In full swing: Youth baseball shows renewed life 2 years after lockdown

Eleven-year-old Ian Taylor couldn’t tie the laces of his baseball spikes fast enough.

The sweltering 92-degree temperature couldn’t slow Ian or temper his enthusiasm as he rushed toward the ballfield for warmups with his Yankees teammates.

They were about to take on the Expos in the ages 10-11 division of West Point Little League.

“It’s our first playoff game,” Ian said as his parents, Tim and Tiffany, looked on.

The covid lockdown orders from March 2020 that wiped out or vastly curtailed the 2020 season for many kids now seem like an eternity ago, according to a sampling of youth coaches and leaders throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Despite concerns that baseball and softball participation levels wouldn’t be sustained, small-scale diamonds are again bursting with activity in many communities.

“We’re actually in great shape. We’ve had a lot of participation this year, especially among our younger groups,” said West Point Little League President Tom Rennie.

The season that began this spring will culminate in late August with the annual Little League World Series in Williamsport. Since the league was created there with three teams in 1939, it has expanded through volunteers and sponsorship efforts to become the world’s largest organized youth sports program, according to league information. It has nearly 200,000 teams in all 50 U.S. states and more than 80 countries.

Other organizations play in the Washington, Pa.-based PONY League. About 500,000 participants in more than 50 countries play PONY League baseball each year. The organization, founded in 1951, holds its World Series in August every year in Washington County.

Part of community fabric

Mark Aujay’s love of the sport was borne through a transistor radio and the 1970s Pittsburgh Pirates. He grew up through Little League and American Legion baseball, and his time playing the game concluded after three years as a pitcher for California University of Pennsylvania.

Now 55, Aujay, who raised three boys — Peyton, Logan and Milan — with his wife, Rita in the community of Lowber in Sewickley Township, has volunteered as a league officer and coach for more than 15 years.

“For me, it’s woven into life,” he said. “It’s how I grew up, playing Wiffle ball all day in the yard then going to games at six. If you can hit the curve from a Wiffle ball, you can hit any pitch.”

The ubiquitous plastic yellow bat and white perforated ball also leap to mind for Jason Bush, a longtime baseball coach in the Latrobe area. So do those winning Pirates from decades ago.

“I was born in 1970, and the Pirates were good,” he said. “They won two World Series, and I grew up playing the game. We played baseball all day, played Wiffle ball. And I’ve been incredibly fortunate to continue as a coach. There’s always, for me, been a love of the game.”

Youth baseball has multiple forms in 2022: from recreation leagues for which anyone can play, to “all-star” teams that rise from the rec league system, to “travel” teams that play other teams in regional competition throughout the northeast U.S.

While Aujay and Bush are engaged with the game in some form year-round, they each encourage players and parents to temper what can become too intense of a focus on success.

“You’ve got a wide range of kids involved in baseball,” Aujay said. “Some might play three or four other sports — which I highly encourage. Some play just because they love the sport, some want to be with their friends, and for some, the parents say, ‘I love baseball and you’re going to play.’”

Bush said he knows boys who play for three teams in an effort to refine their game and have drawn the attention of college and professional scouts.

“Baseball is a hard game to play,” he said, and there are many facilities today that focus on baseball-specific training. “We ought to let young men be young men. If you’re a good player, they’re going to find you.”

‘Just booming’

Twenty-five miles north of the West Point fields, the county’s Northmoreland Park in Allegheny Township was packed just 15 minutes after opening on a recent Saturday.

On one field, an “under 14” baseball tournament hosted by the Kiski Valley Baseball and Softball Association was already in play, and in two other fields, young players ages 7-8 were warming up to music blaring over the public address systems, readying for their playoff games in the coach-pitch leagues to begin.

The fields would be hosting multiple games into Saturday evening, said Angela Matson, league president, as she prepared more than a dozen pay envelopes for multiple umpires planning to work games in the three fields Saturday and again Sunday.

“It’s like this every weekend here,” Matson said. “Our kids couldn’t wait to get back, to tell you the truth. And our programs for our little ones ages 3-8, including T-ball, coach-pitch, are just booming this year.”

The independent league provides baseball and softball opportunities for boys and girls through their teens through PONY League and USA Softball.

“We have 419 participants this year. That’s more than pre-covid … we really didn’t skip a beat,” she said.

According to the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit promoting youth sports participation that uses data compiled by the Sports Fitness & Industry Association, 13.6% of kids ages 6-12 played baseball in 2018, which reflects a 3% increase from 2015. Baseball was the second-most popular sport for kids in that age group after basketball, which had a 14.1% participation rate.

However, those numbers dipped to 12.2% during the pandemic, according to a study released in 2021 by the Washington, D.C.-based organization. Equally concerning, according to authors of the study, was a section in the 2021 survey of parents that reported nearly 3 in 10 child athletes lost interest in playing organized sports.

Randy Frankel, a fixture for 35 years as director of the Squirrel Hill Baseball Association for boys and girls ages 3 to 17, said that league also is flourishing.

Frankel did not have exact numbers but said the 350 to 400 participants in the organization’s multiple programs, including girls softball, is among the highest “as long as I’ve been here.”

Frankel said the league had consistently grown over the three-plus decades he has been involved.

“I just love being around the kids watching them learn and have fun. Among the most satisfying things for me is that some of the kids I had playing in the league when I started are now coaching,” he said.

Room to grow

Brian Shaffer of Kittanning in Armstrong County has coached Little League and served as District 26 director, which includes 10 youth leagues in portions of Allegheny, Armstrong and Westmoreland counties.

“For the most part, it was a pretty good bounce-back year for us, I’d say. We’re about back to normal. It was full steam ahead, and I’d say participation was about 90% of where we were before,” Shaffer said.

Shaffer said some leagues like those in Deer Lakes and Latrobe actually increased the number of teams from the past. He added that among setbacks was the Highlands Little League program had to be canceled at all age levels in the spring because of a lack of players. Organizers will try again in 2023, Shaffer said.

Deer Lakes Youth Baseball Association President Jay Fraser said the league has seen growth in the past two to three years after a decline for a number of years. He said the league averages 250 participates in the spring/summer.

“We have seen the biggest growth in our younger age groups,” he said.

Kerry Harris of the Burrell Baseball Association said that league retained its Little League affiliation for its younger T-ball and coach-pitch divisions, but directors opted to participate in the PONY League season with the Allegheny County River league because the older divisions didn’t draw enough participants.

Instead, Harris said the three teams in those divisions can compete against more teams in neighboring communities “instead of the same teams every week.”

As far as youth baseball returning toward pre-covid numbers and beyond, Shaffer said he believes he has an explanation.

“I think first thing is that parents want their children to be outside playing, being active again. I know a lot of parents were tired of their kids being home playing on the video games all the time,” he said.

“Secondly, I think baseball is so ingrained in the people in this region that kids and adults look forward to it. I know my own 15-year-old son, Maddox, who played high school ball, too, (at Armstrong High School) and he just loves baseball,” Shaffer said.

On a recent breezy Wednesday summer evening, Shields Farm fields in Delmont served as a hub of sights and sounds of summer baseball — parents were erecting canopies to create shade as the familiar “plink” of aluminum bats connecting with baseballs rang out across the grounds.

Josh Lengyel wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.

“I’ve been playing since I was 3 years old,” Josh, 11, said prior to a Deer Lakes Lancers 10-and-under travel game. “I love getting ready to play, meeting new people sometimes and reuniting with some of my friends who I don’t get to see at school.”

Back to life

For Brian Zombek, it was his first year as president of the Southmoreland Youth Athletic League. That nonprofit has multiple baseball programs from T-ball for children age 4 to organized leagues up to age 18.

“I’ll admit we had a couple of lean years. But this year we had about 140 kids participating, and that’s pretty much on par with (pre-covid). And the community and parental support we have received this year has also been great,” Zombek said.

Fred Aiello, president of Latrobe-Derry Teener League for ages 13-15, said that league had a “very good year.”

“We have had to expand the rosters because of the number of kids in our league also playing in travel ball. We have 10 teams with 15-player rosters in order to fill a lineup because of all the kids in travel ball,” Aiello said. “Over the years, we’ve had as few as eight teams and as many as 10. We have about 155 registered, so I’d say this is a pretty normal year for us and that’s good.”

Bush, of Latrobe, who has been part of the region’s American Legion District 31 program for 23 years, first as a coach and the last 17 as head coach of the Latrobe Jethawks, also worked as assistant coach at Chatham and St. Vincent colleges and many years in the Latrobe-Derry Teener League program. This past year, he coached the Ligonier Valley High School baseball team.

“Kids today are just torn in so many directions with the number of things going on, including other sports available,” Bush said. “I think organized youth baseball is about as popular today as it has been in recent years, but what you don’t see too much any more is kids just playing pickup ball in backyards or games of Wiffle ball.”

He works to build team camaraderie and get a little help after games, asking for at least 10 minutes from each of his Legion team players to clean and prepare the the field for the next games.

“Many, many parents ask me how I get the boys to do that,” he said with a laugh. “They can’t get them to do that at home.”

Aujay said the encouragement he is able to offer players and the growth they experience as individuals while playing the sport are core elements of what makes baseball special for him.

“There’s a game to be played with every single person,” he said. “That’s what I love as a coach.”