Tuesday night was the first home baseball game of the season for the Sharks and kids from all the little league teams around the Island were invited to take part in the festivities. Teenagers to tee-ballers as tall as a Shark’s backpocket came dressed in their uniforms with gloves at the ready. The competition on the field was first rate. So, too, were the scrambles for foul ball souvenirs.

It’s hard to miss the Astros. Dressed in blazing orange uniforms, the players would stand out in nearly any environment, but against the bright green grass of the regional high school field, the contrast seems all the more dramatic. The Astros, a squad of 14 and 15 year olds, are a bridge, the final stop in Island youth baseball on the way up to the big leagues of high school ball.

A friend’s son recently started playing Little League and my friend was philosophically relaying the fact that his son was playing right field. There was disappointment in his voice. I said that I had heard over the years right field had actually become less the place to hide a poor player and more the place to put a kid with a strong arm, a la Roberto Clemente. I’m not sure where I had heard this.

Opening day for Martha’s Vineyard Little League is Saturday, April 27, at Veira Park in Oak Bluffs. The events include a parade up Circuit avenue to the field. All the teams will take part in the parade and are asked to meet at the Oak Bluffs police station at 10 a.m., with the parade beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Underdog Tigers Land Little League Title

Championship Game Held on Saturday at Veira Park

By MAX HART

There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;

There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile lit
Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,

No stranger in the crowd could doubt ‘twas Casey at the bat.

- From Casey at the Bat
by Ernest Lawrence Thayer

It was the kind of early summer afternoon that was made for
baseball.

The smell of freshly cut grass blended with that of grilling hots
dogs and hamburgers during the Vineyard Little League championships at
Veira Park on Saturday, while the dust kicked up by the infielders was
quickly cleared away by a swiftly moving ocean breeze.

The game was in hand for coach J. Ernie Chaves’s Tigers team on Saturday during the Martha’s Vineyard Little League championship game at Veira Park in Oak Bluffs, when one of his players hit a line drive foul ball that sent him scurrying for cover as he stood on the third base line.

Maybe you’ve seen them when you drive past Veira Park in Oak Bluffs or Nunes Field in Edgartown. You might have heard the metal clinks of their bats connecting with a fast-moving — relatively speaking, Dustin Pedroia would send it right over the fence — pitch, or maybe the booming voices of their coaches calling out plays from across the field.

Maybe you’ve seen them when you drive past Veira Park in Oak Bluffs or Nunes Field in Edgartown. You might have heard the metal clinks of their bats connecting with a fast-moving — relatively speaking, Dustin Pedroia would send it right over the fence — pitch, or maybe the booming voices of their coaches calling out plays from across the field. What you might not have seen or heard, though, are the sounds of actual game play.

What’s the key to success in a Little League all-star game? “Really belting it out, hopefully,” said nine-year-old Jared Regan after the major league all-stars finished their game.

The Little League season wraps up this Sunday with two championship games at Veira Park. The minor league game will be held at 11 a.m., while the major league championship will take place at 1:30 p.m.