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Mark Benton: Street team sports are ancient history


Mark Benton - Buffalonews.com
Ubenton.jpgpdated: July 16, 2010, 12:18 pm /
Published: July 10, 2010, 12:30 am

When my two sons ask me what is the difference between youth sports today and when I was growing up in the 1960s and early '70s the answer is simple: Organized street teams.

Little league baseball didn't begin in our neck of the woods until 1959. Youth football followed seven years later. But outside of those two sports for boys only, that was it. A few of my friends and I benefited in basketball because our local parochial school had a middle school team.

There were no organized youth leagues in soccer, hockey, softball or any other sport so we created them ourselves. I was nine years old when we put together the first group of neighborhood kids in the sport of wiffleball to challenge our counterparts from the other side of town.

Phone calls went back in forth in March when the snow was still on the ground to set up the first contest of the season. Everything was ironed out in these preseason discussions between nine-year olds. Where would we play, what time, how many balls, bats, and bases did we have? By the time the first pitch was thrown, everything was in place. No umps, no parent interference, our rules. And we played.

Continue reading Mark Benton: Street team sports are ancient history.
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Pa. baseball coach accused of punching ejected son


HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A Pennsylvania youth baseball coach is facing a simple assault charge for allegedly punching his 9-year-old son in the face after the boy was ejected from a game.

Police charged Ray Boudreau of suburban Harrisburg after he allegedly struck his son twice with a closed fist at Monday's game.

Defense lawyer Brian Perry says Boudreau handled the situation poorly but struck the boy on the back. Boudreau has a hearing scheduled for July 27.

Court papers say the umpire and scorekeeper called police, who arrested Boudreau at his Enola home. An officer says he observed redness on the boy's face.

Perry says Boudreau spent Monday night in jail. He says the boy was ejected for throwing his helmet after being thrown out at third base.
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Sandlot baseball in Saratoga Springs


Thumbnail image for doc4c32a27a30ec0730318752.jpgSandlot All-Stars in a league of their own; local youths keep it simple on the baseball diamond

By PHIL FORTE
For The Saratogian

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- No registration fees, insurance waivers, or expensive jerseys.

No lineups, aces, batting averages or on base percentages.

No ERA's, win-loss records, errors or state championships to worry about either.

Just some good old-fashioned baseball.

It was last summer when a few local dads decided that once their children's little league season had come to a conclusion, baseball season was not over yet.

Dan Jolie, Bill Bergan and Mike Sefransky all had the idea to advance their children's baseball season into the summer, on their own terms, though.

It was then when the Sandlot All-Stars were born.


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Sandlot Day 2010 - On Sandlot Day, Children Call Their Own Shots


nytlogo152x23.gifby Mark Hyman
March 26, 2010

Every year, it seems, youth sports become more organized. Uniforms fit better. Seasons stretch another week or two. Even the quality of the snacks has improved at many recreation fields.

None of that would happen without the coaches, umpires, scorekeepers and concession-stand cooks who keep youth leagues running. But have adults reached a point where they are too involved?

If so, Tim Donovan may have an answer. As the director of the Youth Sports Institute, a think tank based at the State University of New York at Cortland, he travels around the state to lead training sessions for volunteer coaches. Lately, he has also been promoting Sandlot Day 2010, a concept the sports institute developed.

The idea is that adults should cede control of games to the players for one day this season. Parents are welcome to show up. But on this day, the children make the rules and run the show.

They decide what to wear (full uniform, or T-shirt and shorts). They choose sides and set the lineups. Their authority extends even to the game they decide to play (baseball or a backyard derivative like whiffle ball).



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'Pitch In for Baseball' uniform drive enters second year


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by Staff
The Darien Times
May 13, 2010

DARIEN, CT -- The 2nd annual Darien Youth Baseball and Softball uniform drive will be collecting baseball (and softball) uniforms at the end of the current season.

DYBS partners with 'Pitch In For Baseball,' an organization that delivers new and gently used youth baseball and softball equipment to undeserved communities in the US and around the world that need them.


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Burlington Little League team visits Dominican Republican


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by Staff
The Burlington Free Press
May 12, 2010

Members of the Burlington American Little League team traveled to the Dominican Republic recently as part of a nine-day exchange organized by The Vermont Institute on the Carribean.

The 12 Vermont players stayed with host families while the three coaches, Jason Lenihan, Mark Stephenson and Tom Freiheit, and several parents stayed in a hotel.

The Vermont-Dominican Republic Baseball Cultural Exchange Program allows teams from Vermont to travel to Puerto Plata for a week-long baseball tournament, community service learning and cultural immersion. In opposite years, teams from the Dominican Republic travel to Vermont for similar activities.

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Coach teaches kids to pitch -- and avoid injury


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The number of serious shoulder and elbow injuries in youth baseball and softball players has increased fivefold in the past 10 years, says the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.

by Kristen Browning-Blas, The Denver Post
The Seattle Times
May 12, 2010


FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Frank Gonzales is not an orthopedic surgeon, but he knows a shoulder injury when he sees one. After 11 years playing professional baseball and 20-plus coaching, the former pitcher has trained thousands of kids in the mechanics of throwing.

"I can tell just by looking at them. You see grimacing or a change in arm motion and it says right away there's something wrong," says Gonzales, varsity baseball coach at Fort Collins High School.

Nationally, the number of serious shoulder and elbow injuries in youth baseball and softball players has increased fivefold in the past 10 years, according to the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. At Children's Hospital in Denver, injury cases as well as surgeries have doubled every year since 2007.

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Philipstown Little League Hosts First Sandlot Day™ 2010


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May 5, 2010

COLD SPRING, NY - The SUNY Youth Sports Institute is pleased to announce that the Philipstown Little League hosted the first of many Sandlot Day 2010 events on Sunday, May 2.  Despite the hot and humid day, the major and minor teams of the Philipstown Little League and Softball League were able to play the game of baseball without adult interference. 

Of the more than 50 youngsters came to the ballpark and participated in Sandlot Day 2010.  Philipstown Little League®, President Eddie Barry was impressed on how creative and fair the kids made the games.  Barry said that the only adult supervision at the games were during the Noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. time slots.  Other than that, the kids had full range of the ball fields in Philipstown.  The kids elected their own managers, captains and umpires. The older kids even included minor league players with players from the majors. 

Continue reading Philipstown Little League Hosts First Sandlot Day™ 2010.
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Yankees' Teixeira goes to bat for kids


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by Jim Wilkie
ESPN.com
May 4, 2010

Academics and baseball have helped Mark Teixeira achieve great success in his life, so it's just natural the New York Yankees first baseman chooses to support causes for education and athletics.

Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira does impressive work on and off the field.
On Tuesday, Teixeira and Harlem RBI announced a partnership that includes a $100,000 donation and active involvement from the Yankees slugger.

Teixeira, 30, will join the youth-development organization's board of directors, serve as chairman of its 2010 Bids for Kids Gala on May 19 and be honorary chairman of Harlem RBI's $20 million capital campaign committee. Besides helping the East Harlem organization, which provides scholarships and baseball opportunities to inner-city youth, Teixeira will work to raise support for other RBI programs around the country.

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Baseball and Softball Bring Iraqi and American Youth Together


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by Laura Tischler
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
U.S. Department of State PR
April 30, 2010

Washington, DC -- The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs SportsUnited office will bring a group of young baseball players from Iraq to Washington, D.C. to participate in a Sports Visitors baseball/softball program May 3-13, 2010.

The delegation includes 10 boys and girls, ages 15-17, and five coaches who will take part in baseball skills clinics, including one taught by Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Ken Griffey, Jr. After a clinic from the prolific homerun hitter, the delegation will tour Camden Yards stadium, observe batting practice, and take in the Baltimore Orioles game against the Seattle Mariners on May 11th.

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Teams take dim view of dilapidated diamonds


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Parks' baseball fields suffer run-down conditions

by Erika Slife
Chicago Tribune
April 28, 2010

In the three years that Marquiese Booker has been on the baseball team at Austin Polytechnical Academy on the West Side, the left-fielder has played on the school's home baseball diamond at Columbus Park only three times.

The fields there are so shoddy that the team has had to play most home games on baseball diamonds they made themselves on open space elsewhere in the park. And this season, the coach is already eyeing a grassy patch near the school campus he believes could serve as a makeshift field.

"I want to play here because the field is bigger," said Booker, 17, a junior, as he stood on overgrown grass at Columbus Park where a pitcher's mound should have been. "We did the best way we could to get it playable. We had to smooth down the pathways so it could be run on and plant the bases down."

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3rd Texas City Little League coach faces charges


by Chris Paschenko 
The Daily News 
Aril 15, 2010

TEXAS CITY -- Little League Baseball officials were expected to decide Wednesday night whether to discipline a coach accused of using the F-word during a game. 

This latest incident is unrelated to two other coaches charged with disorderly conduct after an on-field brawl last month, but it marks the third arrest of a Texas City Little League coach since March 27.

Jeremy Brian Delgado, 33, was released on $170 bond, stemming from his April 8 arrest on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge during a game at Godard Park, Texas City police and a Municipal Court official said Wednesday.

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Tigers pitcher gives to youth baseball facility


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by Brent Jones
USA Today
April 19, 2010

Saginaw, MI -- Detroit Tigers righthander Zach Miner is pitching in to give special-needs children in the Saginaw area a place to play baseball.
Miner and the Tigers are on a West Coast road trip, but officials on Monday will conduct a ceremonial groundbreaking and check presentation to support the Frank N. Andersen Recreational Complex in Bridgeport Township and the Tri-Valley Miracle League.

Miner, the Detroit Tigers Foundation and Major League Baseball's Baseball Tomorrow Fund have contributed a combined $75,000 toward construction of a barrier-free field for the Tri-Valley Miracle League, which provides the Saginaw region's 63,000 special-needs children with an opportunity to play organized baseball.

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Baseball: With throwing-arm injuries rising in youth programs, learn prevention strategies


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by Lynda Shrager
Albany Times Union
April 12, 2010

Studies were presented recently at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons addressing the fact that throwing-arm injuries are on the rise in youth baseball programs.

Once an injury occurs, the player could be out for the season or, worse yet, suffer permanent damage. So, players, parents and coaches should be aware of injury-prevention strategies.


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Pitching injuries in youth baseball on the rise


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by CNN Staff
NECN/CNN
April 14, 2010

Experts are calling it an epidemic -- pitching injuries in youth baseball. How to prevent them is of course the big question.

As pitching great Tom Glavine watches his son's Little League practice, he says: 

"You know, I wouldn't let a kid at 11-years-old throw a breaking ball. I never threw a breaking ball until I got to high school." 

So, why does he say that? Well, because the breaking ball, also called the curve ball, puts too much stress on pre-teen elbows.

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Temecula Youth Baseball hosts international scrimmage


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by JP Raineri
The Valley News
April 9th, 2010. 

Last weekend, at the Ronald Reagan Sports Park, the Temecula PONY baseball organization, known locally as the Temecula Youth Baseball League (TYB), hosted an international scrimmage game featuring seven young Japanese baseball players and 13 very fortunate TYB players that were selected at random from a list of over 300 entries from the league. 

"It was the first time the Japanese players had ever been to California, and they were all  so excited for the opportunity to not only play baseball in the states, but to also gain a new perspective on how American kids communicated during the game," stated Chris Cullen, director at the California School of English. "The goal is to bring kids from abroad here to the area to enhance their English speaking skills, and at the same time give them something special to remember in other areas that they excel in, like sports."

Temecula Mayor Jeff Comerchero was also on hand to welcome the players and help manage one of the teams along with other TYB coaches.

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Astros open Urban Youth Academy


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Houston facility is second to offer free year-round training

by Ben DuBose
MLB.com
April 10, 2010

HOUSTON - The Astros, Major League Baseball and the city of Houston on Saturday officially opened the Houston Astros MLB Urban Youth Academy, the second such facility in the nation to offer free year-round baseball, softball and education programs.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place at Sylvester Turner Park on Houston's north side, and was attended by MLB executives, Astros players and staff, and local elected officials instrumental to the project.

"This will make a huge difference in Houston," said Astros owner Drayton McLane, one of the ceremony's lead speakers. "To get baseball back in the inner cities is a big step. It's trying to teach character, discipline and teamwork, and how to work together and get things accomplished. This is going to develop not only baseball players, but abilities for a lifetime."

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Pitch, Hit and Run competitions coming soon to various locations


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by John Blake
Cleveland Sun News
April 09, 2010

The area's youth is invited to compete in the Aquafina Major League Baseball Pitch, Hit and Run competition, coming soon at various times and locations.

All events are free and open to boys and girls ages 7-14.
Pitch, Hit and Run is the official skills competition of Major League Baseball. This grassroots program is designed to provide youngsters with an opportunity to compete, free of charge, in a competition that recognizes individual excellence in core baseball/softball skills.

Competitors are divided into four age divisions: 7/8, 9/10/, 11/12 and 13/14, and have the chance to advance through four levels of competition, including team championships at MLB ballparks and the national finals at the 2010 MLB All-Star Game.

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Youth sports are getting out of hand


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Youth sports should be more about fun and less about competition

by Janelle Greer
Express-Times
April 07, 2010

I sincerely hope I'm not the only person who feels this way when I say youth sports have not only moved into the realm of ridiculous, they've taken up residence there.

My older brother, Jay, signed up his soon-to-be 6-year-old son, Jayson, for T-ball and was telling me that, at least for now, the boy has practice twice a week for two hours at a time. Not only that, his weekday practice is from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. No kidding, T-ball practice four hours a week and running that late into the night.

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Astros Urban Youth Academy set to open


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Ribbon-cutting for baseball facility to be held Saturday

by Brian McTaggart
MLB.com
April 6, 2010

HOUSTON - Nearly 16 months after Major League Baseball, the city of Houston and the Astros announced plans to build the Houston Astros MLB Urban Youth Academy, the project is set for its grand opening Saturday.

The ribbon-cutting will take place at 11 a.m. CT at Sylvester Turner Park on Houston's north side, with local politicians, Major League Baseball officials and players and staff from the Astros on hand to assist with the opening of the facility, which is the second of its kind.

Following the grand opening, Texas state Rep. Sylvester Turner will play host to the Third Annual Family Day in the Park for the Acres Homes community from 2-7 p.m. CT. The event, which is free and open to the public, includes food and beverages, T-shirts and games for kids, baseball exhibitions and other activities.

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