The numbers continue to rise every year and the president of Sackville Minor Baseball says he couldn't be more pleased.
Chris Vogels says the number of young players who signed up for baseball this season is up another 20 per cent, proving that the sport is continuing to gain ground in the Sackville area.
"The numbers have gone up every year," says Vogels, who has served on the minor baseball association for the past five years.
At an astounding 122 players this year, Vogels says the upward trend is gratifying but isn't so sure of the reasoning behind the spike.
"Word of mouth, I guess," he says when asked why he thinks there's been an increase.
With 16 kids in Bantam, 23 in Peewee, 38 in the Mosquito division, 15 in t-ball and 30 in 5-pitch, he admits that's a vast contrast to the first year he was president when only half a dozen players came out to the field for t-ball.
Also on the rise is the number of girls who have registered for baseball this year. In fact, in the 5-pitch division, which features kids ages seven and eight, 12 out of the 30 players are girls this season.
Again, Vogels says he's at a loss as to why more girls decided to sign up this year but is excited that they're doing so.
"I'm not sure why, because we don't go out and specifically target girls . . . but I think it's awesome that both boys and girls want to come out and play."
Sackville's minor baseball program is broken up into several age divisions - t-ball with kids ages five and six, 5-pitch with children seven and eight, mosquito with youth from ages nine to 11, peewee with youngsters ages 12 and 13, and bantam with 14-and 15-year-olds.
The Mosquito division is the beginner competitive league and the players are broken up into three teams - two that use a pitching machine for games and practice and one that continues the traditional live pitching.
Vogels says this will be the second season the teams have used the pitching machine, which offers players more chances to hit or field the ball rather than spending all their time on perfecting their pitching.
"The play is much quicker and livelier . . . and it allows them to get much more comfortable at the plate."
The PeeWee and Bantam teams are the next step up and they compete in leagues that play games throughout the local region - including Moncton, Riverview, Dieppe and Shediac.
But Vogels admits his frustration that the larger ball field on Lorne Street, which is the field normally used by the Peewee and Bantam teams, has been unusable so far this season as the town waits for the contractor to begin work on drainage improvements.
"It's been a nightmare . . . right now they can't even be used," he says, noting that practice has been limited for those two teams as the minor baseball association scrambles to locate other fields.
The field upgrades, which were anticipated to begin nearly two weeks ago, are expected to take up to three weeks to finish so Vogels is still left unsure of whether to pencil in home games into the leagues' schedules.
"It's very frustrating. All these kids want is to get out there and play ball."
Todd Cole, director of parks and recreation facilities for the town, said although the contractor was set to begin work on the fields early last week, the upgrades were delayed due to the weather. Work is expected to get under way today (Wednesday, June 30).
Cole said the lighted ball field is closed until the repairs are complete as the field is too dangerous to use. In the meantime, he said the baseball association and his department have worked together to secure a field in Dorchester as well as the ball field at Salem School for practice.
