Bay Window: On one level, it's just a game. But baseball can have a more profound meaning. Rigo Lopez: Thank you Father for giving us this great opportunity to play this great game of baseball, Father. BW: It's about teammates who lead by example. John Herbert, USF Pitcher: You know, he can talk to you about anything. I know I've gone to him when I've had problems. You feel like he's almost like a priest. BW: It's about fathers who come out to watch their children play and hope that their success on the field will carry over to the bigger games they'll play in life. Juan Fuentes: It's tough sometimes for teenagers. We live in a neighborhood that can be pretty rough. So I think baseball has been good to keep him focused. Mike Lefebvre: We'll do the same thing we did before. BW: It's where a coach and a player develop the ties that last a lifetime. Amy Purcell, Pitcher, Contra Costa College: So when I'm hopefully out there coaching in high school or junior college, then I can say I had a coach and this is how he used to teach us. And it's about the teams that become part of a family's folklore, spanning generations. Anna Balestrieri, Mother: I like sports a lot. But it's mostly about family for me. It's time to be with the kids. It's a time for everyone to be somewhere where they're enjoying being together. BW: A feel for the heart of the game of baseball can be experienced through the people who share it. Rigo Lopez: Alright, my man, let's go get 'em. Evelyn Cisneros: Good evening. I'm Evelyn Cisneros. Welcome to KQED's Bay Window. It's easy to see how Joe DiMaggio elevated baseball's place in American folklore. But as proud as we may be of our hometown hero, the sport's appeal comes from far more than one charismatic personality. Tonight, we look at how baseball weaves together some of the most basic strands of our social fabric. Things like family, friendship, and community. From the players at the University of San Francisco to the girls of an Albany High School team, the importance of a coach, a teammate, or a parent hits home when we take you inside their game. While DiMaggio and other heroes of the diamond personify baseball's glory, it's these bonds that represent the heart of the game. The Heart of the Game The Teammate Announcer: Now batting for the Dons, the pitcher, Rigo Lopez. Rigo Lopez: Being on a baseball team is kind of like a family you know. We're here day in and day out and we get to know each other, the little idiosyncracies of one another. I think that helps as a team when your down and face adversity, to overcome adversity. So being on a team is really something special, you know. These guys will always have a special place in my heart. BW: Rigo lopez is the starting catcher for the university of san francisco baseball team. Catchers are considered the captains of the team's defense, but rigo also plays another role. Jeff Bowman, Pitcher: Rigo's definitely a team leader. He leads by example. He does everything right on and off the field. Rigo's always always working to get better and I've learned that from him. BW: Catchers on any team have an additional responsibility· Rigo Lopez: How does your arm feel, man? BW: The emotional well being of the pitchers. It's a role that Rigo handles particularly well. Rigo and John Herbert Rigo: Whenever you feel the jitters, just touch the little silver thing on the top. John: Is that was does it? Rigo: Watch, it'll relax you. Trust me. Nino Giaratanno, Head Coach, USF Dons: Sometimes I think he tries to get my message across without the stress of the coach to player relationship. It's more player to player. And he kind of filters out all of the stress level in there. Rigo Lopez: Okay, pick up the sign and let's go, all right. Don't think so much, bro. Let's go, ok. When a pitcher starts getting a little erratic, I have to have the intuition and go out there and settle him down. Herby, Herby, stay up. When we want the ball in, throw it in, man. Sometimes it's just lack of concentration. I may go out there and get in his grill just so he'll get focused and stuff. You don't have to freaking give him so much of the plate, man. And sometimes they're too focused, too concentrated, so I may have to bring up something from a day ago, a week ago so they can just relax and do their job. Do what you do best and get us out of here. All right. BW: His influence is just as strong off the field. John Herbert, Pitcher: Rigo's such an awesome guy. He's such a friendly, warm-hearted guy that when you talk to him on a personal level. He can talk to you about anything besides baseball. I mean he's so down to earth and honest and sincere. He's such a complete person. He's very religious. Rigo leading Team Prayer: Father, Lord, we'd just like to thank you Lord for giving us the opportunity to once again and play this great game of baseball, Father. Rigo Lopez: I go out there everyday and dedicate my life and you know the commitment that it takes because if you want to become a better ball player, it's just like in life if you want to become a better person you got to work at it and put time and effort into it. Amen. I'm doing good as always. BW: Rigo's attitude toward baseballand his skills working with his teammates are inherited from his father. Rigo senior played professional baseball in Mexico, and was also a catcher. Rigo Lopez: My dad, he's played a real big part of my life. He's taught me since I was a kid. I remember growing up just putting on the gear and stuff that he used to play with. BW: An injury ended his father's career early, and as rigo approaches the end of a long season behind the plate, he's feeling the aches and pains that all catchers do. Rigo Lopez: My body's beat up, man. You might catch six days in a row and then that seventh day your body's just telling you, I need a rest, you know. My body's telling me, you ain't going to do the best job. Nino Giaratanno: There were times where he had said things like coach, what's best for the team is that I don't play today. I'm not seeing the ball very well. And I used to have to try to get him to understand that there was more to the game for him than just getting hits, that his emotional leadership, that his calmness, that his work habits were important for the team to see and for him to be on the field. BW: And so he perseveres, counselling his teammates. Rigo Lopez: I'll go to Oshea's if you'll go with me to church. BW: And thinking of his ultimate goal. Rigo Lopez: I'd like to play up to the major leagues. That's my dream as a kid, just that's all I've ever known is to play baseball. BW: How long rigo will play beyond college is not yet known. But he does know one thing÷the game, and the people he shares it with, he will keep for life. Rigo Lopez: It goes beyond the baseball field. Where's it's said during team dinners or just go out with a buddy and just talk about life. John Herbert: And it's fun because it's like I'm playing catch with a friend instead of playing catch with the guy I don't care about or don't like. It's fun to pitch to Rigo and it's a game so it's suppose to be fun. Coach/Player Amy Purcell pitching: Nice job, Amy. Way to come back and get a strike out on a big girl. BW: Amy Purcell is the ace pitcher for the Contra Costa College Comets. At age 22, she is enjoying a banner year that, for her, goes beyond winning or losing. Just four years ago, Amy was sure her pitching days were over. As a freshman, she tore her rotator cuff, an injury she thought would end her college and softball career. Amy Purcell: Pitching for Contra Costa was like a bonus for me. In my heart I kind of believed that I would come back, but you're never sure about what an injury can do. Fast-pitch softball had been the focus of Amy's life since she was just eight years old. At that time, she began training to be a pitcher under the eye of coach Mike Lefebvre. Mike Lefebvre, Coach: And Amy showed up as an eight year old. We thought eight years old might be a little too young, but she was an eager and avid learner, and took to it rather easily. BW: Amy played softball at just about every level, and more often than not, with mike lefebvre as her coach. When Mike was coaching her older sister on the Pinole Valley High School varsity, he let the ten year old Amy workout with his team. Amy Purcell: I was the bat girl, and I was the one that kept score for them, and he would let me practice with them and scrimmage with them, girls five years older than me. And I would pitch and play the positions. He said I could do it. BW: Through four years of high school, where Mike was both her math teacher and softball coach, they experienced wins, losses, and a lot more. Mike Lefebvre: It wasn't always successful. There were lots of times that we failed together. Amy Purcell: Of course, I got mad at him. Some days I'd go, god, I do not want to play for him. He's mean, he doesn't care about me. And then the next day I knew he did. He'd say, are you okay? You know I yelled at you for a good reason. So I said, I know Mike, I know. But you just don't have to yell quite so loud. BW: When it came time to decide on college, however, their partnership came to an end. Although Mike was moving on to coach at Contra Costa College, Amy looked forward to playing at a higher level at UC Davis. Amy Purcell: I said, no Mike, I'm sorry, I love you to death, but I'm not gonna to go to Contra Costa. BW: But due to her shoulder injury, her dream of playing softball at a big college never materialized. She was forced to quit the team. Amy Purcell: I would go and watch the other girls play and they actually made it to the college world series that year. I would read the articles in the paper. I'd cry. I'd cry often, like a lot. I'm never going to be able to play. I'm old, I'm washed up. Look at all these articles and use to be Amy. Amy you use to be so good and now it's like Amy you're so injured now. BW: Mike found Amy two years later gamely trying to pitch in a local recreation league. Mike Lefebvre: When I went out to watch her play and I saw how much she had developed and how far she had come in such a short period of time I was totally impressed with it. And it was at that point I realized that she was almost all the way back. Amy Purcell: And Mike came down to one of our slow pitch games and said you still have eligibility left because I had a medical red shirt. So I said Mike, I have to work. I need to grow up some time. I don't know if I can fit this in. He did not give up. He sent me letters. He called me. He said you are going to play fo me. So finally I moved back down from Davis. I said, you know I'm going to do this. He lured me like I knew he would. I knew he could do it. There's no way I could say no to him. BW: And so, they are teamed up again. Amy and Mike Amy: I can call you a smartass on camera right. Mike: You can, but I'm sure it will be edited out. Amy: At least you know I called you that. BW: And because their ties go back fourteen years, when Amy is pitching, she and Mike share a game within the game. Mike Lefebvre: She knows exactly what I want. She knows where I want that pitch. When I give her that sign, you can see the confidence in her eyes, because she's thinking the same thing I'm thinking, and let's go get the hitter. Here we go Amy. Yeah. Nice job. Nice job. Yes. Nice pitch Am. That a way. Amy Purcell: And then a lot of times we have the relationship where if I'm on base he doesn't have to give me a signal, he can just give me like an eye look, like and eye contact, and that means you need to steal the base. Mike and Amy Mike: You're going. You're going on contact. Amy: Here we go. BW: Softball will stay in Amy's life, even after her college playing days are over. She also wants to coach. And in her own mind, she's had the perfect role model. Amy Purcell: I want to build relationships that Mike has built with all of us. Mike Lefebvre: It was a brillant play Mercedes. Amy Purcell: So when I'm hopefully out there coaching in high school or junior college than I can say, I had a coach, Mike Lefebvre, and this is how he used to teach us. Mike Lefebvre: She really said that? That's impressive. I feel like my life is perpetuated. I don't know what else I can do, but to give knowledge to other people, and if they pass it on, it can go on for a long time. Amy and Mike Mike: Okay, nice job. Amy: Practice tomorrow? Mike: Yep. Father & Son Juan Fuentes: Come on, we need some more runs. Come on now. Give us a hit, a base hit. Line drive, Nayo. BW: For Juan Fuentes, a parent at san francisco's archbishop riordan high school. Juan Frentes: That's the way. BW: Watching his son Nayo just playing baseball is a victory in itself. Juan Fuentes: There it is baby. Got 'em baby. Yeah. SOT Juan Fuentes: It's tough sometimes for teenagers, I think. We live in a neighborhood that's sometimes can be pretty rough. We had a shooting on our block last last week and two two youths got shot. Nat Sot Player: Good job, Will. AND ITS BEEN TOUGH FOR NAYO, WHO DIDN'T ALWAYS RUN WITH THE RIGHT CROWD. Nat Sot Nayo Fuentes: All right, what's up with the drum on the last inning, bud? BUT HE KNOWS WHAT'S AT STAKE. Nat Sot Juan Fuentes: Ah, yeah. AND WHY HIS BASEBALL GAMES MEAN SO MUCH TO HIS FATHER. Sot Nayo Fuentes: He's using baseball as a way for me to get involved in something that I like to do and that's fun and, its away from the street life and the drugs and all that kind of stuff because that's÷none of that is involved in baseball. Juan Fuentes: Academically he's been on the bubble in terms of not being able to play because of not making the grades, and so he knows that. Nayo Fuentes: Get out. Get out. Juan Fuentes: The first few games during the season he was able to practice with the team but he was able to play because he was on probation, so I know that was difficult for him. The most important goal is the school work, and to be able to play baseball is a reward. So, he's seeing that now. Juan Fuentes: Come on Nayo. BW: For Juan, turning to baseball to try and help his son comes naturally. Juan Fuentes: That's the way to look. BW: It's a rich part of his family's tradition. Juan Fuentes: I come from a family of of six brothers and four sisters, so we had a baseball team. We just set up our own bases in a cow pasture and we played baseball every day pretty much. I mean I loved it. Easter Sundays we'd have like these big huge games. So we had some great, great baseball. BW: When Nayo was growing up, Juan coached or volunteered on every one of his son's baseball teams. Juan Fuentes: Because I lost my own father really young, I think I've kind of over-compensated, in some ways for him because I know what it's like not to have the father there. Nayo Fuentes: When I was younger me and my dad, I used to always look forward to going outside and practicing and throwing balls and kids would look at me funny like you know you're outside with your father, you know cause not too many people on my block have dads there to play catch with them or stuff. BW: Now in his junior year, Nayo is starting to show the kind of potential that could impact his life. College baseball is not out of the question. Isola, Coach: I think Nayo Fuentes will go about as far as he wants. He just plays with reckless abandon. He's fun to have. He's fun to watch, he's really fun to watch. Now you look for a good pitch now. Okay. You guy's have been in the dirt. Don't go and help 'em out. But if you get a good one drive it somewhere. Isola, Coach: I don't think high school kids always start off with, oh I don't know if my parents want to be there, but but when they're there I think it makes a big difference. Nayo's mom and dad are almost always there. Nayo Fuentes: Sometimes there'd only be like two fans, three fans and it'd always be my father there and my mother there and they'll tell me something I did good and so that, that helps me a lot. BW: The Fuentes know that the contest between positive and negative influences on nayo is not yet over. But with baseball to share, they feel they're ahead late in the game, where it really counts. Juan and Nayo Juan: What happened? Nayo: I almost missed it. Juan: But you caught it. Father & Daughters Dan Patterson: You score on anything. Yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa, good shot, go, go, go. BW: Dan Patterson is the loudest fan at albany high school's softball games. Dan Patterson: Yeah, that a girl. Job ladies. All right. BW: It's the same school where dan and his brother played baseball a generation ago. Dan Patterson, Father: Me and my brother played a lot of baseball, since the time we were eight. If it wasn't Little League it was wall ball, it was anything we could, whiffle ball. BW: In high school, the Patterson brothers were star players. And both went on to play in college. Through it all, Dan's dad rarely missed a game. Dan Patterson: It's the one thing we had in common, even to the teenage years, when you start to separate a little bit. We always had baseball. BW: When Dan's daughters came along, baseball stayed in the family. Dan Patterson: We played catch and we did everything that I would have probably done with a boy. And they took to it, they enjoyed it. BW: And fortunately his daughters, Kaleen and Krislyn, had something that girls never had before: fast-pitch youth softball leagues. It was a phenomenon that caught fire in the eighties, just in time for their childhood years. FOR A BASEBALL NUT AND FATHER, IT WAS A DREAM COME TRUE. Dan Patterson: Yeah, good play Nina, good job. And I coached them every year until last year. So one year I coached Kris. The next year I coached Kaleen and then back to Kris. Granddad at game: I think if you push off that. BW: And with his father still by his side, Dan tries not to miss any of the girls games. Krislyn Patterson: I always kind of look around to see if he's there and to see if my granfather's there. He's always there and it's just a comfort thing and I just want to make sure he's there. Dan Patterson: Come on in field. Kaleen Patterson: He'd just watch, you know. He wouldn't step in and tell you what to do while the coaches were there, but when we went home, he'd say I saw you do this during the practice, maybe next time you should do this and we'd practice it at home in our driveway. BW: Fast-pitch softball has given his girls help off the field too. Player: Good job Kaleen. Sot Dan Patterson: I think with Kaleen she had never participated in too many school activities except for softball. I believe because of her comradery, her being with other girls and socializing with her peers that it's given her a comfort zone that she can now go to these to dances. I don't think she would have ever done this without athletics. Krislyn Patterson: Play's at home ladies. Dan Patterson: Now, Kris. She's changed where she's more disciplined in her school work and needs to know for her to participate in other things she has to be more well-rounded. Krislyn Patterson: Hopefully it won't stop. I'm playing the rest of high school. I'm playing on other teams during the summer. I wanna hopefully go to college and play. He probably wants the same thing. Dan: Come on Kaleen, stay aggressive now. Kaleen Patterson: I hope he feels proud when he watches us play. Dan Patterson: Oh, there it is. That a girl. Kaleen Patterson: I think it makes him feel happy that we can share that together. Dan Patterson: Good Slide. Good slide. Good slide. Kaleen Patterson: Come on Nina, come on number three. BW: But as his girls entered their teens, their gender and generation made it tougher for Dan to keep them close. Dan Patterson: They're starting to make that breakaway as teenagers. We don't have that much in common. When they want me to be with them, it's to watch music videos or music awards or something that I'm not that interested in. Nat Sot Dan and girls walking. But we always have softball. We always have the drive to practice, we always have the games. At least I have that. And it means a lot to me, because I can feel them pushing away, and after I get over the hurt of them having another life and other people that they're more interested in, at least we have the two or three minutes every night or every day together, that we can talk about something that we have a mutual interest in. Kaleen Patterson: I guess it's kept us close. I mean, I could be out with my friends instead and then I come home and I wouldn't have anything to talk about with him. But we can just talk softball together, it's you know, just one, kind of one language softball and whatever he tells me you know I understand which doesn't happen often. Dan Patterson: Yeah. Geez. Man, man oh man. BW: Dan Patterson's cheers are not just about winning a softball game. They're about the connection between parent and child, and the upcoming games of life. Krislyn Patterson: Yeah, I got walked like three times. Fan & Team Giants Announcer: Third baseman, number thirty-two, Bill Miller. Steve Balestrieri: I don't ever remember NOT being a Giants fan. Come on Dad. Come on. I went to Opening Days with my dad. He took me out of school and probably every year in grammar school. We were always good and had the winningest record throughout the 1960s, but it seemed like we were always in second place. Steve Balestrieri: Every year, every season, we're hoping for a World Series. BW: For the Steve Balestrieri family of South San Francisco, rooting for the San Francisco Giants has always been a family affair. Steve Ballestrieri: Oh,there's a shot. Look at that. That's way up there. BW: It began with Steve Sr., a former semi-pro player in the sandlot leagues where the DiMaggio brothers used to play. Nat sot music up when the Giants came to town in 1958, he became an instant fan. Steve Sr.: It was quite exciting when they decided that both the Dodgers and the Giants were going to come out to the Pacific Coast League. Here it is the ultimate in baseball. BW: Steve Jr. grew up with the team during the 1960s, in the company of his father. Steve Jr.: It got to be a part of our way of life. The first thing I did in the morning was I went and got The Sporting Green and went and sat in the corner by the heater, and would read those box scores. BW: For Steve, those ties never faded. Steve Jr.: I have a little picture of Willie Mayes in my van right above my windshield I glance at that every time I get in the truck. BW: When his own children came along, the Giants became part of the household. Chris Ballestieri: This is my Giants autographed 1988 team jersey. It's signed by everybody on the Giants. Right here are my three favorite Giants. I have Willie Mayes, Will Clark, and Kevin Mitchell. These bats are all used. This one right here has been used by Robby Thompson in a game. Right here is a glove that my grandfather played with when he was playing baseball. It really means a lot to me because it's part of his history and it's part of our family history. Chris Ballestrieri: When I go with my grandfather, that's a special time for me sitting there and know that he played. The knowledge he had and him sharing it with me . I really like that. Steve Sr.: Oh, it's great. We sit there sometime and we just reminisce and it's great. We argue about some of the players today versus the players of yesterday. Announcer: Mayes hammers the ball down the third base line. BW: Baseball is not the same as it was forty years ago. Players don't stay with teams, and they don't mingle with the fans as much anymore. But fans like the ballestrieri's stay, having found a higher loyalty that transcends any player. Anna Balestrieri: I like sports a lot. But it's mostly about family for me. It's time to be with the kids. Time for everyone to be somewhere where they're enjoying being together. That's what's so great about it. PEOPLE | REFERENCE | TRANSCRIPT | FEEDBACK
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