Doumit's bat still has enough pop to wow the kids

Having survived another April Fool’s Day and Earth Day not for another couple of weeks, I thought it might be time to hold the notebook upside down and shake the cobwebs free. There’s bound to be something there to spew on about now that Spring has sprung.

I haven’t been around a lot of Big League batting cages, but I did have the chance to watch Andres Galarraga with the Colorado Rockies that remarkable year (1993) he flirted with the .400 mark for most of the season. They were still playing at the old Mile High Stadium and Rockies fans, being new to baseball, would stomp their feet like they do for the Broncos.

It was one part Big League ball and one part the Rolling Stones are in town. It was a rockin’ good time. The stadium sound system used to play the theme to “The Pink Panther” when the Big Cat would come to the plate.

Rockies skipper Don Baylor moved him from the four hole to lead-off to ensure he would get enough at-bats to win the 1993 National League batting crown. The Cat responded with a .370 batting average, which was the highest average by a right-handed hitter since Joe DiMaggio (.381) in 1939. Galarraga became the first player on an expansion team, as well as the first Venezuelan, to win a batting title.

I had to check to see if Ryan Doumit’s career ever crossed paths with The Big Cat in Atlanta, but they were a generation apart in their journey through the bigs. Doumit, a second-round selection by the Pittsburgh Pirates (1999), played his first game in the Major League against Atlanta, but The Cat had cycled out by then.

I still get a little bit of a thrill just knowing that Big Bend Community College has a coach in the dugout that was the Pirates' starting catcher, not just a catcher, but a switch-hitting catcher. Of the estimated 1,650 players who’ve caught at least one game in the bigs, only 82 batted from both sides. The best of the them – Ted Simmons, Jason Varitek, Jorge Posada – can be counted on one hand. Doumit shared the National League's Player of the Week award June 16, 2008, hitting .400 with four home runs during the week.

I had a chance to talk with Big Bend sophomore Daulton Kvenvold about having a former Big Leaguer for a coach.

“I got to see something last week I've seen here at Big Bend, and that was to watch Ryan take BP,” Kvenvold said. “It was just fun to be a part of that. He hit a lot out, but every ground ball was hit hard, every pop fly was a mile high. I wouldn't want to try and catch 'em.

“Here I am swinging out of my shoes just to get it to the fence and he’s just crushing everything. It was awesome.”

Oh for Pete’s sake

From the ball diamond to the fairways and greens of Ephrata senior Kenedee Peters' golf game, there remains a standard of excellence.

Peters, who’s off to Washington State next season, shot 68 at Apple Tree Golf Course in Yakima to win the 14-team Joe Lenberg Invitational. Golf’s one of those games where it doesn’t matter where you come from, Los Angeles or Ephrata — low score wins.

Peters, who has already shot a course-record 64 at Highlander Golf Course in Wenatchee, defeated a field that included defending 4A state medalist Cassie Kim of Davis (72) and Camas’ Haley Oster (75), who was ninth in the 4A tournament last year. The field also included East Valley junior Morgan Baum, the only girl to beat Peters in the past three seasons.

From the course to the courts

Frontier Middle School sixth grader Amelie Gregoire is making some noise in the USTA Pacific Northwest Section, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.

The kid from Moses Lake moved into the Top 20 in the USTA PNW 12-under rankings with a huge showing at the Steamboat Tennis Advanced USTA tournament in Olympia a couple of weeks ago.

She defeated Ashalia Donovan from Seattle 6-3, 6-3 in the final. Her run to the top shelf on the podium also included a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Saeran Dewar of Seattle in the semifinals. Gregoire also blasted Sophie Buttorf of Tacoma 6-1 6-1 in the opening round.

The kid from the public courts is holding her own against the country club darlings and looking to bang her way to the top.

Rodney Harwood is a sports writer for the Columbia Basin Herald and can be reached at rharwood@columbiabasinherald.com