Look at these little baseball men. Some in full uni, some in shorts and T-shirts, even tank tops.

Little baseball men go their own way, as usual.

The bat bag is their lunch pail. Their hard hat is a ball cap. Their hammer is a well-stitched piece of leather. Their steel-toed work boots are cleats. Their whiskey is Gatorade or cold water.

Another day of grinding it out with the fellas.

Of all the little men, these are my favorite.

Louisiana Tech had its little boy baseball camp this week and it was a beautiful thing. These men pictured had been in the outfield doing some sort of organized drill and are here heading toward the infield where a couple dozen other like-minded little men are learning something about a sport so simply complicated that they’ll never learn it all.

The Super Regionals begin today in the NCAA Tournament. Maybe one of these guys will pick out a favorite player or team and watch a bit. Or they’ve already modeled their swing after a Yankee or Dodger.

They don’t know this yet, but any of them will be lucky to ever play in the same league, much less on the same team, with a guy who’ll one day play the game for money.

It looks easy. And some of it is — some of it, relatively speaking— which is why these little men can play it and love it.

But at every level, at its hot spots, it’s a hard and very humbling game.

Other stuff will come along. Girls or money or the corporate ladder. Other interests. Maybe even another sport. But “now” is what’s important, and what’s important is the smell of the grass, the dirt, the dugout jokes, and getting on base.

Pure love. Now is about little baseball men doin’ work.

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