Little league fosters local community
By KRISTIN MAYER Special to the Daily Press
MID-CITY Baseball flows thick in the Barone bloodline. Grandfather, father, children and assorted siblings across the generations grew up swinging bats and snagging flies at Santa Monica’s Memorial Park.
The family even received an appreciation award for three generations of commitment to the Santa Monica Little League.
Vaughn Barone, a Little League All-Star in the ’70s, coached in the Santa Monica league for 16 years and umpired for 13 more. He now serves as chief umpire and runs the snack bar along with his two sons.
“To go back and volunteer for the youth of the city was almost second nature,” Barone said.
Barone will join the families of 850 baseball and softball enthusiasts from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at Memorial Park for the traditional Santa Monica Little League Opening Day Ceremonies.
Players from tots to teens will gather at the field to finalize team assignments for the 57th season of Santa Monica Little League, pick- Kids at Saturday’s opening ceremonies will be treated to a visit by Dodgers great “Sweet” Lou Johnson. Parents will also have the opportunity to have ID cards made for their children. ing up uniforms and attending free instructional clinics on hitting and fielding.
Dodger great “Sweet” Lou Johnson will be on hand to throw out the first pitch, talk with the kids and sign autographs, according to Todd Gelfand, who is in his fourth year as president of the leagues.
Volunteers from Little League sponsors, such as the Elks and Masons, will be on hand to distribute child-ID cards at the event. (see related story) Each of the 70 Santa Monica teams will begin playing games over the next two weekends.
A ceremony at noon today will celebrate last season’s success by introducing the 12-year-old All-Star team that won the local District 25 tournament with a walk-off grand slam and advanced to the finals of the sectional tournament.
“We had hundreds of people watching our All-Star games last season,” Gelfand said, adding that during the ceremony they will post the banner honoring the district win. “It was quite exciting.”
The ceremony will also celebrate the City Championship trophy the Cardinals won in the major division, Gelfand said.
Barone explained how his roots in this Little League family environment fostered a passion that carried throughout the years.
“It’s really part of our family,”Barone said.“The love of the league and caring about keeping up the integrity of it, spreading the joy that I felt from it as a boy and as an adult.”
Not much has changed in the world of Little League since his playing days, Barone said. The game is the same. Memorial Park is the same. The memories are the same.
“The Little League is one part of the city that seems to keep the old flavor,” Barone said.
He reminisced about big picnic days with dunk tanks, real dugouts and huge scoreboards, noting that the family-friendly tradition has persevered on the field.
“It’s an old throwback, with all the balloons,” Gelfand said. “When people are trying to recreate memories of their youth for their kids, Little League is a great way to do it. Your children can have the same memories you had growing up. Parents appreciate that we’re providing that memory for their kids.”
Fifty-seven years of memories still resonate from the field where the baseball and softball teams play.
All of the players from the teams live within Santa Monica, a tribute to its traditionally local status.
“It’s very much a community thing,” Gelfand said. Team assignments for younger players loosely corresponds to where the kids attend school, but drafting starts with 9-12 year-olds in either the AAA minors or major league.
“If you go to one specific school and you’re involved in Little League, you’re meeting people you would have never had a chance of meeting,” Barone said.“It makes the community a lot smaller. It connects north of Montana to Sunset Park and the Pico neighborhood.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 24, 2007. Read the original PDF.