Little league season begins with 10 teams, nearly 120 players

The sight of freshly manicured fields, the sound of bats cracking and the smell of hamburgers and hot dogs cooking on the grill can only mean one thing:  It’s time for Bandits baseball.

South Big Horn Little League will celebrate Opening Day on Saturday, May 3 with a full slate of games involving all 10 of its teams and a ceremony starting at noon, all at the Art Schutte Sports Complex.

Curtis Johnson begins his seventh year as league president with an optimistic outlook.  Numbers are good.  The league plans to field three T-ball teams, three coach-pitch teams, two minors teams, one majors team and one senior team. In all, there are 118 players from the Greybull and Basin area.

“We’re pretty stacked at the minors level,” said Johnson, who will be coaching one of the teams while Edgar Hernandez oversees the other. Each of them will have to navigate the challenge of having 18-player rosters in a sport where only nine can play at any time.

In addition to the 36 playing minors, the league has 27 rostered on T-ball teams, 27 rostered on coach-pitch teams, 16 rostered on the single majors team and 12 rostered on the senior team, which will play its game on the Legion Field.

“With all the teams, we feel like we should be pretty competitive,” said Johnson. “We have a lot of the same kids and a lot of the same coaches. Everyone knows the drill.”

Greybull did not field a senior level team last year, but will try to do so this year.  Chris Dunlap will manage the team. “They’ll be pretty young, with just a couple 15- and 16-year-olds,” said Johnson. “It’s primarily being driven by kids who played majors last year and want to keep playing. There are five or six of them and they were able to pick up another five or six who could have played last year but didn’t because we didn’t have a team.”

The team’s first game will be against Lovell’s American Legion C team, with first pitch at 2:30 p.m.

Majors/minors

The league will field just a single majors team this year, one fewer than recent years.  William Houchin will manage the team, which has 16 players. “We were right on the cusp” of being able to field two teams,” said Johnson. “As a board, we decided that unless we had two solid, 12-person rosters, we weren’t going to do two teams.”

As for the two minors teams, Johnson said he’s scheduled several doubleheaders and that by forming A and B teams, the coaches should be able to spread around the playing time. 

Field concerns

By far the biggest concern heading into the season is the condition of the East field at the Little League complex. As of Tuesday, it had no grass in the outfield and sprinkler heads extended out of the ground.

Mason Irvine, the town’s public works director, said, “We’ve had a lot of problems with those sprinkler lines freezing in the ground. They weren’t buried at a consistent depth, which led to problems even after being blown out. We were having to dig up big stretches at a time.”

The good news is, a new sprinkler system has been installed.

The bad news is, the sod has yet to show up. 

“We thought we’d get it earlier ... but now, it’s totally dependent upon the weather, how fast it grows and when the sod company tells us its ready,” said Irvine. “Until then, the field will be unplayable.” 

Johnson called having just a single field “a huge challenge” from a logistical standpoint.  “If they’re not going to be able to get it done in the next couple weeks, it will be interesting to see how we can run three teams’ practices and games on a single field,” he said.

Most of the T-ball and coach-pitch games will be played on the elementary and soccer fields.

Hosting districts

Baseball fans can circle July 9-12 on their calendars.

For the first time, Greybull is lined up to host the district majors and minors tournaments.

“We should have 10 and 20 teams in town,” said Johnson. “We’re still trying to work through all the logistics.”

As in the past, the league could not exist without its sponsor. “We rely heavily on those guys, and fortunately, they haven’t reduced their sponsorships and remain fully on board,” said Johnson. “We have the two banks — Big Horn Federal and Bank of Greybull — who give the most, but it trickles down. There are smaller businesses who will donate backpacks for the kids for all-stars, bats and other equipment. 

“They’re seeing the program building quickly, stepping up and forking out the money.”