Detroit’s a baseball town…we may call ourselves Hockeytown and have an ongoing love-hate relationship with the Lions, but it’s baseball that really stirs the soul of this city, even when the Tigers have been less than amazing and especially when they’re one of the top teams in the league.
But while there’s no shortage of Tigers jerseys and caps to be seen around town, what was not so easy to find for a long time was people playing actual baseball. That’s changed, as nonprofits, neighborhoods and other groups have worked to revive the youth leagues that once were found filling the city’s parks all summer long. And one of those teams was formed by the Y.
Y staffer Larry White helped run baseball clinics put on over the winter with Y member and professional baseball player Justin Prinstein. Those clinics were very successful, so when baseball season rolled around he decided to form a teams that would play in the Detroit PAL league. With help from the Van Dusen Fund, they were able to purchase uniforms and equipment and offset the costs to register for the PAL league.
He rounded up 12 players, some from the clinics, some from the community and even a couple of kids he saw playing catch at another baseball game. Some had experience, but most did not. Along with his son Layton White, who served as assistant coach, Larry found himself teaching some fundamental baseball skills to the kids during their Saturday practices.
“It was quite a challenge to to try and mold them into little baseball players,” he says. “We had to start out from most elemental form of teaching what to do, but they prospered from there.”
Every kid was eager to learn, though, and so they eventually started to coalesce as a team over three games a week and the Saturday practices. In the end, it became a lesson about life, as sports so often is, Larry says.
“It was a microcosm of life,” he says.”We’d teach the kids skills and looked for improvement, and pretty much every one of the kids on the team were able to do something better than they did at beginning of the season.”
Larry is hoping to take the baseball program year round, and is visiting area schools while the weather stays warm to do after school baseball programs. The clinics will continue in wintertime. Anyone who is interested in volunteering or having their children participate can email Larry at lwhite@ymcadetroit.com or call him at 313-510-4798.