The Boys of Summer
Little League World Series
Williamsport, PA
Every year since 1947, dozens of boys between the ages of 9 and 12 descend upon Williamsport, PA for the Little League World Series. Although national television coverage by ABC and ESPN has led to commercialization of the event, the kids who play Little League still remain true to the cornerstones of Character, Courage, and Loyalty. Unlike the stories of overzealous hockey dads or soccer moms, this event seemed to transcend the rivalry between teams even though the game was competitive. Little League bans tobacco and alcohol from its games, and the result is a tremendous family atmosphere.
This year, some 40,000 people watched the final game at Howard Lamade Stadium, with over 350,000 visitors attending the 10-day tournament. Teams from around the world competed, and in the end, the Japanese team defeated Boynton Beach to win its 3rd title in five years.
I was fortunate to bump into Suzy Allman from the New York Times who helped to sneak me into to various photo positions and talk “shop” with me during the event. As I was wrapping up my shooting on Saturday night, I sat down at a public eating area to eat a couple hot dogs. A few minute later, a tired volunteer usher sat near me with her salad.
Veryl Simmons from Wellsborough, PA has ushered the World Series for the past thirteen years. I told her about my journey around the US, and how I was looking for things to photograph, and she told me about a game that is held right before the final World Series game on Sunday.
The Challenger’s League is a division of Little League for physically and mentally disabled children. Each child is paired with a buddy who helps them bat, base run, and field. The teams practice once a week, and play 3-inning games vs. non-Challenger Little League teams. Veryl had me inspired, so I called up Suzy and approached her with the idea of taking portraits of the kids, and she agreed.
We shot some portraits the next day. Not stellar work, by any stretch of the imagination, as we were pressed for time, and didn’t have the benefit of an empty field. But the pictures were meant for the kids and their families, and we did our best to shoot them like any other “normal” athlete would be photographed.
The game started, and we watched in amazement as kids with limited physical and mental faculty managed to hit a ball pitched to them by their coach. Even the most severely handicapped children had expressions of pure joy on their face, and squeals of laughter as they rounded third base, and we cheered as all the boys of summer headed for home.
As it turns out, he was on his way out to Utah on a sales call, but he did direct me a few miles down the road to the Magic Hat Brewery and Shelburne Farms. Magic Hat is one of many microbreweries that has had some marketing success in the past few years. Their factory is in a non-descript building, and offers a tour and a small factory store filled with various tschoskies (made by Select Design, incidentally). I tried with little success to gain access to the factory floor to take pictures thinking that photographing a single bottle getting sterilized, filled, capped, and labeled would really make photographic history. So I left a bit disappointed.
It turns out that Shelburne Farms has a pretty remarkable history. Established in 1886 by William Seward Webb (grandson of the notorious Secretary of State William Seward who purchased Alaska) and Lila Vanderbilt Webb (one of the ultra-rich Vanderbilt progeny) as a model farm for architecture, it was originally composed of 32 separate farms. In an vision to create a unified estate, they hired Frederick Law Olmstead, the man primarily responsible for designing New York’s Central Park and architect Robert H. Robertson who designed many buildings on the campuses of the Ivy League.
Tim Cummings originally hails from Tennessee, but has been a globetrotter for the last decade having spent time in New Zealand and Canada. He is also between degrees in ethnomusicology, and has a special interest in the bagpipes, and explained to me some of the limitations of the instrument (only an octave range, with a mixolydian scale, etc). He landed driving the tours around at Shelburne Farms after randomly picking Burlington as a place he wanted to live, and on the suggestion of a violinist friend who told him he should check out the farm.
We hopped in my car, and Tim escorted me around to the cool stuff that most people don’t get to see. The Breeding Barn was the largest open span building in the US until 1932 with a roof that spans 2 acres. No longer in use for livestock, it now plays hosts to benefit concerts. Tim also practices his bagpipes several times a week. He showed me the old Dairy Farmhouse, and some of the livestock, and a place where Beeken Parsons, master furniture makers, stored their wood and build their furniture. We walked past the yellow “Caution” tape and “Do Not Enter” signs, and saw some really cool parts of the farm that were well over 100 years old.
When I started my journey across the US, I had a notion that I would have to stay focused and solitary. But taking a trip across the US isn't about confinement, even if I'm striving to push myself photographically. A last minute decision to join old friends on Block Island proved to be enjoyable as well as prescient. While we were relaxing at a local cafe eating a lobster roll, much of the east coast was hit by the big blackout of 2003. We watched in amazement at the spectacle that was unfolding, but since information was trickling out slowly, we went back to our day.
Although the primary elections are still half a year away, South Main Street in Concord, NH is already dotted with small regional offices of various presidential candidates. A far cry from the Arnold Schwarzeneggers of the world, John Kerry is a decorated Vietnam War Veteran turned US Senator, who has articulated his positions on the major topics confronting the US today. Manila folders are taped to the walls with one-page positions on everything from healthcare to foreign policy.
In 2000, as a sophomore in high school, Justin Colpitts decided that the small bordertown of Calais needed a place where he and others could ride BMX bikes and skateboards. With the guidance and support of his tech-ed teacher, Randy McCormick, the two created a plan to develop a skatepark adjacent to the municipal athletic complex.
Since that time, the vision has grown, with students continuing to be the driving force in this little piece of community development with a capital investment exceeding $100,000. Most recently, a concession stand was dedicated after being designed and built by tech-ed students at the high school, and then moved by the truck driving students into its permanent home. The kids have keys to the various facilities and are responsible for the upkeep of the facilities from mowing of the grass surrounding the park to locking up the concession stand, which helps to generate funds for the park.
Joke Time:
With a small, manual dough mixer and $7500 from a patron, the two Episcopalian friars opened up shop four years ago, and began producing bread to finance their religious outreach. They opened on a Friday with only $38 remaining in their bank account, and immediately, the bread was a hit. The operation continued to grow into a full-scale, entrepreneurial business that includes challah on Fridays, which has become very popular with the reformed Jewish population of Bangor.
The bakery’s success has exceeded all expectation, and the pair has learned to limit business hours from Wednesday through Saturday only in order to work on their religious pursuits and give them peace of mind. Nonetheless, the phenomenal success of the business has allowed them to travel to places like Mexico to help the indigenous people of the Yucatan who lead impoverished lives. Over the past few years, they have helped the small community with everything from plumbing and electricity, to setting up schools. Although the brothers do the bulk of their work in the US from prison visits to hospices to running their own services, the gospel calls them to travel to all nations, and more pragmatically, “There are a lot more people in need in other parts of the world,” says Brother Don, “Especially in the Third World.”
