A batter came up to the plate and one of the infielders shouted for his teammates in the outfield to back up. He made the right call, as the batter took the first pitch and sent the baseball flying far into right field. The batter got a double.
The Los Angeles Dodgers Neighborhood Camps returned to the Santa Clarita Valley Monday through Wednesday, offering baseball and softball players a chance to build sports skills and even life skills, according to Tony Liebsack, program manager for camps and clinics with the Dodgers Training Academy.
“We’re trying to get the youth involved in baseball,” Liebsack said in an interview on Wednesday during the camp at the William S. Hart Pony Baseball and Softball complex. “Baseball teaches not just physical skills but being able to build relationships with coaches. It helps the kids with their social skills as they interact with kids their age. In baseball, there’s a lot of life skills taught. It’s a game of failure. It helps them (the kids) get used to dealing with adversity.”
Liebsack added that the three-day Dodgers Neighborhood Camp at the Hart complex was one of 16 this summer throughout the L.A. area, including two at Dodger Stadium in L.A.

Led by about nine experienced coaches, the Santa Clarita camp, Liebsack said, signed up about 75 paying participants ages 4 to 14. Kids were offered two camps — the Mini Dodgers Camp for kids ages 4 to 6, and the All-Skills Youth Camp for kids ages 7 to 14.
According to Liebsack, participants rotated through different skill stations each day, working on hitting, pitching, infield and outfield drills. After lunch each day, the All-Skills players put what they’d learned into action with a scrimmage.

In the stands at one of the fields watching a game with the Mini Dodgers, Ania Whitham from outside the Santa Clarita area said her 5-year-old son, Gabriel, just finished playing his first year of Hart Pony Baseball. She learned about the Dodgers camp through the Hart league and signed her boy up right away. In that moment, Gabriel was lined up along the fence to bat in the game on the field.
“I’ve played games on this field before,” he said as he waited for his turn at the plate. The boy standing next to Gabriel said he’d played on that field, too, adding that he played with Gabriel on the same team called the Pirates.
According to Whitham, her son was having a blast at the camp.
“He was very excited to start, and he’s been very excited to come back every day,” she said. “I think he’s kind of sad that it’s over today.”
Nelson Cox of Valencia was also in the stands, watching his 4-year-old son, Jonah, play ball.
His son, too, had just played his first season for Hart Pony, though Cox admittedly put a baseball bat in his boy’s hands the moment he learned to walk.
“At this point,” Cox said, “I think he bleeds Dodger blue.”
Cox added that his son picked up some valuable skills at the camp — not just how to hit and catch the ball, but also the importance of teamwork.

Camp participants received Dodgers Youth Camp jerseys and other Dodger-themed gifts, and they had the chance to win awards throughout the three-day experience.
At the end of the camp for the Mini Dodgers, each participant received a Dodgers rally towel. Liebsack got all the players together on the field after the game they played on Wednesday, and gave them a rally towel, calling them “magic rally towels” and telling them to bring those magic rally towels to the next Dodger game they attend.
“When the Dodgers need runs, do you know what to do with the towel?” he asked the kids. “Wave it. Even if you’re at home watching the game on TV, if they need some runs, just start waving the towel. It’ll work.”

Over in the stands at the next field where the All-Skills players were beginning a scrimmage, Palmdale resident Melissa Daniels was watching her son, Parker Gaulden, 13, take the field. Daniels had heard about the Dodgers camp while watching a Dodger game on TV.
“It came up as a banner at the bottom of the screen,” she said, “and he (her son) asked, ‘Mom, can I sign up?’”
After seeing the camp promoted on TV, Daniels signed up her son and then told Monica and Albert Martel — Acton residents sitting next to her in the bleachers — about it. The Martels ended up signing up their son, Matthew, to join as well.
Daniels was chatting about how much fun her son was having at camp and how sore he was after two full days when, right in front of her, her boy snagged a line drive in left field and gunned it to first for the out.
A few plays later, a batter came up to the plate and the infielder who’d shouted for his teammates in the outfield to back up watched the ball soar as the batter rounded the bases to second. When the next batter came up, the fielders again reminded each other to stay deep.
The batter swung at the pitch and cranked it into left field. One of the batter’s teammates from near the dugout yelled for all baserunners to go all the way.

According to parents, their kids were not only improving their skills but also learning to communicate better with teammates. Liebsack added that these are essential abilities they’ll carry with them as they move up through the leagues.
“I just love kids being out here, running around and doing physical activities,” he said. “When they’re learning a new skill, and they get it down — when they can actually do it — I like seeing the smiles on their faces.”
For more information about the Dodger camps, go to bit.ly/46keO5z.
