By Dick Sparrer
It's beginning to look a lot like... Well, certainly not Christmas anymore. But it's certainly beginning to look a lot like baseball season... at least in Los Gatos.
Youth Baseball Camps
Ben Boulware will spend the summer playing baseball in the Chicago White Sox organization.
But the professional baseball player will spend this weekend back where it all started--on the baseball fields of Los Gatos.
Boulware, a member of the 1984 Los Gatos Little League all-star team that advanced to the Little League World Series, returns home to serve as the director for the first annual Los Gatos Professional Baseball Camp, hosted by B & B Camps.
B & B will present two baseball camps sponsored by the Los Gatos Little League and Los Gatos Pony League.
A camp for youngsters ages 8-12 will be held Jan. 11-12 at the Little League field on Blossom Hill Road. Camp hours are 8:30 a.m.-noon each day.
B & B also will host the first annual Los Gatos Professional Baseball Camp Jan. 11-12 at the Los Gatos High School baseball field for players ages 13-18. Camp hours are 1-4:30 p.m. that Saturday and Sunday.
Each camp will stress the fundamentals of hitting, fielding, base running, pitching and catching.
Boulware is just one of four former Los Gatos stars who will serve as instructors at the camps.
Derek Reichstein, Paul Pavicich and David Tuttle are three players who advanced through the ranks of the Los Gatos youth leagues and the local high school program to play professional baseball--Reichstein with the Florida Marlins, Pavicich with the Minnesota Twins and Tuttle with the Detroit Tigers. John Macalutas, currently in the Milwaukee Brewers organization, and Brian Powers, a former Los Gatos high school coach, also will serve on the camp staff. Like Boulware, Tuttle and Macalutas are still active in professional baseball.
The registration fee is $60 for each camp. For more information, call B & B Camps at 395-4320.
Baseball Coaches School
The Los Gatos Pony League and Los Gatos Little League will co-sponsor the upcoming Doyle Baseball Coaches School set for Jan. 11 at Fisher Middle School.
The school is designed for all managers, coaches and interested parents, and the registration fee is $22. Little League managers and coaches will have a portion of their fee paid by the league.
The coaches school, which features a class for first-time participants and another for those who have attended the school in the past, is recommended for all Los Gatos youth baseball coaches. Each session runs for four hours and will be taught by experienced Doyle camp instructors.
The school will be followed by a players clinic for both Pony and Little League players, ages 9-16, on Feb. 22. Coaches who have attended the coaches school will be permitted to attend the players clinic for free and participate with their youngsters.
For more information, call Bill Frey at 356-1317 or Dan O'Gorman at 354-8504.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 8, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved .