay Burr of Vernal Boxing Club beat Allan Freestone of Bountiful in an action-packed bout, which was full of gloves flying and fans on their feet in the Utah State Gloves Championships held March 16-17 at the Utah State Fairgrounds Coliseum, Salt Lake City. Ci-ty. Vernal Boxing Club 132 pounder Eugene Woody lost to Mark Ally of Salt Lake City. Roddy Garcia, 120 pound novice boxer from the Johnny Cesspooch Club, won his bout against Malcom Lehi of the White Mesa Boxing Box-ing Club. The Vernal Boxing Club went to Orem and competed in an invitational hosted by Dell's Boxing Club. In the open class division 132 pounder Woody was pitted against Rubin Miranda of the Sheriff's Club, Salt Lake City. Woody took control of the first round and won by a TKO. Miranda got two standing eight counts in the first round UTE BASEBALL player, Brian baseball during batting practice School. ROLLER . , I M Long Sessions - Low Rates - Fun!! Monday - 6-9 pm Family Night $6.00 per family Wednesday - 3-6 pm $1 Dollar Admission!! 6:30-9 pm Regular Session Friday - 3-66:30-11 pm Regular Session Saturday -1-66:30-11 pm Regular Session Regular Admission $2.50 - Skate Rental 50 Video Arcade Snack Bar Billards - Foosball SUNBURST l 970 West Main Vernal finally see it when it went over my head and landed on the ground behind me for a base hit. I figured that a pair of sun glasses would solve the problem and so I ordered some sunglasses, which were just like what the pros use. The glasses were the special flip down model that enabled the baseball player to put the colored glasses out of the way without taking them off if the sky started to cloud up a bit. However, the sun glasses suffered an untimely death as I left them on the front seat in my dad's car and I moved to the back seat, decided to return to the front seat, performed per-formed a jump, put my knee into the sun glasses and heard the sad noise of "crack." The sun-in-the-eyes problem was solved as I graduated from the Little League program and Pony League outfielders out-fielders had the sun behind them as the park was loated on the southeast part of the baseball complex. and was unable to answer the hell for the second round. Boyd Dorch, Vernal Boxing Club, 147 pounds, was stopped by Doug Hall of Dell's Club in the first round. Doug Fortine, Vernal Boxing Club, 140 pounds, had a walkover against Greg Melis, Salt Lake City. Cory Hatch, Vernal Boxing Club, 120 pounds, went against Jimmy Wilkinson of Dell's. It was one of the most action-packed bouts of the night . For three rounds the boys exchanged blow for blow and had the fans on their feet. It ended with a split decision going to Wilkinson. Jay Burr, Vernal Boxing Club, 90 pounds, was pitted against John Cowper, Price Elks, in a 12-13 year old division feet. Burr downed Cowper in the first and second rounds and went ahead to win the match. Smuin, takes a swing at the during workouts at Uintah High BASEBALL FUN Joe Garagiola (I.) interviews inter-views former Pittsburgh Pirate Willie Stargell during a lun-filled lun-filled spring training all-star Softball game, airing SATURDAY, SATUR-DAY, MARCH 31 on NBC Sports. CHECK LISTINGS FOR EXACT TIME 1984 Compulog SKATING 789-7220 Mi |