By RICHIE HALL
The sounds of baseball were back at a familiar place last week: The Bobby Mills Field of Dreams.
That’s the site of Noblesville Youth Baseball, which opened its season with the All-American Slugfest. The tournament took place from June 25 to 28 and is the first of what will be a busy summer for NYB and the Field of Dreams, located behind Hazel Dell Elementary School.
Chris Sciaudone, the executive director of NYB, noted that this week’s NYB World Series, which began Tuesday and runs through Sunday, is typically the end of the season for the league. Instead, this year it’s the second of nine tournaments.
“It’s all flip-flopped a bit,” said Sciaudone. “We have a lot of teams that are excited to get back to playing and anxious to play. We’ll be very busy for the next few weeks.”
Sciaudone said there are currently about 165 teams committed to play tournaments at the Field of Dreams, and that number could increase, as there are still spots available in some of the August events.
All of the tournaments are accepting teams from ages 7U to 12U, except for this week’s NYB World Series, which runs from 8U to 12U. Next week’s tournament will be the King of the Corn 2020 event, scheduled for July 9-12.
That will be followed by two one-day tournaments: The Saturday Showcase on July 18 and the Sunday Showcase on July 19. All teams will play three games at these events.
Tournaments continue into August, starting with the Midwest Community Travel Baseball Championships, scheduled for July 30 to Aug. 2 and is for community or church-based travel teams only. Other tournaments include the Indiana State Games (Aug. 6-9), the Field of Dreams Frenzy (Aug. 13-16) and the closing event, the Dog Days of Summer (Aug. 20-23).
“With the pandemic, this year most teams have extended their season pretty deep into August, because otherwise they really won’t get what they paid for, if you will,” said Sciaudone. “They won’t have played very many games and gotten in what they expected to get. So, we adjusted our schedule accordingly.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many sports to make adjustments to their normal routines, and NYB is no exception. Sciaudone detailed with the league is doing to make sure athletes, fans and NYB workers stay safe.
“All employees are screened when they start their shift, whether it’s concessions or umpires or tournament staff,” said Sciaudone. “Then our tournament staff is going in and sanitizing dugouts between games, wiping down high-touch areas and benches and whatnot.” Sciaudone also said that restrooms are also being cleaned with more frequency.
Spectators are being asked to observe social distancing as well, and Sciaudone said that the league is “asking people that are of advanced age or have underlying health conditions that maybe coming to the ballpark isn’t a great idea.” The bleachers are closed, as Sciaudone said that using them makes social distancing “nearly impossible.”
“We’re asking people to bring their own chairs,” said Sciaudone. “We reduced the number of picnic tables we have in our pavilion. We try to spread things out. We’ve just tried to make responsible decisions. Our batting cages are not open.” Sciaudone said he is hopeful that as time goes by, things will get back “a little more like they used to be.”
More information is available at NYB’s website, www.nybtournaments.com
The Battle Ground Tomahawks, shown here warming up before a game, won the 9UA division at last week’s All-American Slugfest. (Richie Hall)