Big Spring Little League baseball set to take field at beginning of next week
Sports are finally coming back. No, it is not the Dallas Mavericks, Texas Rangers or Houston Astros resuming or beginning their season. No, it is not the Big Spring Steers or Lady Steers finally getting back on the field and court. It is not Coahoma or Forsan either. What local sports are coming back then? The Big Spring Little League that is who. The local youth baseball league will be playing their first games of the regular season next Monday. After delaying and pushing their season back a few months, young baseball players from around Howard County will finally get to return to the diamond and play the game they have grown to love.
“We held on to hope the entire time that we were going to get to play,” League President Bryan Kligora said. “We never canceled for that very reason. We expected when summer came around that most of this would blow over and we would at least be able to get the kids 10to-12 baseball games.”
The normal Little League season would have already ended but that does not mean the young players that had signed up way back in the early Spring are not still excited to be back playing a great sport with their friends. Another plus for the players is that while the season is usually played during the school year, it will now be played while they are out of school and able to enjoy all of their free time.
“Baseball is a different sport,” Kligora said. “It's America's pastime. Everybody loves baseball and for these kids just the thought of them not being able to play this year hurt quite a few of them. I'm just glad we're able to give them the opportunity to play.”
There will be 24 total teams with the age groups ranging all the way from three-year olds to 16-year olds. The league usually plays their games from March through July, but this year's season will be slightly different and shortened in response to COVID-19. Instead of the season stretching from three-to-four months, the 2020 Little League season will end on July 31. That means there will be a lot of games, and a lot of baseball, to be played in the short span of a month-and-a-half.
Restrictions on the league and attendees will not be too strict with the continuously loosened rules coming down from the local and state governments. Most of the changes will be focused on on-field factors but parents and fans in attendance are still expected to follow the current social distancing guidelines.
“We will be sanitizing the equipment in between each use,” Kligora said. “We'll have to sanitize the dugouts after each game. There will be no interaction with the other team so there won't be any handshakes after the game. There's no plate meetings. The pregame plate meeting between the coaches and the umpires will be done from a distance. Other than that, it's just going to be baseball as usual.”
All games will be played on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday during the week all the way up until July 31. There will be no games on July 2 or July 3 because of Fourth of July weekend and that will provide e a much-needed break after a busy 3.5 weeks of baseball.
Each of the games will be played at the Roy Anderson Sports Complex and everyone involved with Big Spring Little League will be thrilled to see a solid turnout for these young players. With no other sports currently being played at any level, now would be a good time to come and check out the future stars of Howard County athletics.
Shawn Moran is the sports writer at the Big Spring Herald. To contact him, e-mail sports@bigspringherald.com or call 432-263-7331.