Aug. 24, 2001 – Children ages 5 to 12 with a yen to play baseball in St. John's Little League are invited to sign up Sept. 6 at the Winston Wells Ball Park.
"Everyone is teachable, and everybody plays," said Carla Challenger, who shares the organization's presidency with Loren Abramson.
Little League, which operates under the Housing, Parks and Recreation Department, has tapped Orville Brown, Terrence Chinnery and former minor league player Elrod Hendricks Jr. to teach the youngsters baseball skills. "We'll start with the fundamentals — how many balls make a strike, for example," Challenger said.
Instead of charging a registration fee, the organization will ask local businesses to support the players. Challenger said parents and guardians must accompany their children to the sign-up session and that proof of age will be helpful in assigning the children to the appropriate age-group teams.
Challenged hopes St. John will one day send a team to the Little League World Series, held each year in Williamsport, Pa.. "We're trying to display our Virgin Islands talent," she said.
At this year's World Series, which ends Sunday, a Caribbean team is proving it can handle the big time. The Curacao team won the international semifinals and will face off against Japan on Saturday for the international championship.
On Sunday, the winner of that game will go against the winner of the United States championship for the World Series title. The U.S. championship finalists are teams from the Bronx in New York City and the town of Apopka, Fla.