Next week, weather permitting, one of the great rites of spring will commence as roughly 1,750 boys and girls hit the diamonds for the opening of youth baseball and softball leagues around the Golden Triangle.
In Columbus, 650 boys and girls have signed up to play ball when the season starts Monday.
In Starkville, where 700 kids will be playing ball, and West Point (400 kids) the seasons were to have started this week. The weather had other ideas, though, so the start may be later.
The arrival of youth baseball/softball is not merely a nod to spring; its importance goes far beyond that.
It is no recent phenomenon that kids don’t play outdoors and aren’t as physically active as previous generations. The advent of technology means kids today are far more likely to be sitting in front of a TV that offers more than a hundred channels than climbing a tree. Kids today are more likely to be engrossed in a smart phone than riding their bicycles around the neighborhood. Xboxes are much preferred over sandlot ballgames.
Where once youth league sports were once merely an addition to the daily fare of outdoor activity, today these leagues may be the only exposure some children ever have to physical fitness.
In that respect, these leagues may inspire children to develop a healthy physical regimen that is not built solely around some sort of “virtual” world. Our children should not be mere spectators to the wonders of play and the wonderful world of nature all around us.
It stands to reason that Mississippi children, well documented as being more prone to childhood obesity than any other state, benefit from youth sports like no other.
That is why, as the season approaches, we pause to thank the many adults whose participation in these leagues as coaches, assistant coaches, umpires and scorekeepers, without whom the leagues could not operate.
There will be roughly 125 coaches in the Golden Triangle donating their time and 200 or so umpires and scorekeepers working for a small fee to make possible youth baseball and softball this season. There are other adults who contribute, too, parents who serve as assistant coaches or in a variety of other capacities. Many of these adults have been performing these duties for years. There contributions should not be disregarded.
We thank all the adults who so generously donate their time for so important a purpose. While the games will have winners and losers, the best measure of youth league baseball is not found on the scoreboard, but from the life lessons learned and the degree it encourages kids to make physical exercise part of their routine, thus, laying the groundwork for healthy lives long beyond their days in youth league sports have passed.
In some respects, it is just a game: In other respects, it is so much more.
We thank the all those coaches, umpires, scorekeepers and parents who understand this and commit themselves to so worthy a cause.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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