CASTLE ROCK — Under a warm orange sky, with light towers buzzing and his team losing big, Derek Stickelman saw the game clearer than most.
Not physical sight. The 11-year-old ballplayer doesn’t have that gift. He was born with several birth defects — a hole in his heart and eye issues. One of the latter, , is a condition where his eyes make repetitive, uncontrollable movements. That makes it difficult for Derek to see the baseball, much less effectively track it in the field and at the plate.
But on Thursday evening at Douglas County Fairgrounds, in the Arapahoe Youth League playoffs for the , the casual observer never would’ve guessed what the glasses-clad Derek has gone through, and continues to go through, to play the game he loves with complete lucidity.
“In the infield, it’s a little hard to see the ball, depending on what’s behind the backstop,” Derek explained. “I know there are (limitations to my play) because of my eyes. But I usually just don’t really think about it. I’m having too much fun out there to think about that.
“I’d like to keep playing (into high school). If I can’t, then I guess I can’t, but I’m going to enjoy every second I’m out there.”
As the sun set on the day and the Thunder’s season in a 22-9 loss, Derek’s motor was relentless.
He was the loudest voice in the dugout, leading his teammates in an array of chants. He never stood still at second base, forever ready for the possibility of a ball he probably couldn’t see to get hit at him. And during a never-ending inning when the opposition plated double-digit runs, Derek was called in to pitch and quickly got his Thunder out of a jam with a strikeout.
After the umpire rung the batter up, Derek pounded his glove and sprinted off the field with a smile.
No excuses, just baseball
It’s an unrelenting enthusiasm for the game that propels Derek. His dad, Torrey — who played collegiately at the University of Kansas — says the presence of his 4-foot-6, 75-pound son on the diamond is a miracle.
Derek had two open-heart surgeries at 6 months old. One to sew the hole in his heart closed, plus replace a defective valve with a valve from a cow, and another to install a pacemaker. At 1, Derek had another serious surgery, this time on both eyes to address , a disorder where the eyes are misaligned and point in different directions.
Torrey and his wife Allyson were protective of Derek when he was a young child. But their growing son wanted no part of a padded childhood. He wanted to ride his bike. He wanted to play flag football. And, more than anything, he wanted to play baseball.
“We were really tentative letting him do a lot of different things,” Torrey Stickelman said. “Like with riding a bike, for instance, I didn’t know if he’d be able to read the road in front of him, or see potholes.
“But every time we wanted to hold him back from participating, he proved us wrong. So I’m always impressed with whatever he does. And I love that he’s overcome all of his challenges. In baseball, he doesn’t make excuses or act like he has a disability.”
A love for the game
The vision handicap that Derek, who is gifted in the classroom, plays with can’t be understated.
Even with his glasses on, nystagmus causes Derek’s vision to be 20/80 at best, meaning the ball is blurry until it gets right up on him. As Derek gets older, and the game gets faster, he knows his time as a player might be short. And following an open-heart surgery to replace his pacemaker last year, there are likely more surgeries on the horizon, including one for certain in the next couple of years to replace his cow valve.
It’s a reality that both he and his parents are already facing, which causes the family to relish every at-bat, every ground ball, and every pitch a little bit more.
“It was within the past year that he said something like, ‘Well, I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to play, but maybe I can at least be the team manager when I get to high school,'” Allyson Stickelman said. “That just touched my heart. He’s already making a backup plan, because he just wants to be around the game that badly. And he’s determined to have a place in the game, somehow, someway, long-term.”
But for now, Derek’s focused on making every moment in a uniform count.
His hits were sparse this season because of the difficulty in seeing the pitch out of the hand, but he takes silver linings out of every at-bat with an approach that his coach Justin Hackett describes as “a good, smooth swing.”
On Thursday, he fouled off a couple of pitches in his first at-bat, then on a dropped third strike, beat the throw down the line to get on base. Derek eventually scored, sparking a seven-run rally in the inning that cut into the Thunder’s deficit in the game’s waning moments.
And even with Derek’s lack of consistent balls in play this season, he’s found other ways to impact the game and help the Thunder win. Over the final month of the season, Derek ended one game with savvy baserunning when he stole third, popped up from his slide on an overthrow, and dashed home for the winning run. As soon as he crossed the plate, his teammates mobbed him.
To win another game, Derek laid down a bunt on a walk-off safety squeeze.
“Right before his at-bat, I told Derek, ‘You know, you’re doing great on the bunting in practice, so you think you can win us a game with one?'” Hackett recalled. “And he’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I got it.’ Not a lot of kids at this age can bunt. But he put down a perfect one.
“That moment was even more special to me because I’ve used Derek as an example all season about positive body language, about a positive attitude. It didn’t matter if he struck out two or three times; he doesn’t let it affect his outlook on the game. He always brings the good energy, and our kids feed off that.”
Savoring every moment
That “good energy,” Derek says, comes from his obsession over a sphere with red seams.
He and his dad are constantly going to practice at the park across the street from their Littleton home. When his birthday and Christmas roll around, all Derek asks for is baseball gear and apparel. Allyson’s Amazon order history is simply a long list of those types of items. Derek builds baseball stadiums on Minecraft. He draws baseball stadiums on paper. He hit so much in the backyard against the fence that he was breaking pieces off of it, so Allyson had to go back on Amazon and order protective netting.
One day, likely sooner than Derek would like, that backyard fence will be safe from a relentless barrage of batted balls. The park grass where Derek and Torrey play catch will be empty. Allyson’s Amazon order history will not recommend “Buy It Again” for every piece of baseball equipment you could think of.
But Derek will always have his drawings. His memories of the plays he made despite limited vision. And Derek’s teammates will always have No. 3’s achievements as a north star to look towards in a game defined by one’s ability to grow through failure.
“I’m so proud of Derek for what he’s been able to do even though he can’t really see,” said Thunder catcher Logan Hackett, tears dropping to the pavement beyond the backstop after the final out and most of the fans had gone home. “We all are. And I love baseball so much, I don’t want the season to be over; I don’t want to go home. A big part of that is playing with a teammate like Derek.”
