130 former players return for baseball field renaming
The Wildcat baseball team's annual Jim Click Alumni Weekend saw a banner turnout this year despite the blustery weather Saturday, with an estimated 130 former UA lettermen returning to watch former coach Jerry Kindall cut the ribbon on the newly renovated field that now bears his name.
The renaming ceremony ÷ which featured speeches from Kindall, senior associate athletic director Kathleen "Rocky" LaRose and current Boston Red Sox manager and former UA player Terry Francona ÷ preceded a home run derby, four innings of alumni vs. alumni play and a three-inning game in which the alumni took on the current Wildcats.
But for many of the returning Wildcats, the day was less about events and more about reunions.
Matt Encinas, a 1995 Arizona Sports Hall of Fame inductee who roved the outfield for the UA in the late Î50s, choked up momentarily when asked how it felt to see his former teammates.
He never got the chance to answer, as another old Wildcat came up to greet him with a holler and a handshake.
That was the story for much of the afternoon, as players from six different decades returned to the UA diamond, which is now officially called Jerry Kindall Field at Frank Sancet Stadium.
But despite all the back slaps and bear hugs, the throng of former players remembered to honor Arizona's winningest baseball coach.
"It's a fantastic honor for a fantastic person," said Francona, the recipient of the 1980 Golden Spikes Award, given to the best amateur baseball player in America. "I think he's very deserving ÷ look at how many players showed up. He's honest; he has so much integrity. He expected you to play the game correctly. Sometimes we'd be out here until dark doing it, but it made us all better players and better people."
For his part, Kindall deflected the attention to his players.
"I really can't come up with one, three, five best memories," he said. "Victories were great, the championships, but it's all wrapped up in these guys ÷ who they are and what they mean to me. Every one of them has a part of my heart."
The coach, who hung all three of UA's baseball national titles on the outfield walls during his 24-year tenure, spoke to the crowd briefly. Surrounded by family members, the devoutly religious Kindall remembered turning to a favorite Bible passage in a time of distress.
The cause of that distress? An upcoming game against conference rival Stanford.
Many of the old Wildcats said it best on Saturday: Some things never change.