Looking out his window at his front yard, Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett saw progress.
That means something any time you are a politician, bank executive or father, all of which Triplett is. So when he watched his youngest son, Chase, receiving instruction on how to catch a baseball from Rock Rucker, a player in the Florida Collegiate Summer League, a smile creased his face.
"Rock's out there saying, 'Put your right hand on top of the ball,'" Jeff said. "He was working with him just like a dad or an older brother."
In a sense, Rucker, a sophomore at Auburn, is an older brother to Jeff and Brandi Triplett's two sons, Riley, 12, and Chase, 7. So are infielders Chaz Contreras of Pikeville College (Ky.), Tyler Palmer of Oakton Community College (Ill.) and Darian Ramage of Saint Mary's College (Calif.), the three other FCSL players staying with the family this summer.
The Tripletts have served as a host family for summer-league players for seven years in their four-bedroom, three-bathroom house. To house FCSL players, families go through an application process. They must provide breakfast and lunch and a relaxed atmosphere without charging rent.
Families receive $50 per week from the league, which consists of 160 players and seeks to place anyone not from Central Florida in homes. The FCSL's nine-week regular season and postseason end in early August.
"Baseball is one of the purest sports out there,'' Jeff Triplett said. "When I got to know the whole [FCSL] group, [hosting players] just seemed like the right thing to do.''
Said Rucker: "Jeff is a real down-to-earth guy. Everything we do, we do it as a family."
Including bowling night. When Rucker was nervous his first weekend in Sanford, Triplett eased the tension by inviting him on a family outing.
Contreras recalls going to Chase's birthday party at Rebounderz, a family entertainment center. Contreras and Rucker jumped in the trampoline arena for hours with the children.
"We're pretty much a family," Contreras said.
The bonds that the players form, particularly with Riley and Chase, are priceless. The value of those relationships extend far beyond the extra $150 to $200 a week that the Tripletts spend on groceries for the players, or the time that Brandi, a lawyer, invests washing the players' uniforms and cooking for them.
Players from past summers call with birthday wishes for the boys, and extra packages arrive at Christmas. One time, Mark Frazier, a former player who bonded particularly well with the Tripletts, emailed Jeff and asked why Chase wasn't answering the phone on his birthday.
"They really are my second family," Frazier said. "Riley and Chase are my little brothers."
Chase let Frazier know he was his big brother as well.
The Tripletts visited Frazier, who lived with the family in 2008 and again from May 2010 to January 2011, in Washington, D.C., this year. They were in a hotel room talking and watching a soccer game when Chase surprised Frazier by calling him his brother.
Triplett was not fazed, though.
"It's so interesting to see how they come from such a diverse area," Jeff said. "If they have a ball in their hand, they are happy. They are just a part of the family."
award@tribune.com
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