Commentary: Sports are great in the back yard, too

Evelon Grace was the fastest runner in my elementary-school class.

Not just the fastest girl.

When Billy Dan Vinson organized races at recess – his mom provided candy for prizes – Evelon won most of the time.

I picked up a couple of jaw breakers myself – third place was rewarded, too -- and it was a lot of fun. I also had youthful athletic success in my cousins’ back yard and on the road in front of their house.

We played two-on-two softball games in the yard. Just one base and home plate. If you hit the ball over the fence you were out, and you had to go get the ball. All of my cousins were older, but I could compete with them. I pitched a no-hitter one time.

In the road we played three-on-three football with my cousins and their neighbors, Gilbert and Mario Costilla. I caught more than one fly-route touchdown pass, running like the wind – or at least like a stiff breeze – past the utility pole that served as the goal line.

In my own back yard, I played hundreds of basketball games with neighbors Benny and Tommy Floyd.

Benny launched a prayerful shot from near the car one time. The ball went over the plywood backboard and landed on a business-side-up pitchfork stored in a barrel with shovels and rakes and hoes. I can still remember the sound it made – fffffftttttt.

Good times.

I played some organized sports in my youth as well and they, too, produced a lot of memories. Most of them bad.

There was the time I hit three consecutive batters while pitching for the Fireballs in the Muleshoe little league. The hit batters were on the bases, all crying, and people in the stands were yelling at my coach to take me out of the game before I killed somebody. My coach came to the mound and told me to calm down and just throw like I was playing catch with Jay, our catcher.

“I don’t want to kill anybody,” I told my coach.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Those kids aren’t hurt. You don’t throw hard enough to hurt anybody.”

I played on the junior varsity basketball team in high school. We had 11 players. I didn’t get into many games, but my coach thought it was beneficial to practice five-on-five with me as a sixth defensive player, always chasing the ball.

I was so helpful as the sixth defensive practice player they had me go against the girls’ varsity team one time. I was several inches taller than point guard Evelon Grace by then, but I think she scored 20-something points that day, shooting from the perimeter as I chased her around the court.

Some Clovis-area parents are outraged at recent news that the city will be charging kids who participate in organized sports $50 each for use of the city facilities.

That is a lot of money. The city says it costs a lot of money to provide those facilities.

My view: Organized youth sports can be fun, and team photos look better when you’re all wearing the same uniform.

But it’s just as much fun to play for free in your back yard with the kids from your neighborhood. And you have a way better chance of being the star player when it’s just you and Gilbert and Mario against your cousins.

David Stevens dedicates this column to his childhood friend Mario Costilla who died last year, way too young. We were like Dallas Cowboys when we were playing in that road.

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