This Teacher is also a Student of the Game
Teacher Ric Ramirez has been lifted from his elementary classroom, swirled around in a euphoric tornado of peak experiences and awe-inspiring good fortune, and dropped gently in the middle of Pennsylvania.
However, it’s the location in The Quaker State that has Ramirez gushing with excitement and anticipation—South Williamsport, the world headquarters of Little League baseball.
Ramirez is coach of Park View Little League’s All-Star team, a talented and dedicated group of 12 and 13-year-olds that has won the hearts of Chula Vista and Southern California by earning a trip to “The Big Time,” Little League Baseball’s annual World Series tournament.
But he’s also taking time away from his “other team,” a group of 31 fifth-graders at Myrtle S. Finney Elementary School. A 10-year veteran teacher in the Chula Vista Elementary School District, Ramirez has also taught at Castle Park School. Ramirez’ friends and colleagues across the District note the baseball team’s many ties to the Chula Vista Elementary School District. The bulk of the players were promoted from the 6th grade at District schools in June.
As summer unfolded, the team began its incredible run of victories. The team’s remarkable success likely began when, early in the competition, Ramirez and Manager Oscar Castro queried the dozen boys selected for the team.
“We asked them if they just wanted to have fun, which meant we wouldn’t work too hard,” Ramirez recalled. “Or, did they want to win, which would mean we work hard and play our best.” Without hesitation, the team chose the latter, leading to the busy, regimented schedule, including daily homework time, that the boys have followed.
The team drew national media attention in the West Regional by blasting home runs in unheard-of numbers as they defeated numerous opponents in games shortened by the “Mercy Rule,” which requires an end to a game if a team accumulates a 10-run lead after four innings. Regulation Little League games are six innings. In the opening round of World Series play, Park View posted consecutive double-digit victories, necessitating the Mercy Rule while impressing national audiences on ESPN.
Ramirez serves as the hitting coach for this band of baseball bashers. He likes his team’s chances at the tournament. “I’ve watched the other teams practice, and they are all fundamentally sound, skilled players. But we have a good group of kids, and I think we’ll do well,” he predicted.
Ramirez brings a wealth of experience to the ball field, having played Little League and high school baseball locally at Chula Vista High. He followed with two seasons in a Southwestern College jersey, a year in Iowa and closed out his playing days at UCSD.
He likens his coaching and teaching roles, noting that the same thrill follows the success of a player or student when they grasp a concept. And his teaching experience comes in handy in other ways.
“During the televised games, I wear the microphone,” Ramirez notes. “My classroom experience has trained me to say the right things.” But the equipment he wears also includes a mute button if needed when conversations become personal.
Being on national television hasn’t phased Ramirez or his players. “We’ve had meetings with the ESPN people and a media day when they did interviews with the kids and gathered the information they will show during games,” Ramirez noted.
And, there’s a humorous side to the televised games. Following a game in which a Park View player’s favorite food was shown as “chorizo burritos,” Ramirez’s wife received a call from a friend whose child was begging them to “go to Costco and buy some chorizo and make me chorizo burritos.”
Ramirez is also father to Luke, the team’s most recognizable player. Standing 6-2 and packing 200 pounds, the pitcher-first baseman, who turned 13 in May, towers over other players and attracts jaw-dropping stares from members of the media and opposing teams.
Among his biggest thrills during his first days in Williamsport, Ramirez recalls talking to the coaches from the Mexico team and later realizing he had watched them play in last year’s finals. “It was like a slap in the face,” Ramirez said, “realizing that I’m here now talking to them.”
Another stunning moment came when he first saw his players in their new Little-League provided uniforms with the word “West” across their chests. “I realized these were the same uniforms the Hawaii team wore last year when they won it all,” Ramirez recalled.
Giving up their glowing white jerseys with “Park View” emblazoned across the front in shimmering green proved no problem for Ramirez’s players. The new uniform tops are baby blue in color and “The kids love them,” he said. “We think they are the best uniform of all.”
Despite a hectic schedule that keeps them on the run most of the day and evening, Ramirez is grateful for the accommodations provided at South Williamsport. “Each coach has his own room,” he explained, “so we can have some time to relax or take a nap. It’s fabulous. Living here is a dream.”
Ramirez noted the coaches’ rooms are adjacent to the large dorm rooms where his players and the Canadian team are separated by a large shared bathroom. The players are escorted to events by volunteer chaperones known as “uncles.”
Ric Ramirez is living his dream, one day at a time, at the Little League World Series.