Blue Darter Trophy
The Blue Darter Trophy is awarded annually to young persons playing in the Lee's Summit Baseball Association{{cite web|url=http://www.lsbaseball.com/bluedart.htm|title=LSBA Blue Darter Award}} and Lee's Summit Girls Softball Association.{{cite web|url=http://www.lsgsa.org/LMS/league.php?cnt_id=2|title=Lee's Summit Girls Softball Association, Rules: Section VII, part E}}
It is not awarded to baseball and softball players based on skill or athletic ability, but on the basis of their sportsmanship, "hustle," and having a positive attitude. Individual trophies are awarded to one player in each LSBA and LSGSA division.
The trophy was conceived of and first awarded in 1971 by James P. Shoot, who was a baseball and softball coach for many years in Lee's Summit. From 1971 until his death in 1998, Coach Shoot personally handed out the trophies to the young recipients, assisted by his wife Gwendolyn. For several years after 1998 Gwendolyn Shoot took over the role as trophy presenter. Today the associations themselves award the trophies to the players.
Origins of the name
The term "blue darter" is a baseball term referring to a low line drive that "speeds viciously through the air, as though it were propelled by a blue gas flame."Whiteford, Mike. How to Talk Baseball. Dembner Books, 1983. {{ISBN|0-934878-21-8}} The term came to be associated with the line drives hit by Shoeless Joe Jackson{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=afQVWhAm1TEC&dq=%22blue+darter%22+baseball&pg=PA73|title=The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary, via Google Books|isbn=0156005808|last1=Dickson|first1=Paul|year=1999}} and was popularized by ballplayer and sportscaster Dizzy Dean.{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballfarming.com/BaseballLingo-page2.html|title=Baseball Lingo}} A "blue darter" is also a Midwestern and Southern colloquialism for either a fast hawk or a quick snake darting through a bush.{{cite web|url=http://www.nycppl.com/what-is-the-snake-referred-to-in-the-south-as-the-blue-runner.html|title=New York City People|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323124028/http://www.nycppl.com/what-is-the-snake-referred-to-in-the-south-as-the-blue-runner.html|archivedate=2012-03-23}}
Coach Shoot had previously attempted a business venture to market wooden baseball bats under the brand name "Blue Darter." When that endeavor fizzled, he re-purposed the name to his award for sportsmanship.