Galesville Hot Sox Play Again

At the Galesville Hot Sox reunion game on Saturday, April 25, you’ll see baseball at its best, as community sport and social.
    That’s what Bay Weekly founders Sandra Martin and Bill Lambrecht saw on a summer’s day in 1993:

    The Bay sun beat down on the Hot Sox field like hard foul balls. You see how bleachers got their name. A week without rain had baked the grass, and the day is humid and dusty. But no one on this Sunday afternoon seemed troubled as they waited for the newest episode of the predominately black Chesapeake Independent League.
    ‘‘Come on you guys, get this party started now,” a woman yelled. “Get this party started RIGHT now,” a little girl chimed in.

    They’d come for the contest between the homestanding Hot Sox (6-4) and Tracey’s Twins (8-2), two of the 12 teams in the league.
    Families together on their weekly outing settled in with hot dogs and fat fish sandwiches. Women and girls sacheted up the stands in bright summer dresses, ready to cheer their men. Beer drinkers sought solace from the elements and bikers arrived to display candy apple-red Harleys. Three bucks for real baseball and an afternoon of fun.
    “This is my Sunday,” beamed Ida Medley of Traceys Landing.
    Similar dramas were unfolding at five other fields from Annapolis to Charles County. Every Sunday at 3pm, from April through September, the league cranked into action. In the Chesapeake Independent League, baseball was the way it used to be: by and for people who love the game. The League is a throwback to the era when the young loved baseball and revered its heroes.
    By the bottom of the second, the Hot Sox were stroking the ball. Their catcher jacked a two-run homer over the left field fence, and two hits followed. A new pitcher warmed up in the rutted road between the diamond and the concession trailer. For the Hot Sox, Dale Castro was throwing BBs.
    By the end of the third inning, the Hot Sox had beat up the Twins’ pitcher for five runs, one of them on a passed ball. But fans remained happy at their afternoon social, using the occasion to greet one another in the stands.
    After the third inning, the Hot Sox would be shut down by Twins’ pitchers. But Castro was untouchable on this day, and the Twins could manage only a lone run in the ninth on a sacrifice fly. The final score: Hot Sox 5, Twins 1.
    They say of baseball that people love it for its constancy. You can start your day with baseball in the newspapers and keep the rest of the world at bay. At day’s end, you can sign off with ball on the radio or television. And baseball is better than any calendar for changing seasons. Some people have just two: Opening Day through the World Series, and the lost months in between.

Read the whole story at http://bayweekly.com/
old-site/1993/93v06.html.

    With the exception of a few exhibition games, it’s been years in between since the Hot Sox last played. (The Chesapeake Independent League is still active, and a Calvert County team plays on Hot Sox field.) Now they’re at it again.


Playing April 25 are former Hot Sox players and volunteers. Post-game, hot dogs and burgers: 10 cents. Sponsored by the Galesville Community Center. Bring lawn seating. 1pm: Hot Sox Field, Wilson Park, Galesville: 410-703-0610.