Little Leagues awaiting a sign
Baseball, other sports look for direction from state on when to start
The boys of summer may become the boys of late summer or fall — and even that may be optimistic.
Youth baseball normally is going full throttle at this time of year, but COVID-19 has silenced the bats and balls. Under the state’s four-phase reopening plan, group recreational activities will be the last to open, with an earliest projected date of July 1.
Even then, there will be questions.
“It has to be safe for the kids. I have to have no restrictions,” said Mark Fusco, president of the National Little League of Albany. “There’s no way to social distance kids in a dugout, there’s no way to play baseball with masks on their faces, and so forth — as much as I’d love to play baseball and love to have these kids out there.”
Little League Baseball and Softball, a national organization based in Williamsport, Pa., already has canceled its popular World Series tournaments, but has encouraged local leagues and districts to plan their seasons while adhering “to the guidelines set forth by their respective state and local government and health officials.”
Area baseball organizations have been discussing their situation with each other and are trying to develop blueprints on how to proceed once it becomes an approved activity in the state.
“Come July,” said
Rodger Wyland, Colonie Little League president and sports director at WNYT (Newschannel 13), “we might be able to put something together, safety being at the top of the list, that parents would agree to — masks being worn, social distancing, maybe even putting the kids outside the dugout, not having five games going on at the same time, scattering games. It’s still hopeful that we can get something in, knowing we might just have to not play at all this summer.”
The spring season, which normally would end in mid-june, already is a casualty. Because the all-star tournaments that normally would determine representatives to national events are no longer
needed, many leagues are hoping they can move their normal seasons into the summer months.
“We’re not going to be able to get into the playoffs and all that stuff,” Wyland said. “We’re just talking about a regular rec season. The village doesn’t care how late we go. So if we could get started even the second week of July and go to the end of August, maybe we’ll be able to get games in for these kids.”
“I’ve already refunded all our registrations for the spring season,” Fusco said. “It depends on the opening (dates). My ballfields are in the city of Albany, I have to go by what the city tells me. It’s technically their park. If they’re not open, then I can’t open at all.”
A message on the East Greenbush Castleton Youth Baseball website is typical of most organization’s wait-and-see attitude: “We are discussing numerous options including starting as early as safely allowed (possibly late June or early July), starting in the late summer (August or September) or any possible time in between.”
The players and coaches aren’t the only ones affected by baseball’s delayed opening. Capital Region umpires, who already have lost an entire high school season and most of their college baseball opportunities, are in limbo.
“My group, Schenectady, services from the college level on down to Little
Leagues, and everybody’s still in a holding pattern,” said Jimmie Dalton, president of the Schenectady Baseball Umpires Organization. “The earliest date that I have right now that any of the groups are looking to play, Schenectady Babe Ruth is looking at July 11 as a possible start-up date, but nothing confirmed. Other teams are pushing around games on a schedule, but until the parks are opened up, the fields are opened up, we’re in limbo.”
Leagues serving collegeage players also are in danger of not seeing a pitch thrown this summer.
The Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, which has four of its 12 teams in the Capital
Region, announced May 7 the cancellation of its 2020 season. The Albany Twilight League, for players age 18 and older, normally starts June 1 but is in a holding pattern.
Those are lost opportunities for umpires around the region.
“We have some guys that do this as their primary source of income,” Dalton said. “So they’re out there a little bit right now. Some of us do multiple sports, like football, basketball, and if they can’t get the schools open come September, these officials that do those sports are going to be in the same boat.”