{"id":5986,"date":"2019-06-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-16T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/the-opposite-of-coddling-long-beach-little-league-honors-al-huntley\/"},"modified":"2019-06-24T03:36:18","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T03:36:18","slug":"the-opposite-of-coddling-long-beach-little-league-honors-al-huntley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/the-opposite-of-coddling-long-beach-little-league-honors-al-huntley","title":{"rendered":"‘The opposite of coddling’: Long Beach Little League honors Al Huntley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Al Huntley was surrounded by friends and family in the Stearns Championship Park baseball field dugout, but alone with his thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss this dugout, and not being out there,\u201d Huntley said, holding back tears. \u201cI\u2019ve worked with a lot of kids over the years. I just miss that comradery, and that spark in their eyes when they learn what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That spark motivated Huntley to work with the Long Beach Little League for almost 50 years as a coach, umpire and member of the B Board of Directors. The LBLL honored his time and effort by renaming its main field, Al Huntley Field during the closing ceremonies earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t expect that,\u201d Huntley said of the honor. \u201cIt was a big surprise. And to see my family there. Wow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
A painting of Al Huntley now adorns the skybox after a ceremony wherein he was honored for his many years of involvement in the Long Beach Little League on Sunday, June 2, 2019. Photo by Bill Alkofer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Huntley, 76, is an unassuming man who presents his opinions as facts that he\u2019s picked up on his journey. His handlebar mustache defines his gruff exterior, but everyone knows he\u2019s got a big heart that only wants the best for the young baseball players of Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Longtime Board of Directors members David Rima, Steve Klaus and Scott Royal took the lead in organizing the event for Huntley. While the LBLL announced all of the teams and players during the closing ceremonies, Huntley and his honored guests mingled in the dugout and traded old stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has some great stories of building the fields over the last 48 years,\u201d Rima said. \u201cHe drove a dump truck to work for the Long Beach Gas Company every day, and when he thought it was time that LBLL built a snack shack, he \u2018borrowed\u2019 a backhoe and dug out the snack shack at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huntley has been on the LBLL Board of Directors for almost 50 years and started coaching LBLL in 1975. He managed 25 District champion teams and was part of the coaching staff that led the LBLL All-Stars to a pair of consecutive Little League World Series titles in 1992-93. No other team has won back-to-back titles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose kids had heart,\u201d Huntley said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t like to lose, so they\u2019d go out of their way to beat you. I think 11 of them all lived within a mile of each other and grew up together. It was awesome. After a game, all of these grownups were asking those kids for autographs. We would just sit there and laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, it wasn\u2019t all fun and games for Huntley\u2019s players. His tough-love style and sly sense of humor intimidated some young players, but most of them came away grateful.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t coddle you,\u201d said former player Thomas Walker after Huntley\u2019s last game as a manager nine years ago. \u00a0\u201cHe\u2026 well, whatever the opposite of coddling is, that\u2019s how he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Al Huntley looks out of the dugout before a ceremony in which he was honored for his many years of involvement in the Long Beach Little League on Sunday, June 2, 2019. Photo by Bill Alkofer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all changed over the years,\u201d Huntley said. \u201cBack in the day when I was managing, you could get on a kid and the parents wouldn\u2019t do anything… parents nowadays come unglued. They have to let them grow up.”<\/p>\n

As a coach with LBLL, Huntley never changed his routine of throwing batting practice in the outfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would always throw on the same patch of grass at the corner of Stearns and Harcourt,\u201d Rima said. \u201cThat was Al’s piece of grass. No other coach ever thought about using it. People knew not to park cars on that part of the street because there was a chance of getting hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huntley was also an accomplished fastpitch softball player, and would routinely go from throwing batting practice at Sterns and Harcourt to pitching for his adult softball team at Joe Rodgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember, one time we played a managers and coaches softball game,\u201d said Joe San Jose, who coached with Huntley. \u201cAl had a no-hitter going, and the other team didn\u2019t like that, so they asked for a new pitcher. Al called on me to come in and close it out. That\u2019s just one of the great memories I have with Al.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huntley started umpiring for the LBLL after he stopped coaching, and said it was a much more physically demanding position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI umpired for the 8- and 9-year-olds,\u201d Huntley said. \u201cBut you get beat up back there. If the catcher can\u2019t catch, it goes right by him and hits me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Rima and his wife finally called Huntley out for the field renaming ceremony, Pam had to wipe away tears while the entire LBLL family gathered around home plate to hear Rima tell stories of how Huntley helped shape their league, something Carol was quick to note he didn’t do alone.<\/p>\n

“Al didn\u2019t do these things by himself,\u201d said his wife Carol Huntley. \u201cRick Shoemaker, Bill Marshall and Bob Mertz all helped build the snack shack and run the league fairly. We have had the pleasure to meet and make so many friends. Al truly loves baseball, and it was fun watching him coach, but now his four daughters and grandson are his cheer group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Al Huntley was honored for his many years of involvement in the Long Beach Little League on Sunday, June 2, 2019. Photo by Bill Alkofer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rima also handed out commemorative pins for all of the LBLL players with Huntley\u2019s likeness on it, and the mural of Huntley on the press box behind home plate was unveiled to a roar of applause.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe deserves it all,\u201d Rima said. \u201cNow everyone here knows Al and what he\u2019s done for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, after years of doing the unseen dirty work behind the scenes, Al Huntley has now literally left his name on Long Beach Little League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LBLL renamed its main field after Huntley, who’s given nearly 50 years of service to the organization<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":17035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,196],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-instagram","tag-little-league","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5986"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5986"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}