The SPECIALS, short for several 'special' places in the Bush League (Safford, Pittsburgh, EAC, Central, Indiana, Alton, Lake Jackson and San Antonio), were established in 2009 as a Semi-Pro, Traveling, Beer League-style, Stickball Club with Craig Smith as owner and Doug Sabeh as manager.  The SPECIALS roster is composed of a couple of old, cagy veterans, an up and coming star and a rookie.  Craig and Doug play the parts of the old vets, Kimball is the rising star and Lane the greenhorn rookie.

     The name, SPECIALS, may seem strange and conjure up images of incredible deals at your local K-Mart (i.e. Blue Light Specials), but was actually derived from the movie, The Natural, and a special bat known as the Savoy Special used to hit the game-winning, light-smashing, sparks-flying homerun by the fictitious Roy Hobbs.  Though the name SPECIALS may seem a little odd it is not unprecedented.  Back in the late 1800s and into the first part of the 20th century Brooklyn's baseball teams were known by a variety of interesting names such as the Tip-Tops, Wonders, Bridegrooms, Atlantics, Eckfords, Superbas, Robins, and Trolley-Dodgers before finally becoming just the Dodgers.  In light of those team names the SPECIALS sound pretty ordinary and maybe not-so-special.   

     Many aspects have influenced the creation of the SPECIALS including our current economy, the number 9, the idea of second chances, and a desire to experience the game of stickball with family in a special way. 

     The economy brought the SPECIALS back to the basics of the game, and to settle on their team colors which are black and white and always will be as long as the economy is in the tank.  The SPECIALS uniform which is simply a gray button up jersey with a black number on the back makes us wax nostaglic as we recall the first Bush League jerseys (remember those black jerseys with the small white number on the front and large white number with our names on the back).  The economy also gave the owner the idea of making the team 'semi-pro' based on, Hall of Famer, Earl Norton's experience of playing semi-pro ball in the Indiana Beer Leagues.  He played every weekend for $15 a day and all the beer you could drink.  This season the SPECIALS have been playing for $1 a game and all the rootbeer they can drink.  Who couldn't use an extra buck and drink of rootbeer?  Paraphasing the immortal words of Nacho Libre, "The SPECIALS must go semi-pro!"

     The number 9 is also an integral part of the SPECIALS.  In the movie The Natural, when Roy Hobbs gets his jersey from the trainer he takes the number 9, "a good baseball number".  He had a smooth swing like Ted Williams for whom the Hobbs character is partially based and who also wore number 9.  The game of baseball is based on the number 3 and 9.  There are three strikes, thee outs and, of course, three bases.  There likewise are nine innings, nine fielders and nine batters in a lineup.  So the SPECIALS decided to only choose, like Roy Hobbs, numbers that are related to the number 9.  Lane in his rookie season is nine years old and decided to make his age his number(9).  Kimball is number 33 which is inspired by Larry Bird and because 3 X 3 is 9.  Craig came out of retirement sporting number 45 a la Michael Jordan, and Doug choose number 81 earning him the nickname, 'Ocho-Uno', both numbers respectively being factors of nine. 

     The SPECIALS  have created a new way to play stickball called playing against The NINES.  The NINES are to the SPECIALS  what the Generals were to the Globetrotters . . . arch rivals.  Playing against the NINES has given some of the younger players a chance to experience the game of stickball and improve their skills without the same pressure of playing against regular opponents while recording stats and a win or a lose along the way. 

     The SPECIALS are a team of second chances.  Roy Hobbs was also based on the true life story of Eddie Waitkus who had starred for the Cubs and Phillies back in the '40s and '50s before being shot by a young, enamoured, psychotic, female fan of his named Ruth Steinhagen.  He lived through ordeal and eventully returned to baseball.  While we hopefully will never be shot like Eddie Waitkus, we all have our "Ruths", or setbacks, that can change our course in life and send us down a different path.  Like Hobbs sometimes we need to be called up from the 'Heber Oilers' and given a second chance.  Any player is welcomed to play with the SPECIALS to break out of a slump and get that second chance.         

     The last aspect that brought about the creation of the SPECIALS is a desire to experience the game of stickball with family in a special way.  So far this season the SPECIALS have played games in many unique places like Lordsburg, Glenwood and White Sands, New Mexico; Bisbee; Solomon; Tucson and Mesa with a roadtrip scheduled in a few days to Pittsburgh, Ohio and New York.  Playing in a variety of places has been a real treat for the SPECIALS win or lose and created memories that will last a life time for each of the players.  

     In closing, Doug as been a wonderful manager for the SPECIALS in their inaugral season and we wish to thanked him publicly for going above and beyond the call of duty.  He has made many phone calls and sent emails encouraging his team.  His gameday speeches are the stuff of legend and a fun mix of lines from Bull Durham, Hoosiers and The Natural.  Doug will be the only manager the SPECIALS ever have and we want to nominate him as the first of ever Manager of the Year in the Bush League.    

     A few other side notes, the 1914 Chicago Cubs logo of a bear with a bat is the official logo of the SPECIALS.  Due to the bear being the logo the SPECIALS may be referred to as 'Da Bears' as an alternate name like the Pirates being called the Bucs.  The official motto of the SPECIALS is, "We should of been farmers."  And the official slogan is, "Don't you know how we hate losing to the Pirates?"  The official SPECIALS' abbreviation is SPX.  The official network of the SPECIALS is ESPN(Entirely SPecials Network).  Kelli-Marie Smith is the voice of the SPECIALS and roving reporter for ESPN and we want to thank her for videoing many of the games and press conferences already this season.  We want to thank Jason for playing with the SPECIALS in Pittsburgh with Doug and for pitching so well to him (Doug current leads in the league in batting average).  We want to thank Eldon Smith for being our extra SPECIAL player and helping us to a real win against real people at Legacy Field.  Thanks to Brandon for playing with the SPECIALS.  And a special thanks to Commissioner Mark Smith for playing a few games with the SPECIALS, helping us to our first ever win and for letting us play against the NINES.  Thanks to Clifton for letting us post this special article on the website.  Ahhh, That's Special!

Just for fun count how many times the word 'special' was used in this article.