Favorite pastime

The year was 1954. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, later immortalized in the movie “A League of Their Own,” was in its final season and “The Lord of the Rings” was first published. Elvis made his first recording at Sun Records in Memphis (“That’s All Right, Mama”), and Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” was winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.

And Spokane Valley Baseball came into existence to give boys a place to play baseball during the summer.

Even though the major leagues had yet to come west of the Mississippi River, the youth leagues made sure every boy — in those days most girls didn’t play baseball — had a chance to play America’s pastime during those hot summer days in June and July.

Fifth years later, those youth leagues fall into five age groups: T-Ball for ages 5 and 6; Coach Pitch for 7-8; Pee Wee for 9-10; Midget for 11-12; and Giant for 13-14. This year there are more than 1,100 kids playing on 75 15-player teams. At times there have been more than 100 teams playing in a given summer.

T-Ball is the smallest age group, with 12 teams this year. Coach Pitch, which, as the name implies, has the coach pitch to his own players, has 21. The majority of players are in the three older leagues — from Pee Wee through Giants.

The league produced major league shortstop Kevin Stocker, who starred at the University of Washington before being drafted in the second round of the June 1991 Free Agent draft by the Philadelphia Phillies.

Tom Groh, of Tom’s Barber Shop, has been sponsoring teams in the league for the past 30 years — even though his own kids played in Freeman.

Why?

“Kids,” he said.

It’s a common feeling among many of the league’s longtime sponsors. Many have continued to sponsor teams long after their kids outgrew the league.

Groh has gone so far as to house the league for a few years.

“I let them have this place rent-free for the first couple of years, just to help the league and keep them going,” Groh said. “Anything for the kids.”

The year was 1985.

The average income is $22,138 and a new car will set you back $9,011. You can buy a loaf of bread for 96 cents and, for another 13 pennies, you can buy a gallon of gas. Villanova wins the NCAA men’s basketball championship, Wayne Gretzky leads the Edmonton Oilers to the Stanley Cup and Kansas City is working its way to a World Series title.

And Mike Asan takes over as president of Spokane Valley Baseball.

“When I took over, Spokane Valley Baseball was a shoebox,” Asan explained. “There was no equipment, no nothing. Just bills. We owed money all over the place.”

It took several years to get out of debt and move the league into the black. Since that time the league has stayed debt free while building up an inventory of equipment. Spokane Valley Baseball supplies each team with a full set of equipment, including a catcher’s glove.

To keep the league equipped, informed and functioning, Asan and equipment manager/treasurer Bill Kreider put in eight months of work. In other words, the behind-the-scenes work takes four times longer than league play.

Asan was a coach before being talked into becoming president. Kreider, too, began as a coach.

“I was a typical coach,” he said. “I was always complaining about something and my wife finally told me to stop complaining and do something about it.”

It’s not easy running a youth sports league. There always are parents who feel their child has been slighted by some rule or other. Part of what has kept Spokane Valley Baseball afloat has been the need to, on occasion, say no.

“We have rules and we have to abide by those rules,” Asan said. “Your child will play baseball at the school they attend. There is no recruiting from across town. And the rosters are set at 15 players.

“But we always get asked to make just one exception. The thing is, you can’t make just one exception.”

Asan and Kreider have the advantage over any coach or parent seeking to work their way around the rules.

“Mike knows what I’m thinking and I know what he’s thinking,” Kreider said. “We know what each other will tell people. You can’t come in and tell me ‘Mike said it was OK to do this.’ I know what Mike would or wouldn’t say.”

The extra line of defense is the league’s secretary, Danny.

“That’s my wife,” Asan said. “I know what she’s going to tell people, too.”

And to make up for having to sometimes turn down requests, Asan and Kreidler make sure they always return phone calls. Even the angry ones.

What people don’t know is that the pair never say no to a youngster when the parents can’t afford the league fees — which runs $70 for 5- to 8-year-olds, $80 for 9-12 and $90 for 13-14.

“We don’t like to advertise that,” Asan said. “But if a kid wants to play baseball, they’re going to play baseball.”

Part of what allows that kind of generosity and scholarship is having a solid base of sponsors.

“My kids played at Blake (Elementary) and at North Pines (Middle School), so I’ve always sponsored teams at those two locations,” said Mike Clancy of Grocery Outlet, who began sponsoring in 1984 and continues to sponsor three teams in the league. “In the beginning, there weren’t a lot of businesses throwing money at North Pines.

“Way back when, the league wasn’t all that solid, so we helped with fund-raisers. And I paid the coaches sometimes to make sure the kids got good instruction. I still pay the coaches so they can take the kids out for a pizza party or something like that.”

Spokane Valley dentist George Velis started the same way — sponsoring his son’s team. These days, Asan said, Velis sends in his sponsorship fee with a note attached saying “pick me a winner.”

The Spokane Indians Baseball Club has been a sponsor since the Brett Brothers bought the team.

“We’ve been sponsors in Spokane Valley Baseball since we started — I think we’re in our 11th year. And we’ve helped with their fund-raising the same amount of time,” Spokane Indians President Paul Barbeau said. “We’re proud to be associated with them. I think Mike and Bill have done more for the community than most people know.”

Asan has been threatening to retire in recent years, but his efforts to leave have been thwarted.

“I can’t find anyone willing to take on the job,” he said. “In the other leagues, their leadership turns over every year or two years. It’s hard to have any continuity when you do that.”

That, Barbeau said, sets the Valley leagues apart.

“That’s what makes Spokane Valley Baseball work,” he said. “They’ve been doing it for so long that they know how to do it right. They do a great job.”