From spring to summer, gardens to baseball

By Doug Page | Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 03:45 PM

Sure as the tulips and narcissuses signal the start of spring, so follow the signs of impending summer.

Folks sitting on the patio of JD’s Frozen Custard across the street from Centennial Park in Englewood.

The thousands of bulbs in bloom in Clayton, bulbs given away two years ago by the city to mark its 10th anniversary.

The blooming pear trees along Main Street in Union morphing from white flowers to green leaves.

The turning of soil at the old Little League complex in Old Towne Trotwood. The old ball yard, once a community center, is now a community garden. Someday, perhaps given the hard times, a new center of the community.

The epicenter of youth baseball has migrated north to Englewood.

The spring nights have new lights from the glow of the Englewood Little League complex at Centennial Park.

The fields are verdant. The scoreboards bright. The fence and bleachers ready for the ping of the aluminum bat.

Old Towne springs and summers once were lit by the outfield lights, and the cicadas competed with the crack of the wooden bat.

The location and the equipment have changed over time. The game has not. A blessing that.

Youth baseball is still the home of the volunteers. Long hours are spent keeping the field in shape. The Englewood complex was designated a “Field of Distinction” by the Ohio Sports Turf Managers Association earlier this year.

Long hours are spent selling refreshments, teaching the game, shuttling wannabe Jeters and A-Rods and Griffeys from field to field.

In the midst of it all, fun is reported to be had. And a community is nourished.

Back in Old Towne, the ball yard has lain fallow for a couple of decades.

Neglect and abandonment turned the diamonds into waist-high jungles. Then volunteers returned. The weeds were cut. The soil turned. And families and churches started planting their garden plots.

Last year was the first of the rebirth.

Seeds were planted for a new community. It flourished like the okra and peppers, tomatoes and corn.

This season, like seasons past, the outfield lights will be on in Englewood.

And the evening fireflies will be out amongst the flowers and squash in Trotwood.

So spring has officially arrived, and summer is not far behind.

I expect we’ll be complaining about the heat by next week.

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