Baseball is booming in Prince George.
The number of kids chasing down balls and hitting for the fences in the Prince George Youth Baseball Association has climbed to 515. That's 78 more players than last year, according to league president Brenda Astorino, and continues the trend established last year, when the league grew to 437 from 370.
"That's another 18 per cent growth this year and we don't know where to put them," said Astorino.
"We're having to do doubleheaders and we're grabbing school fields, it's a good problem to have. We're talking to the kids on registration night and a lot of the kids are playing because their friends are playing and are having fun and we're getting a lot of word of mouth referrals."
Astorino says the resurgence of the Toronto Blue Jays as a playoff team that went to the American League championship series last year raised the profile of baseball and is also encouraging young players to join.
"Everybody was hooked on the Blue Jays watching them on TV last year, everybody was cheering them on and it had an impact," said Astorino.
"It's just a good sport. There's a lot of great baseball here in Prince George this year. We've got the Canadian Native fastball championship this year and the World Baseball Challenge and we were awarded the midget provincials this year, which is right after the native fastball."
The city will host the 10-team double-A midget provincial championships, Aug. 5-7, at Rotary Field and Citizen Field in Carrie Jane Gray Park.
"It's nice we get to play at Citizen Field," said Astorino, "You show them that field and people are wowed, 'We get to play on that field?'"
More than half of the league's players are in the 11-and-under age group. The largest age group in the PGYBA this year is the mosquito division (10-and-11-year olds), with 117 players, up from 95 last year. There are 116 players in coach/pitch (six- and seven-year-olds) and 96 tadpoles (eight- and nine-year-olds).
"It was a real challenge this year to find coaches because we had so many kids," said Astorino. "We had to go begging for coaches."
Many of those coaches got involved after watching their kids learn the game from the B.C. Minor Baseball Association coaching caravan, which set up at Kelly Road secondary school on an April weekend. The caravan drew more than 400 parents and kids, the most of any city in the province.
The league has considered refurbishing Carrie Jane Gray ball field next to Rotary Field to give the players one more field in a downtown location, where the snow melts a couple weeks earlier than the diamonds in the Hart Highway area.
"The building was condemned and we need new dugouts and we have to fence it," said Astorino. "The city is more than happy to listen to us but we have to put a business plan together. I think it will cost about $50,000. The infield needs a little work but the field itself isn't that bad, it's the fencing that needs to be fixed."
The PGYBA utilizes four fields at Volunteer Park and also plays at Gyro Park, Harry Loder Field, Rotary Field and Joe Martin Field, site of the 1996 Canadian Little League championship.
"Joe Martin has the most potential, it's our field of dreams," said Astorino. "It takes the longest to get ready, it's the deepest and has the most snow and most mosquitoes but we did a lot of work on it last year to bring the field up, so the field itself is looking good."
The peewee division has 69 players, which is over the threshold of the double-A limit of 65 players, mandated by B.C. Minor Baseball, but the PGYBA has applied for an exception to the rule, based on the short season for baseball in Prince George.
"We don't even get on our fields until May, we have a two-month season and we can't compete at the triple-A level," said Astorino. "They've allowed us to stay (double-A) two years in a row, but they monitor us. If we go in and start clobbering teams they will shove is into triple-A."
The bantam group (13- and 14-year-olds) has 40 players, while there are 15 midget players, enough for one team, the Lomak midget Knights, who are off to a great start in the Northland Dodge Senior Baseball League.
The Prince George bantam Knights rep team will be in Sherwood Park for a tournament this weekend.
