ARTICLE TOOLS

E-mail story

Comments

Printer friendly version

iPod friendly version

Share This

Text Size: A A A A

Young players have many baseball options in Chattanooga area

By: Jim Tanner
(Contact)

Included in this article

Kevin Wright

Many changes have occurred and leagues have come and gone in youth baseball in the 50 years since Dixie Youth Baseball began in Tennessee.

Joe Engle’s Knothole Gang leagues thrived in the 1940s and ’50s, giving children of that era the chance to play organized ball in the Chattanooga area. Little Boys Baseball, later Dixie Youth, played a major role in youth baseball on Lookout and Signal mountains as well as in Red Bank, and Babe Ruth Baseball offered youth baseball in the area.

In the late 1970s, Dizzy Dean Baseball began play in the Chattanooga area. Dizzy Dean national board member Bobby Dunn said that league initially came to offer a more open style of play to the area.

“We came in here about 1979 and I think one of the reason was ... we allowed players to lead off and steal as 12-yearolds.” Dunn said.

In addition to the state tournaments being hosted this week by Dixie Youth Baseball on Lookout Mountain and in Red Bank, Dizzy Dean will be hosting the 6-year-old World Series at Camp Jordan Park in East Ridge.

Kevin Wright, commissioner of baseball and softball at Camp Jordan, said 55 to 60 teams from several states will be attending the tournament, which begins with opening ceremonies Thursday night at Camp Jordan.

Wright says tournaments such those being hosted this week by Dizzy Dean and Dixie Youth have a significant impact on the area economy.

“We’ve worked closely with Merrill Eckstine and the Chattanooga Sports Committee, and those guys are estimating about $1.5 million in economic impact from bringing something like this to East Ridge and the Chattanooga area,” Wright said.

In the past 20 years, the rise of select, traveling baseball teams also has had an effect on youth baseball in the area. James Pratt was one of the pioneers of these teams, helping found the Chattanooga Colonels select team.

“In the early 1990s, John King and myself ... started the Chattanooga Colonels,” Pratt said. “That was the first to my knowledge of select baseball. Prior to that, people had been playing in leagues like Babe Ruth and Dizzy Dean and went through the All-Star process. ... We saw what soccer was doing. Soccer had started developing these traveling teams, so we started the Chattanooga Colonels.

“We created a local league of select teams. And we got a lot of resistance, quite frankly, from the leagues because we were pulling some of the better players out of the rec leagues to play on these select teams. But we felt like that gave them a better opportunity for those that were really serious about playing baseball in college.”

Despite his role in bringing select baseball to Chattanooga, Pratt says he sees that the system can sometimes go too far and hurt young athletes and youth baseball.

“Quite frankly, there’s select leagues all the way down to 5-and 6-year-olds, and I don’t know how good that is,” Pratt said. “They start these select teams so early now, I think there’s a good chance that a lot of kids get burnt out. ... I personally would never get involved in any of the traveling teams until they got through with, basically, little league. I believe you should stay in the rec leagues through (age) 12.”

Dunn of Dizzy Dean Baseball says that despite challenges from select ball, other leagues and a slow economy, his organization is working hard to keep recreational baseball alive in the Chattanooga area.

“To be honest with you, I think this year on account of the economy we may be down a little bit,” Dunn said. “We have about 600 teams approximately that play Dizzy Dean Baseball in this area. I think we’re growing. We’re trying to grow. We’re trying to be aggressive with it in terms of trying to grow.”

Comments