When nearly 1,000 young athletes

take to the beloved green fields of Kiwanis Park today for practice, no

one knows what to expect.

It's been five days since 13-year-old

John Ashmore, a player for the Fayette County Rockies, was hit in the

chest by a pitch and collapsed at homeplate on Field No. 7.

This week, the place where

the Whitewater Middle School seventh grader died continued to serve as

a makeshift shrine, piled high with flowers, cards, momentos. One or two

at a time, little boys in baseball uniforms and families in their Sunday

best came quietly to pay their respects at this spot, illuminated around

the clock by the bright outfield lights.

Tuesday, John Ashmore was laid

to rest, eulogized at St. Gabriel Catholic Church as a thoughtful boy

and buried at Brooks Memorial Cemetery.

But the Fayette County baseball

community knows it will be a long time before it gets over the tragic

events of the past week.

Monday evening, about 100 parents,

coaches and officials gathered in the old Kiwanis Field gym, where league

president Charles McCollum tried to squelch the many rumors circulating

around Fayetteville since John's death three days earlier.

"This meeting is not an

opportunity to point blame," said McCollum at the start of the gathering,

which drew a half dozen TV crews including one from CNN.

And then he set the record

straight:

"This board has never

considered canceling our season. It was never discussed, it was never

an option."

Another rumor, said McCollum,

was that games would resume only after a way was found to prevent the

tragedy from happening again.

"We stopped these games

..." said McCollum, pausing as his voice broke.

"... we lost a child.

We did it out of respect for John."

Field No. 7, named "Emory

Lawrence Field" in memory of another fallen athlete, will soon be

known as "Emory Lawrence-John Ashmore Field," McCollum said.

It clearly has been as difficult

a week for the parents and coaches as it has for the kids, and that's

to be expected, said Jim Nelms, head of the Georgia Crisis Response Team.

"This was a turning point

event for all of you," Nelms told those at Monday's meeting. "That's

a point when you know things will never be the same again. And that can

be as big as 9/11 or as small as a community having to redefine how it

thinks about this national pastime."

When a mom asked what she should

do if her son is showing no emotion or concern about the death, Nelms

told her to let him know that it was OK to feel something.

"Everybody goes through

process of grief differently. Some may be angry, some happy, some sad.

The keyword for all of you is patience," Nelms said.

That will be in abundance today

and Thursday, when games will resume for the 85 teams that make up the

Fayette County association.

McCollum said the format for

the first couple of days will be lighthearted, and it has been suggested

that many of the teams, even the older ones,play whiffle ball the first

few games "just for the fun of it."

Officials will work the games,

but many of the rules will be suspended. A player who freezes at the batter's

box would be an automatic out any other time, McCollum said. This weekend,

it will be forgiven.

McCollum discouraged any displays

of overt competitiveness as well,chatter at the batter, yelling from the

stands.

Instead, he asked moms to be

in abundance, filling the dugouts and bleachers with, well, with mom stuff,

just being there.

"No matter how close a

boy is to his dad, nobody can offer comfort quite like a mom," said

McCollum.

Counselors will be at the games

this weekend to help players who step up to the plate and are overcome

with fear or sadness.

Nelms told the parents to be

prepared to offer solace for a long time to come.

"If your kid gets in the

batter box and he just can't handle it and he starts to tear up, that's

normal," Nelms said. "That's how he's supposed to act."

"We'll never get over

this, but we'll get through it," he said. "And baseball will

go on."

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