Summer catch

PALMER — In the 2001 coming-of-age baseball dramedy “Summer Catch,” Friddie Prinze Jr. portrays an aspiring young ballplayer, Ryan Dunne, who mows the grass for the Cape Cod League’s Chatham A’s.

As Dunne rides his lawnmower back and forth across the outfield of Chatham’s home park, he dreams of one day suiting up and playing baseball for his hometown team.

While Dunne is simply a character in a fictitious baseball tale, just a few years after the movie was released another aspiring young ball player was also mowing the grass at the local ball park and dreaming of one day suiting up and playing for his hometown team.

On Friday that young ball player, Keith Christopher, saw his dreams become a reality.

Christopher, who has been mowing the grass of Hermon Brothers Field since he was 11 years old, made his first career start with the Mat-Su Miners.

The former Palmer High School baseball standout played catcher and had three at-bats for the team he’s spent each of the last six summers routing for and working with.

“It was fantastic. It made my summer,” Christopher said after the game as he was hauling his gear into the Miners’ clubhouse. “It’s been my dream (to play for the Miners).”

Christopher, the son of Mat-Su general manager Pete Christopher, has spent much of every summer at Hermon Brothers.

“The day we were moving into our house, my dad took me down to this field to work,” Christopher said. “The very first day.”

Much like his dad, Christopher has logged countless hours at the ball park, and held a few titles for the Miners.

He’s a former bat boy.

He’s served as Mat-Su’s assistant groundskeeper for a handful of seasons.

This year, Christopher was added to the roster as the Miners’ bullpen catcher.

Even though he’s always wanted to play for his favorite team, Christopher wasn’t sure if he’d ever get the chance.

“It’s been my dream every day, my vision, to play with these guys,” Christopher said. “I never thought I’d be able to hang around these guys this much. It’s been great.”

He capped his prep baseball career when he graduated from PHS in May, but Christopher, who will study chemical engineering at the University of Idaho beginning in the fall, hopes to play club baseball for the Vandals.

“I’ve been getting better, and I hope I can play club baseball,” Christopher said. “I can’t stop playing baseball. I won’t stop until I die.”

Christopher played in seven innings for the Miners in their 3-1 win over the Anchorage Adult All-Stars, and saw three at-bats.

And of those three at-bats, Christopher was on base twice. He reached on an error in the fourth and walked in the sixth.

“I was pretty proud. For being a 17-year-old he did pretty good,” Pete Christopher said. “In a novelty game, he gets three at-bats, gets on base twice. He really handled himself well today.”

Keith Christopher was not the only member of his family to suit up for the Miners on Friday. Pete Christopher also found himself in the lineup, walked in the first inning and played two innings in right field.

“The only father-son combo in (Alaska Baseball League) history,” Keith Christopher said with a smile.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.