Home British baseball Herts Baseball Little League 2009

Herts Baseball Little League 2009

by Matt Smith

Courtesy of Herts Baseball Club

The Herts Baseball Little League begins this Saturday in Hemel Hempstead, bringing together boys and girls from Hertfordshire with the aim of playing ball and having fun.  No doubt there will be plenty of enthusiastic grown-ups, wrapped up in the excitement, acting like little kids as well.  Baseball is a true family sport and nothing displays that better than a well-organized Little League event. 

Herts Baseball Club are one of the most progressive clubs in Britain, so excellent organization is assured.  They have senior baseball teams throughout the levels of the British (South) league system and their impressive Little League set-up will hopefully develop many ballplayers who go on to represent the senior Herts clubs and maybe even their country in the senior Great Britain team one day. 

One of the keys to getting youngsters involved, and to convince the parents that their kids will be well looked after, is to develop good facilities.  This has both a ‘Field of Dreams’ aspect (creating somewhere that makes the kids’ eyes light up, something completely different to the endless parade of football pitches they are used to) and also instilling a professional atmosphere to inspire the kids, parents and coaching staff. 

The baseball complex at Grovehill Ballpark is one of the very best in Britain and Herts Baseball Club are not resting on their laurels.  They are continuing to make improvements to the site, as explained at HertsBaseball.com:

“Since last season, over £10,000 has been invested in developing the baseball facilities at Grovehill Ballpark thanks to a grant from the National Lottery.  It is already becoming an impressive sporting venue which is packed with baseball events for youth and adult teams from March until October.  The members of Herts Baseball Club have been working hard over the last 12 months to raise additional funds for the development of Grovehill Ballpark and these are scheduled to be invested later in the year”.

The link above provides full details about the Herts Baseball Little League opening day festivities and how children can get involved.  The league is open to both boys and girls aged between 5 and 14+.  A wealth of information is available at http://www.hertslittleleague.com/, including schedules/results, rules, important pages on bullying and child welfare, and details on uniforms and fees.  All equipment is provided as part of the annual fee, currently listed as £30.

The only downside to the Herts Baseball Little League is that it can provoke strong pangs of jealousy from those of us who would have killed for such a league nearby when we were growing up (I could have been the next Albert Pujols, if only I’d have had the breaks etc!).  

Kids in Hertfordshire: it’s time to start pestering your parents!

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3 comments

Matthew Crawshaw May 14, 2009 - 7:28 am

What a fantastic set up there is at Herts Baseball Club. We are looking at having a kids set up at the Leicester Blue Sox for the first time this summer, but it’s proving very difficult to get things co-ordinated with schools etc.

I have been thinking on going down to Herts to see how things are done and learn from their success, as without the kids, there will be no future for Baseball UK.

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Matt Smith May 14, 2009 - 7:45 am

That’s very true. I’m sure Aspi and the folks at Herts BC would be more than willing to offer advice and share experiences. The more places where kids can enjoy the game, the better.

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Joe Cooter May 14, 2009 - 10:26 am

This is one of the keys too developing a strong program nationally. By getting kids to play the game at a young age. That fact can be proven by the Milan Team that represented Europe in Last Years Little league world series. For the first time in history, the team that represented Europe did not feature one player whose parents were in the US Military. All those kids were italian, which is good for the sport in Europe. I saw some of that series on ESPN and from all reports they represented Europe well. That will ultimately help the Sport in Europe as a whole.

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