January 28, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
Signups for the DeKalb Youth Baseball League begin Saturday, January 30 from 8 a.m. until 12 noon at the county complex in the UT Extension office.
If you miss Saturday’s registration, there will be three other dates to signup on Saturday, February 6th, 13th, and 20th at the same times and location.
Registration fees are $65 per child and $50 for each sibling. Parents who don’t want to work the concession stand may make a $25 buyout payment. Please bring proof of player age and proof of residency. Tryouts are set for February 27. See the DeKalb Youth Baseball League Facebook for details. Debit and credit cards will be accepted and transaction fees apply.
DeKalb County Youth Baseball, formerly known as Little League, is played at the park on Allen’s Ferry Road. Player ages for this league are from 7 to 15 years old.
“The way our league works if you are not familiar with it is we have 7-8 year old Coach Pitch. Last year we had Machine Pitch but we are going to Coach Pitch this year,” said League President Casey Midgett.
“Our first year of Kid Pitch Baseball we call Minor League and that is for 9-10 year olds. We will also have 11-12 year old Major League Kid Pitch. Last year was our first year to offer Senior League which is 13-15 year olds and we plan to offer it again this year and they will play at the Joe L. Evins park. If we don’t have enough kids signup to play Senior League those who do will still be allowed to play baseball on some level,” said Midgett.
Girls are also welcome to signup.
“A question I get a lot is can girls play?. The answer is yes they can play. We encourage it. We have had some really good girls come through who were every bit as good as the boys that played. Its just that its baseball and not softball. We won’t have just a girls team but girls will can get drafted just like the boys,” Midgett said.
“We hope to have both the Middle School baseball and softball players join us this year. Most of the time the Middle School season is over by May. For anyone who wants to play in that league who is on the Middle School team, we will draft you on February 27 and then basically tell you we will see you after the Middle School season is over. You will not be expected to show up for practice or a DeKalb Youth Baseball game before then,” added Midgett.
This year the league will be unsanctioned.
“There are a few changes and we don’t have all the details worked out yet but we will be going from Machine Pitch to Coach Pitch for the 7-8 year olds and we are going to be unsanctioned this year. Last year we made a big push to be with Cal Ripken and that was great. They treated us really well and we had no complaints. In past years we were with TYBA and before that Little League. We met as a board this year and decided with all that is going on in the world right now we didn’t feel like it was prudent for us to affiliate with a league because it takes away some of the local control over what we can and cannot do such as dates for All-Stars and things like that. We didn’t really want to give that up (local control) but we will still pick All-Star teams and there will be a post season. We haven’t worked out all the details yet but the All-Star teams will play somewhere,” added Midgett.