What Happened to the Oak Brook Outlaws

What has happened to the Oak Brook Outlaws?  In 2011, Larry Gould took over the reins of the Oak Brook Outlaws 13U travel team.  He brought with him his very talented son, Lucas Gould, who had no experience playing with children in the same age group as he.  In the past, Lucas played with the older kids and despite his size, he more often proved to be one of the better talents on the field.  Joining an organization that had been the ridicule of the West Suburban Baseball League (WSBL), Larry set out to create an elite travel team that would contend for national titles.  His first step was to dismiss all of the former players with the exception of four; adding Lucas he had a suitable core. 

Larry’s next step was to partner with coaches, Brad Rosely and Stan Damaskis, who had experience in the WSBL.  Brad brought his son Jake, a left handed pitcher who was just slightly younger than the others but despite the worries of his maturity, his arm had promise.  Next came Eddy – a rough, hard core, “My best against your best – smash mouth” typed guy who had a lot of connections with the inner city kids on Chicago’s North side.  Eddy was an umpire and coached the little league 12 year old team at Horner Park – one of the two largest baseball programs on the North side. Larry, taking it upon himself, to grant scholarships to four players won Eddy’s connection privileges and signed three of who were arguably the best five 12 year olds from Horner Park.  These were Isaih Paul-Emile – the son of a deceased Haitian father and an old school Puerto Rican mother of three talented sons; Scott Capis – a kid with an IQ that is through the roof and a dad who missed his calling as a professional baseball talent scout; and Jabari Morris – a kid who had been victimized with divorce and nasty custody battles and had to travel four hours both ways on public transportation from Maywood, Illinois to get to and from Horner Park each day. 

Next came the tryouts which yielded Andrew Rosol – a tall lanky kid with a dynamite arm; Matthew Pizur – a kid with fast hands at third base and a strong arm across the diamond; and Armando Lara – the son of a Michigan middle linebacker who looked every bit like the next Brian Urlacher.  With the team assembled, Larry Gould transitioned a 6 – 30 team from 2010 to a 56 – 17 wonder that won four tournaments and placed second in the Omaha College World Series Travel team Tournament .  They added an additional player who was also from Horner Park.  Justin Vivar found himself in limbo when the Frozen Ropes Spartans broke up in mid-season.  Justin is a big left handed pitcher with a dominating fast ball.  It appeared that he was just what the Outlaws needed to get over the hump and become a truly elite team.

At the season’s end, Jake Damaskis, Reed, and Andrew parted ways as they moved into High School.  Jabari, although not available until the high school baseball season ends remained with the team.  Armando searched for greener pastures leaving Larry with the task of replacing four talented players.  The first to join was Nathaniel Segura who left Top Tier to unite with some old Horner Park friends.  Now, Larry’s team was nearly half filled with inner city talent.  Nathaniel – a catcher with a remarkable pop time, strong arm and great hitting power also provided the Outlaws with an upgrade in their number two pitcher.  With Nathaniel, the future looked promising, but the bottom seemed to fall from under Larry’s feet when he was unable to sign three of his top four prospects and settled for two one star players.

With Jabari in high school, Larry is missing his lead-off batter, number one threat on the bases, and gold glove centerfielder.  To make matters worse, Nathaniel was injured with a dislocated thumb that puts him out for six weeks and Lucas leaves for a ten day trip to Israel with his eight-grade class.  He knows that there are better days ahead, but the pain of waiting out the storm has a team that was made to win troubled about the improved competition in the WSBL, the cold bats, the inability to move runners, and the defensive holes.