1897

This is a new year in writing for the MAGAZINE and I want to start out with a request that each of you send me information which will help me prepare the articles for the year.

I have had a very busy summer and got hooked in a proposition that developed a great deal of interest—The Little League Baseball Activity.

Thirty years ago, when my associates and I were building a lot of houses, we provided for playgrounds, having in mind that a village boy should have a chance on the village field to let off steam. At our largest and most successful development which is called Seaside Village we left seven acres of land for use of the boys and girls for a proper place to play. This year by carefully scheduling I was able to run a baseball series of games for the six Little League Teams, playing four days each week, the Seaside Village Softball Team playing twice a week and the Teenage Girls Softball Teams playing afternoons when the field wasn't otherwise occupied, also four Farm Teams playing on a smaller field adjacent.

Our fields were suited to the use of the local residents, and when the boys from all over the city came for their evening games, the families from all over town gathered in large numbers. We started with about 400 visitors for the games each night, watching the boys in the Little League Teams who are 10 to 12 years old. Seating facilities were demanded and some old circus type bleachers were available and our crowds grew to 1000 very soon. These boys play good baseball, many games without an error, but with 300 Farm Teams, four of which practice and play their games on our smaller field in the same village, there was need for a lot of balls and a lot of bats.

I was successful in hitting the bull's eye on the method of getting balls subscribed for by people interested in kids. The scheme was to have the donor's name on the ball and have the loud speaker at the field announce the name of the donor when the ball goes into play. If the ball goes over the home run fence, which is 180 feet back from home base, the home run hitter has to take the ball back to the donor.

The home run fence was a problem because we only use the field for Little League four days a week and the larger boys play on the field the other two. We had to have a movable fence, and I used my engineering training to design a portable fence that could be put up in twenty minutes.

With all the neighbors coming in with their children and baby carriages and automobiles to visit, we had to have a field house convenience. When you start without any money and get a field house that is the best there is for boys, you've got to do some tricks. I found the New Haven Railroad had condemned four cabooses and I asked them if I could have one, and they said they would give it to me for the Little League. Now you know that a caboose is a boy's dream and being very well-constructed it is exceptionally well-suited for the needs as a field house. The conductor's small room in the front of the caboose was equipped for a women's rest room. The remainder of the caboose, which has a lot of lockers, was arranged with suitable plumbing for visiting teams. The first day we opened it our team was playing with Fairfield, and every boy had to go to the field house before he could start the game. I visited the caboose full of boys to find about half of the boys in the two teams up in the look-out seats sitting three deep.

The spirit of the caboose is ideal for taking its place between two baseball diamonds, and every kid in the neighborhood spends some part of every day setting the brakes. If a mother loses a boy about four years old, he ain't lost, he's just on the caboose somewhere.

I found the heart of Bridgeport has gone out to this newly developed organized play for boys, taking them just as they get through with the excitement of bubble gum and letting them play ball. It seemed wise to me to ask the good citizens of Bridgeport to participate a little financially and they responded very generously.

Bridgeport's teams have been thoroughly coached by excellent ball players, and as I write this we have won the District Championship and the State Championship. Our boys at Williamsport also played in the National Tournament and became runners up in the Little League "World Series." See the September 11 issue of Life.

My experience this year teaches me that the city kid given a proper place to play and orderly management of the activity responds with not only enthusiasm but with deep feeling. The Little League has made Bridgeport a better city, and I have been happy to be able to cooperate with this big, new movement which is going all over the country.

Secretary and Treasurer

886 Main St., Bridgeport 3, Conn.