ERMA – The smell of freshly mown grass, the shout of “play ball” and the crack of a bat, can’t mean anything but the start of Little League baseball.
In Lower and Middle townships, opening day is a community event with hot dogs, bounce houses, and face painting, along with a full schedule of games.
Lower Township
Lower Township’s home opener was held April 5 at the fields behind Carl T. Mitnick Elementary School on Seashore Road in Erma.
There were 300 players representing 25 teams, from ages 4 through junior high school, that followed the Coast Guard Training Center color guard onto the field, where the Richard M. Teitelman Band and a handful of students from the Lower Cape May Regional High School played the national anthem.
Rev. Tim West, of Seashore Church of the Nazarene, provided the invocation.
The first pitch was thrown by a representative from each division, all children of Coast Guard members except Janella Hall, who was selected to memorialize her mother who recently passed.
The first pitchers were: Tee Ball – Reese Piersol; Coach Pitch Boys – Ryan Adell; Minor League Girls – Olivia Nolan; Minor League Boys – Kyle Betts; Major League Boys – Luke Wenger and Ben Harced; and Major League Girls – Janella Hall.
Don Gipple, vice president and spokesman for the league, said opening day is a real community event.
“Some of the people here don’t have kids in the league. They come to show support and participate in a tradition they may remember from when they were a kid,” Gipple said.
Lower Cape May Regional baseball and softball players were presnt and staffed the concession stand so parents could participate in opening day events, Gipple said.
He also pointed out that Little League is funded and run by volunteers, not the township or recreation department.
“We really depend on our volunteers and sponsors. Burke Motor Group is a big sponsor for us and really stepped up to the plate,” Gipple said.
There were bounce houses on-premise, free to the children who attended opening day. An ice cream truck was expected to show up with free ice cream later in the day.
Angela Alexander, of North Cape May, was at opening day to watch her son Carter Conway play tee ball.
“This is his first year and he is excited,” said Alexander. “He said he didn’t want to go in the bounce house. He just wants to play baseball.”
Middle Township
Middle Township Little League has had an opening tradition for close to 15 years.
Ross Denham would read the Little League Pledge that each player would recite after him. “I trust in God. I love my country and will respect its laws. I will play fair and strive to win but win or lose, I will always do my best.”
However, Denham retired and the new president of Middle Township Little League, Fred Mick, was working on final plans for opening day, April 13 at 10 a.m. at the Davies Sports Complex.
There will be free hot dogs and the playing of the national anthem, but there will be something different this year, besides the absence of Denham’s reading of the pledge.
“This year the kids are showing support for one of their own, Kanen Keating-Wear. He is a player nicknamed “HuriKanen.” He is fighting cancer and the league will honor him,” Mick said.
All Little League uniforms will have a patch with a hurricane on it and his jersey number, 10, will be retired. One of the teams will be named the Hurikanens.
Mick said the league fielded 21 teams this year, upward of 250 kids in the baseball and softball program.
“We are very excited to see the numbers up a bit this year. That has been our goal,” said Mick.
Two people will be honored on opening day, John Olivia and Ross Denham, for their dedication to Middle Township Little League.
Mick said former Middle Township Mayor Nathan Doughty and current Middle Township Committeemen Theron “Ike” Gandy and Michael Clark will be present.
“We have a great group of volunteers and coaches working to make sure the kids have a great season,” Mick said.
“A lot of the group goes up to Williamsport, Pa. for the Little League World Series every year. Who knows? Maybe in the future, we’ll be playing there.”
America’s Pastime
Baseball is known as “America’s Pastime,” and is at least as old as the forming of the nation, as soldiers of the Continental Army were recorded playing a version of the game at Valley Forge.
According to the Little League website, “On June 6, 1939, in the very first Little League game ever played, Lundy Lumber defeated Lycoming Dairy, 23-8. Lycoming Dairy came back to win the season’s first-half title and faced second-half champ Lundy Lumber in a best-of-three series. Lycoming Dairy won the final game of the series, 3-2. There was one other team in the league, Jumbo Pretzel.
In the following years, other programs emulating the first Little League sprung up. Boundaries for each league were established to ensure each league could thrive without worrying about neighboring programs “raiding” its players.
From those humble beginnings, Little League Baseball has become the world’s largest organized youth sports program. In the space of just six decades, Little League grew from three teams to nearly 200,000 teams in all 50 U.S. states and more than 80 countries.
And the basic goal remains the same as it did in 1939, to give the children of the world a game that provides fundamental principles – sportsmanship, fair play, and teamwork – they can use later in life to become good citizens.
Little League is now known as Little League Baseball and Softball.
To contact Carl Price, email cprice@cmcherald.com.
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