Baseball loaded with family ties
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Todd Dennis doesn’t hit home runs, steal bases or throw strikes, but he may be the greatest utility man in Alaska Goldpanners history.
Dennis rarely misses an inning of baseball at Fairbanks’ Growden Memorial Park, where he has performed about every off-the-field duty imaginable. He started as a pint-sized independent contractor, chasing down foul balls and selling them back to the team for 70 cents apiece. He joined the Goldpanners payroll at 9, hawking hot dogs while walking the stands. Since, he’s stacked cases of beers, operated a baseball card shop, worked the scoreboard, launched the team’s Web site and ascended to his current title of assistant general manager.
Dennis might not be a player, but he credits his success to a coach — his longtime employer, mentor and father, Goldpanners general manager Don Dennis. For both Dennises, and thousands of others who play or follow the game, baseball is as much about family as it is sport.
“There’s stuff you don’t forget, like growing up a ballpark rat, hanging out with the diehards at the park,” Todd Dennis, 34, said about his time spent at Growden, “but the greatest joy of all is working with my dad and my family.”
Long before columnists dissected baseball’s fallible Bonds, poets pontificated about baseball’s familial bonds. It’s a game of parents and children, from the Ripkens, Griffeys, Boones and Bondses to generations of fans playing catch in the parking lot before a game. It’s a game of brothers, like the DiMaggios, Aarons, Alous and Drews. In the stands, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters discuss strategy and share a summer night over hot dogs and Cokes. Those scenes play out each summer at ballparks across the country and here at Alaska Baseball League ballparks.
Most ABL players even gain new families as locals open their homes as host parents. If you look at the folks running ABL concession stands, ticket booths and the front offices, you’ll often see faces with similar features. For a baseball player, success requires skill, confidence, quick hands and even luck. Success for ABL management comes from experience, hard work and a good home team: partners and children who are as much co-workers than fans.
Don Dennis is entering his 40th year with the Goldpanners. He wonders how long he would have lasted if his family — wife Ann and four children — hadn’t shared his passion for baseball and sacrificed many summer hours working with him.
“It’s hard to explain to someone how much support it really takes,” Dennis, 66, said. “With (amateur) baseball, you pretty much have to live and breathe this to make it all happen on the kind of budgets we have. Over the years, my entire family has participated in numerous ways, and they are the best help. They anticipate most things and always follow through. They are invaluable.”
Mat-Su Miners general manager Pete Christopher appreciates that comment. For four seasons Christopher has had a staff of three family members assist him in Miners management. Wife Denise is a marketing whiz and secretary on the board of directors. Son Keith, 15, mows the field while little brother Kevin, 11, runs the scoreboard and occasionally sings “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch.
“Without the support of your family in this business,” Denise said before her voice trailed off, “I couldn’t even imagine.”
Neither could Todd Dennis. Dennis also can’t imagine a summer without baseball or family, which now extends to his son Tom, the Goldpanners official photographer. Tom is 10.
• Daily News reporter Josh Niva can be reached at jniva@adn.com.
ALASKA GOLDPANNERS
Home: Growden Memorial Park, Fairbanks
2005 record: 28-6, first in ABL (39-12 overall).
Manager: Ed Cheff, Lewis-Clark, fifth season with Goldpanners
Players to watch: Beau Mills, 3B, Fresno State: A freshman All-American in 2005, Mills led his Bulldogs in batting average (.355), home runs (14) and RBIs (58) in 2006. Mai Chai-Yi, RHP, and Wu Cheng-Hsien, RHP, National College of Physical Education and Sports (Taiwan): Two of four Taiwanese players on the roster will help lead the Goldpanners’ pitching staff.
Alaskans on roster: Sean Timmons, RHP, Armstrong Atlantic State (graduate), Fairbanks. More Alaskans could be added as season progresses.
Admission: $5, $2 students. Midnight Sun Game tickets are $10.
Hot dog: $3.
Regular soda: $1 can, $2 bottle.
Web: www.goldpanners.com
ATHLETES IN ACTION-ALASKA
Home: Growden Memorial Park, Fairbanks 2005 record: 8-25, sixth in ABL (12-25-1 overall)
Manager: Phil Plantier, Point Loma Nazarene, former Major Leaguer’s first season with AIA-Alaska
Players to watch: Blake Stouffer, OF, Texas A&M: Stouffer is a speedy switch-hitter who can play all three outfield positions and is expected to bat third. Xavier Scruggs, 3B, UNLV: A freshman with serious pop, Scruggs socked five home runs in just 42 college at bats this season.
Alaskans on roster: Steve Shaver, OF, Yuba Community College, Fairbanks
Admission: $5, $3 students
Hot dog: $3
Regular soda: $1 can, $2 bottle
Web: www.aiabaseball.org