Mark Patton: Little League coach hits his message on the snail with children's book

October 16, 2007 7:44 AM

Hall of Famer Bob Lemon once described baseball as "a kid's game adults just screw up."

But there are a few adults out there -- guys like Dennis Santos -- who have the right stuff. And sometimes the write stuff, too.

Santos retired last summer after 30 years as a manager in the Goleta Valley South Little League. His message, however, carries on like a Matt Holliday home run, thanks to his newly released children's book, "Earl The Pearl: A Baseball Story."

The 28-page, illustrated paperback was published by Llumina Press and is available for purchase online ($10.95), or by calling 1-866-229-9244.

Santos started it out as a poem about a snail with the idea of motivating his players.

"I'd have kids who'd tell me, 'I stink at this, and I can't do that,' and it really bugged me," said Santos, who served for several decades as a youth minister at St. Raphael's Church. "I'd tell them, 'Look, anybody can play this game. You don't need to be an outstanding athlete to become a successful player, you just need a love for the game.'

"I needed a subject with a real handicap to show them, and so I chose a snail. It's a 'Casey At The Bat' story, but with a different twist."

The late Ernest Lawrence Thayer, a longtime resident of Montecito, wrote the famous poem about the slugger from Mudville who strikes out.

So it makes sense that another local would write about the slug from the mud who (stop reading here if you don't want me to spoil the ending for you) hits a game-winning home run.

Santos always put his own twist to coaching. When he'd split his team up for an intrasquad game, he'd avoid having his best players choose sides:

"We all know about the kid who always gets picked last," he said, "so I'd make those kids the captains and have them pick the teams.

"It'd hurt me to see kids who wanted to play baseball but felt they couldn't do it. All you really need is a love for the game."

He said the young, care-free Colorado Rockies have been sending that message to kids: You don't have to be regarded as the best team in baseball to win 20 of 21 games during the most important part of the season.

Santos has vivid memories of one local Little Leaguer, Ryan Spilborghs, who scored the winning run in Colorado's 11th-inning playoff victory over Arizona on Friday.

"When I first saw him play, he really wasn't that good, but you could tell that his heart was in it," he said. "That kid played his heart out.

"The more I watched, the better he got -- up through Little League majors, and into high school, and then UCSB. He turned into something quite special."

He saw the possibilities in his own family, after he let his daughter Jenny follow her sister Denise into Little League.

"I remember telling her, 'Oh Jenny, Denise is more of a tomboy,' but she kept saying that she wanted to play," Santos said. "I took her out to San Marcos High to hit her some groundballs, and the first one hopped up and hit her right in the face.

"I thought, 'OK, now I know for sure she won't want to do this.' She started crying and I said, 'Let's go,' but she said, 'No! I want more! Give me more groundballs!' "

Jenny wound up becoming a Little League All-Star, a San Marcos High Hall of Famer in softball and a record-setting hitter at UCSB.

For years, Little League parents encouraged Santos to convert his poem into a children's book. He finally decided to do it after Henry Schulte joined the chorus.

"He's been writing books and has done some great stuff, and he and a couple of other good friends motivated me into putting this thing down," he said. "Now it's kind of become a hobby of mine."

Santos is working on two other children's books. One of his projects, "Bumblebee Baseball," comes from his experiences as a boy on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, playing baseball on an improvised field with discarded golf balls and mitts made out of paper bags.

He didn't have much then except a love for baseball. But sometimes that's all you need to go far . . . even when it's at a snail's pace.

Mark Patton's column appears on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail: mpatton@newspress.com