Pitching coach Steve Proctor, left, jokes with McMasters before the start of an Astros game. McMasters has no children but jokes that he has hundreds every young man who has ever worn an Astros jersey. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
A recent Astros game at Arcadia High forms a perfect summer tableau. The team’s alumni include several major leaguers and dozens of college and minor league players. But thats just on paper. The real heart of the team as on teams of its kind everywhere is its volunteers. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Gloves line the top of a fence at Arcadia High. The Astros’ volunteer coaches are unusually dedicated and close-knit, half a dozen men with an easy camaraderie and a shared love of baseball. Several, like McMasters, have been involved at least a decade and spend up to 30 hours a week at the field during the season. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Sean O’Leary, left, a pitching coach with the Astros, talks with McMasters before a game. McMasters hopes that OLeary, a 26-year-old former Astro and Cal State Los Angeles pitcher, will one day take his place. McMasters loves the well-groomed field and the decades hes spent on it, pacing the sidelines and shouting encouragement to his players. But he can no longer see the field, or the game, as he once did. For many years, his sight has been slowly deteriorating, the result of unusually early macular degeneration in both eyes. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Members of the Astros wait for the game to start. The coaches emphasize fundamentals and teamwork “old-fashioned baseball,” as one of them puts it. At an age when many players are becoming stars at their high schools, they underline their ethos by keeping names off the backs of the summer team shirts. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Kyle Layton, from Glendora High School, is congratulated after a hitting a home run. Players say McMasters, a burly man with a boyish face, is the glue that holds this fraternity together. “Hes the greatest,” said Tim Smoley, 19, a Rio Hondo College player who spent five summers as an Astro. “Hes all about the kids.” (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
