'Let's play ball!'
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald Members of the Moses Lake High School Chiefs baseball team welcome little leaguers to the field. INSET: Grand Marshal Mike Rhoades and his wife Nancy watch the opening ceremonies on Saturday as Little League formally begins in Moses Lake.
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald The Moses Lake Rattlers girls softball team after learning they had won the award for best parade float at the Little League opening ceremony on Saturday. The team won a pizza lunch and frozen yogurt at Blue Palm.
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald Grand Marshal Mike Rhoades and his wife Nancy watch the opening ceremonies on Saturday as Little League formally begins in Moses Lake.
MOSES LAKE — Little League, both boys baseball and girls softball, began this year as it has for as long as anyone can remember — with a long and winding parade of teams through downtown followed by an opening ceremony at Larson Playfield.
But this year was a little different. Parade organizers decided to honor longtime Little League umpire Ed Rhoades by naming his son Mike — who is also a Little League umpire — as the parade’s grand marshal this year.
“I have good memories of my dad,” Rhoades said as he and his wife of 52 years, Nancy, stood beside an open-topped Mini as the Wenatchee Applesox Coyote frolicked nearby.
Ed Rhoades, who died in 2015 and whose long career officiating and helping with youth sports in the Columbia Basin began in 1980, was named the “Softball Official of the Year” by the National Federal of State High School Associations.
“We remember Ed as a mentor to many umpires over his long career,” said Moses Lake Mayor Todd Voth during the ceremony at Larson field. “He was extremely knowledgeable and truly cared for those he worked with on the field, always focusing on their potential and encouraging their efforts.”
“Ed was a good man whose love for sports was clear to anyone who saw him in action,” Voth added.
Mike was continuing his father’s example.
“I’m umpiring in Ephrata at one o’clock,” Mike said as he got into the Mini to follow the American Legion honor guard through downtown and Third Avenue and then down Broadway to Larson Playfield.
It was a long parade — bereft, however, of the American Legion Riders, who were all on an overnight trip — of Tigers and Yankees and Shehawks on and in big pickup trucks covered in balloons and streamers and even a giant rocket.
“We did this every year that my son was playing, and now we do this to support cousins and nephews,” said Jana Raymond as she sat on the curb of Third Avenue with her 13-year-old son Rhody and 3-year-old niece Brooke.
“This is how we support local youth athletics,” Raymond said.
Winning the award for best parade float — including free pizza and a trip to Blue Palm for frozen yogurt — were the Moses Lake Rattlers softball team and the Rookie Yankees baseball club.
And after a long morning, Mike Rhoades threw the first softball pitch and Mayor Voth declared this spring’s Little League season open.
“Let’s play ball!” he said.