Kyle Proctor couldn’t stand the thought of kids not having a place to play baseball this summer.
The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing health crisis has canceled many traditional baseball leagues around the area, but recent guidelines set out by the state will allow recreational leagues to start playing in mid-June.
So Proctor stepped up.
“Growing up in a small town playing baseball all summer long and doing that for years and years and then coaching the legion and all that,” Proctor, who is the Waynetown town marshal and coached the American Legion Byron Cox Post No. 72 team last summer, said. “It just drove me crazy knowing that kids didn’t have anywhere to play baseball this summer because COVID. You have a nice park up there with three baseball diamonds. It wasn’t going to work for me them not being used all summer.”
Tremaine Park in Waynetown will house the two leagues, which will start practice the week of June 15, and plat 8-12 games on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and some Saturdays in July before a single-elimination tournament to wrap up the season. There will be a 5-7 year old league which will be coach pitch and an 8-10 year league which will be pitching machine. The leagues are both free and open to any child.
“You can play if you’re from anywhere,” Proctor said. “You can come from Illinois if you want.”
In order to make it free, Proctor began to seek out sponsors for each team, and they all came very quickly.
“We had 20 within two or three days at $250 apiece,” he said. “We’ve had a tremendous amount of support from local businesses and businesses in Crawfordsville. It’s been great and people have still been donating.”
Players can sign up online through Top Line Athletics, and in person on Saturday, May 23 and Saturday, May 30 at Tremaine Park from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
