Little League season is underway
Little Leaguers excited for start of season
Said Towamencin Baseball Director Jeff Baer, as Saturday’s ceremonies got under way: “I’m hopeful that soon, very soon, we will have weather that’s more befitting baseball.”
No worries, those in attendance celebrated the cold and bluster of Opening Day by firing off confetti cannons.
“Baseball is life,” State Representative Kate Harper said while addressing the chilly but spirited crowd at Bustard Road Park Saturday. “You think you’re gonna learn how to pitch and hit and catch and run and do all the things you gotta do to win, but what you really learn is how to practice hard, how to be a good teammate, how to win gracefully, and when you do lose, you will learn how to say to yourself, ‘what can I do better next time?’”
Little League Opening Day arrived all across the area, including at Bustard Road, where Hatfield-Towamencin Baseball and Softball got things started off with a Barbershop Quartet rendition of ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame,’ followed by a ceremonial first pitch thrown out by former Phillie Tommy
“We all know today is the best day ever.” — Doug Servi, North Penn Little League Director
Greene — quite naturally, a knuckleball.
“Proud to be 50,” Greene told the crowd, just two days after No. 49 celebrated his 50th birthday.
More than 750 players and parents turned out for Hatfield-Towamencin’s Opening Day while just a few miles away, North Penn Little League got its season rolling.
It marked the 58th annual Opening Day festivities for North Penn Little League, the Senator Holl Field Complex in Lansdale dotted with team jerseys of every color, featuring a mascot race around the bases between Sparky the Dog of Colmar Volunteer Fire Company and The Hatfield Hot Dog.
The Hatfield Hot Dog had a strong final kick to get the win.
“We all know today is the best day ever,” North Penn Little League Director Doug Cervi told the eager crowd as the Parade of Teams completed their march onto the field.
Senator Stewart Greenleaf spoke of how baseball and softball are “an opportunity for young people to learn about sportsmanship and fair play.”
Sarah Burns, an eighthgrade student at Pennbrook Middle School, sang the National Anthem and Lansdale Mayor G. Andrew Szekely fired out a strong first-pitch strike.
Senator Bob Mensch also threw one across the plate, albeit with a bounce.
“I would have swung,” kidded Cervi.
Back at Bustard Road, mascots galore — including the Chick-fil-A cow and his oversized ballglove — offered high-fives and congratulations to the dozens of youngsters, all of whom seemed thrilled to get the season started.
Baseball is, after all, a generational thing, typified by the Klinger family, four generations strong in Hatfield-Towamencin baseball.
“We like to emphasize team,” Baer said, “because together, everyone achieves more.”