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Baseball: Pueblos' traditions unite for Native American All-Star Game
Multimedia slide show: Pueblo All Stars
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Jeremy Little Hoop (left), Jonah Little Hoop and Olando Romero warm up their swings on a soccer field at Bernalillo High School. The three were selected from a pool of more than 500 Pueblo-league players to be members of the Pueblo All Star team, which will face the Navajo All Stars on Saturday night at Isotopes Park.
Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune
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Jonah Little Hoop (center) examines an aluminum bat as his brother, Jeremy (left), and teammate Daniel Vallejos look out onto the field after taking batting practice. "I didn't know any of the other players when I first pulled up," said Vallejos, an infielder for the Pueblo All Stars. "Now, I recognize them and remember playing against them."
Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune
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"It's real; it's raw," said Pueblo All Stars coach Andrew Padilla of the baseball diamond at Santa Ana pueblo, where the team practices and plays Pueblo-League games. Blades of grass are scarce there. "Some people see our fields and they trip out."
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Greg Sabaquie feels around for his rosary, which came untucked as he took swings in batting practice. Sabaquie is one of 22 players handpicked to represent the pueblos in the Native American All Star Game at Isotopes Park on Saturday.
Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune
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Ryan Bowman (left) and Jeremy "Worm" Leonsanders joke after practice at Bernalillo High School. "I'm excited to be on the team because I got to meet a lot of other Indian players that are good baseball players," said Bowman. "And I'm glad to be playing with Worm, my old teammate from Valley." Leonsanders scored the game-winning run in last year's Native American All-Star Game.
Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune
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"We're all separate. We all have our own tribes, our own pueblos," said Pueblo All Star Louis Sandoval. "But, at the end, we're all Pueblos, so we're sort of family." Teammates (from left) Jonah Little Hoop, Sean Trancosa, Jeremy "Worm" Leonsanders, Jeremy Little Hoop and Sandoval rest against Jonah's car as they wait to find out if the men's league team occupying their practice field wants to scrimmage. They didn't, so the squad practiced on a soccer field.
If you go
What: Fifth Annual Native American All-Star Game
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Isotopes Park
How much: $6 general admission, $15 club level
Series: Pueblos lead 3-1
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On a dirt-strewn diamond in the Santa Ana Pueblo, two coaches take turns hitting grounders to a squad of all stars. One knocks balls into the hard ground with an aluminum bat. The other uses wood. Sounds of gravel and leather fill the warm air. Dusty dogs without collars jog beyond the fences.
The Pueblo All Stars are practicing. Teresa Leon, 79, is there, taking it in. Her late husband, Andy, was a pitcher in the Pueblo Leagues before the two met in 1947.
"Baseball is a tradition in every pueblo," she says. "There have been generations of players here."
That tradition will be celebrated Saturday night when the Pueblo All Stars face the Navajo All Stars at Isotopes Park. The Native American All-Stars game is an annual grudge match. Last year, the Pueblos won in the 10th when Jeremy "Worm" Leonsanders scored on an error.
"That was the biggest setting I've played in," says Leonsanders, Andy and Teresa's grandson, who will play shortstop in Saturday's game. "The crowd, the nerves. It was crazy."
About 4,000 people turned out, with their own distinctive energy.
"Oh, the crowds are crazy," says Vance Aspaas, an outfielder on the Navajo team. "Whenever you get Navajos and Pueblos together, it's a big rivalry. It gets loud. It's a great feeling."
Players range from ages 16 to 23 and were handpicked for both squads. They're some of the best American Indian talents from high schools and small colleges.
Not much more is at stake than pride, but there's something to that notion.
Pride.
"Their parents instill it in them," Pueblos coach Andrew Padilla says. "They tell them, `Go kick their butts.' You hear stories growing up, like we're enemies."
They're not enemies, of course, and any of the Pueblo All Stars will say that. These young ballplayers are usually on opposing sides, playing for Pueblo League teams, like the Cubs or Giants, during summer months.
Dominic Gachupin is the league's president. He selected all the Pueblo All Stars (from a pool of about 500 players), and he's at their practices in the weeks before the game, helping or joking.
"We're brothers now," he says, looking out as the players run down fly balls in a soccer field at Bernalillo High School, "but on Saturdays and Sundays, we go at it."
Their practices are motley. Sometimes they shag flies or take grounders. There's no scouting reports on the Navajos - the Pueblo team's plan is to utilize raw talent.
"We want to win," says Padilla, "but this is still just a summer all-star game."
And the team is good. Really good. Warming up, pairs start close but end up playing catch from left-center to the right-field foul line. The balls soar, then punch into their gloves. They take turns crushing the ball in batting practice. A few evenings they'll scrimmage Bernalillo men's league teams - and crush them.
"Those, uh . . . aren't very competitive," says manager John Romero.
The Navajos have a strong squad, too, but they don't have an equivalent to the Pueblo League. Instead, they've been practicing together for months.
"They want us pretty bad," says Padilla. "We pretty much take it from them every time."
The Pueblos have lost one of the previous four matchups.
Leonsanders says playing in the game - representing the league his grandfather helped found and cultivate - makes him "proud to be an American Indian."
He remembers Andy Leon being strict as he taught him fundamentals, like choking up on the bat when he's struggling.
"Andy Leon was the pioneer of the Pueblo League," says Gachupin. "He kept it going and wouldn't let it go away. He's the reason we're here."
Leonsanders' grandfather won't be in the crowd when the Pueblos meet the Navajos, but Isotopes Park - that sparkling cathedral of profession baseball - will resonate with his legacy.
