WSLL baseball returned to Hamilton during the first week of June – just in the nick of time.
Fireworks, barbeques, sitting by a pool and, oh yeah– baseball. Summer isn’t the same without the national pastime, and that goes double for our great town of Hamilton.
It’s unquestionable that Hamilton is a baseball city, and the bedrock of love for the national pastime is West Side Little League.
For years WSLL has been seen as the pinnacle of youth baseball not only locally but throughout the state. This year that tradition was nearly put on halt because of COVID-19.
“Initially we were concerned that with the restrictions that were in place, that we weren’t going to be able to play,” said West Side director Josh Davidson. “We knew that if it were up to us, we were going to play baseball.”
The Little League season typically starts in April and concludes with the City Tournament in early June. In March, Ohio started leading the charge in attempting to flatten the curve and started shutting down the state. With restaurants, retail stores and entertainment venues being forced to close their doors, youth athletics had to follow suit. Then May hit and the sun started to rise.
“Governor DeWine gave us a 10 day heads up that we will be able to return to play as long as we are compliant to the regulations,” said Davidson.
So West Side obliged so they could start playing ball. Some of the changes to park include social distancing inside the dugouts. There are two lines for all restrooms and concessions. There is hand sanitizer in every dugout, as well as in the restrooms and in the concession windows. Originally the state was going to force coaches and players to wear masks, but that has since been rescinded.
The first week of June, baseball returned to the West Side of Hamilton. Obviously, since the season is two months behind it will run throughout the duration of the summer.
“We are currently scheduled to play until the end of July,” said Davidson. “We are still trying to figure out if we will do a fall season or not.”
The big question on most parents and athletes’ minds is what happens with All-Stars. The Little League World Series has already been canceled because of COVID-19. Which makes sense because of the travel necessary for that to happen. The state tournament has also been canceled, but the district has not.
“We are currently looking into options in the case that Little League decides to not host any formal tournaments. We’ve discussed holding our own non-Little League affiliated tournament,” said Davidson. “It wouldn’t be a Little League sanctioned tournament. But we would invite some of the more dominant leagues that we see in the state tournament so that we could have a tournament of our own.”
For years the 12 year olds have worked up the ranks for a chance to win their very own state title. Since that has been taking away the coalition that runs West Side is looking to give those kids the best experience possible.
“West Side has won districts every year since 1985, so this has become an expectation and a goal for our kids,” said Davidson. “We want to give our kids the opportunity to win something.”
If that tournament is played, it will be in August.
Though West Side is up and playing they still have felt some repercussions of COVID-19.
“The previous years we were typically around 500 kids throughout the park,” said Davidson. “We had 500 again this year, but we ended up losing about 80 kids due to concerns around COVID-19.”
Other leagues in the area have felt a similar sting.
“Although that is a lot, that is much less than other parks around us,” he said. “I think that has to do with the tradition we have at West Side.”
All summer long you will be able to head over to WSLL and watch the most dominant Little League in Ohio do what they do best.