The Coaster

By TOM SHORTELL

Coaster Photo: A 6-year-old scorches a ball of a tee at Joe Palaia Park during the season opener.

The Ocean Township Youth Baseballs Babe Ruth Summer Program kicked off Monday night with opening ceremonies followed by games for the leagues 14 teams.

Michael Vernick, league president, opened the ceremony by speaking about the programs growth and its goal of helping its players grow, too.

The league is entering its third season and has expanded from two divisions with 75 kids to four divisions with 189.

Our main goal is pretty simple, Vernick said to the teams watching from the outfield grass. At the end of the year, we want every kid to be able to say they improved their baseball skills and had fun doing so.

Mayor William Larkin threw out the ceremonial first pitch, and the players ran out to their fields spread across Joe Palaia Park to play ball.

The main interest of the league, as Vernick said in the opening, is fun. Returning umpire Norm Kennedy said even the parents remember that, despite the occasional horror story from around the country of parents abusing umpires in their childrens games.

Its more for fun than for seriousness. The parents arent going to give you a hard time, Kennedy said.

David Brown watched his step-son Manny Padron warm up for his 10/11 year-old division game. Hes been playing since he could hold a bat, Brown said of his step-son.

The little league level has always been Browns favorite level of baseball, he said, and that hes never cared much for the major leagues.

This right here is baseball, Brown said.

Coaster Photo: A pitcher for the the 10/11 year-old Mets threw a pitch by a Phillies batter in the top of the first inning.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 11:44 am and is filed under Ocean Township, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.