Blair Little League President Ryan Greenwood was a bit distracted by the baseball played between the Red Sox and Royals on Thursday.
When answering a question about 2023 participation, he caught a glimpse of his son, Drew, hitting the ball into the air at the Youth Sports Complex.
“Drop. Drop. Drop. Drop,” Greenwood said as the fly sailed and his young ballplayer ran toward first base. “Fair ball. Fair ball. Fair ball. Keep going!”
The hit found fair outfield grass and Drew reached base safely.
“That a boy,” said his dad, Little League President, clapping his hands together.
Altogether, 295 kids are signed up for Rookie, Minor and Major division baseball this season.
“The last three years we've been up, basically, every year,” Greenwood said. “So, it's been really, really good.”
The May through June campaign started at the beginning of the month with plenty of coaches and umpires, too.
“What we're really proud of is the volunteer numbers this year,” the president said. “They're up — a lot.”
Typically, Greenwood said he'd like to have four coaches for each team.
Umpires, meanwhile, are sometimes a little trickier to get. This year, though, there hasn't been any issue.
“This year we have the most umpires we've had,” Greenwood said, specifically pointing out Kamdon Hansen, a Blair High School senior who was working the game between the Royals and Red Sox.
“When he shows up to the field, the kids are like, 'Hey! We get Kam,'” the baseball dad said. “He's so good.”
Greenwood complimented all of Blair Little League's high school-age umpires, too.
“They are fantastic,” he added.
While school is in sessions still, games end early on Wederquist and The Healthy Human Fields. Once summer starts, though, night games are back on with kids getting a chance to play under the lights — a goal of Greenwood's.
Blair Little League will host many games across the next month and a half, including those between out-of-state teams for the Omaha SlumpBuster tournament in mid-June. It then caps its regular season and tournament with championship games at the end of the month.
