Our high school baseball coach was a true student of the game of baseball. Oren Prentice "Piggy" Mitchell was the original "The Thinker" as it relates to baseball and how to play with winning strategies. Hewitt-Trussville high school for many many years would play John Carroll high school in baseball. The competitive spirit and one upsmanship between these two high school coaches was a thing from which memories are so fondly reflected upon. Piggy Mitchell was the coach at Hewitt-Trussville and Tom Banks Sr. was the legendary coach for John Carroll. Our home and home games were played at Lane Park in Homewood for John Carrolls' home field and at Trussville for Hewitts' home field. John Carroll home field being Lane Park is just as the name implies was in fact a beautiful city of Homewood park . The park was picturesque in every word. Beautiful large oak trees well manicured grounds, flowers blooming with a profusion of all colors. The centerpiece for the park was a large fish pond filled with multicolored goldfish and aquatic plants. Nothing could be prettier than Lane Parks' fish pond. This fish pond was located in straight away center field of the baseball diamond. To blast a baseball with enough gusto to reach the pond would take a poke stronger than "Mighty Casey." Now my real story of Piggy and the Fish Pond. To play John Carroll at Lane Park on one of our games our team arrived well before game time. It is always customary for teams to both take a round of batting practice and infield practice early and way before game time. Normal routine is that the visiting team takes batting practice then the home team. After batting practice the teams then do infield practice with the coach doing the hitting to his infielders. There were several things which did not go according to good sportmanship on this particular day. Piggy was getting more and more frustrated and madder as game time approached. Let me set the scene for you. Shades Valley high school and John Carroll high school both shared use of Lane Park for their respective home games. Shades Valley it appears had used the field the day prior and did not drag the infield and leave the diamond in tip top condition for our game. John Carroll arrived at the field a little late therefore no effort was made to make the infield playing surface be smooth and game ready. Alright now you know the home team or host did not have the field ready as normal circumstances and protocol calls for. This was ample reason for Piggy to be a little teed off. The real kicker was when John Carroll during batting practice allowed everyone on the team practice hitting till his hearts content. The team bat boy even took batting practice. Now Piggy was fit to be tied. When Hewitt began its' infield practice the shortstop was consistently receiving bad hops due to the condition of the infield diamond not being pregame dragged. Naturally coach Piggy was now ready to become belligerent and we all kept our distance. The game started with Hewitt the visiting team naturally we were in bat first. John Carroll was coming to bat in the bottom of the first inning. Now comes one of the great moments of my early baseball playing memories. As our pitcher walked upon the pitchers mound to make his first pitch "Piggy" calls time walks to the pitchers mound and asks Hal Gwin our pitcher for the ball. Piggy without any fanfare walks with the ball in his hand to center field and heaves the ball into the middle of Lane Parks beautiful Fish Pond. Folks it happened and with a little consternation the umpire asked for another ball and the game went on. This is the stuff which makes our game of baseball so great. Batter Up ! Lets Play Ball... |
