Connect with us

Rec Sports

Outside the Lines: Why Youth Baseball Is Losing Its Players — Even with Full Dugouts

At first glance, it doesn’t look like anything’s wrong. The dugouts are full. Kids are signed up. Uniforms are clean, rosters are complete, and schedules are packed. But look closer — and you’ll see what’s really happening in youth baseball. Where are the players? Not just the bodies wearing jerseys. Not just the kids in […]

Published

on


At first glance, it doesn’t look like anything’s wrong.

The dugouts are full. Kids are signed up. Uniforms are clean, rosters are complete, and schedules are packed. But look closer — and you’ll see what’s really happening in youth baseball.

Where are the players?

Not just the bodies wearing jerseys. Not just the kids in the lineup. I’m talking about real players — kids who know the game, have developed their skills, and are confident between the lines. Those kids? There are fewer and fewer.

We’ve got full dugouts… but half the roster just started playing. Some are brand new to the sport. Others have barely touched a glove since the end of last season. And now, more and more are joining the game late — 15 or 16 years old, walking into a sport that usually takes a decade of reps just to be decent.

And it’s not their fault.

The truth is, we’ve stopped working with kids outside of organized team activities. We assume that two practices a week and a Saturday doubleheader is enough. It’s not. It never was. Not for baseball.

Especially not in a place like Montana, where we get four months of decent baseball weather, if we’re lucky. That means every rep matters — and when kids aren’t getting any outside of scheduled team events, it shows.

We’re watching talented kids stall out at 12 or 13 because they haven’t grown since they were 9. Meanwhile, others are starting at 16 — way behind in experience, mechanics, and understanding — and there’s no system in place to help them catch up.

And the result? Dugouts full of kids. But not enough ballplayers.

Used to be, kids got better between the whistles. Practice ended, and the real work began — hitting off a tee in the driveway, throwing balls against the garage, playing sandlot games just to stay sharp. Reps weren’t scheduled. They were wanted.

Now, if it’s not organized, it doesn’t happen.

And this isn’t just a baseball problem. This is across all sports. We’ve built a youth sports culture based on convenience and optics — show up, wear the gear, take the team photo, play the game — and hope for the best. But development doesn’t happen that way. Confidence doesn’t grow that way. And kids sure as hell don’t stick with a sport when they’re not getting better.

And the numbers prove it. National participation in youth sports has dropped from 58.4% in 2017 to 53.8% in 2022. By age 13, 70% of kids are done playing altogether. Why? It’s not fun anymore. It’s frustrating. It’s demoralizing when everyone around you seems to improve and you feel stuck in neutral.

We’re giving kids jerseys, but we’re not giving them the tools. We’re filling rosters, but not building players.

Steph Curry didn’t just lace up a pair of Under Armour shoes and become the NBA’s all-time three-point king. You know how he got there? Countless hours in empty gyms. Hundreds of thousands of shots taken — and missed. More missed than made. No fans. No lights. No social media clips. Just work.

It’s the part you don’t see. The grind behind the greatness. The obsession with improvement. The willingness to fail in private so you can succeed in public.

You think Kobe Bryant showed up to a game and became the Mamba? No — he earned that. In the dark. In the gym. At 4:00 a.m. when nobody else wanted to be there. That’s what it takes.

That’s what’s missing.

We’ve got to teach kids that showing up isn’t enough. You have to work. You have to grind. You have to fail — again and again — and keep going. That kind of mentality isn’t built in games. It’s built in the spaces no one sees.

We’re not short on kids. We’re short on reps. We’re short on people willing to stay late, to get extra swings in, to throw one more round of grounders just because a kid wants it. That’s how players are made.

So yeah, the dugouts are full. But if we don’t get back to helping kids develop between the games — if we don’t get back to the grind — we’re going to lose a whole generation of players. Not because they didn’t love the game.

But because the game didn’t love them back.



Link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rec Sports

Families and businesses are concerned about the effect of tariffs on youth sports

CHICAGO — Youth sports are a big part of Karli Casamento’s life. Her son, Jax, 15, golfs and plays on three baseball teams. Her youngest son, Colt, 6, plays baseball and basketball. The costs, especially for Jax, add up in a hurry. That’s why Casamento, 48, and her husband, Michael, 46, are watching closely for […]

Published

on


CHICAGO — Youth sports are a big part of Karli Casamento’s life. Her son, Jax, 15, golfs and plays on three baseball teams. Her youngest son, Colt, 6, plays baseball and basketball.

The costs, especially for Jax, add up in a hurry. That’s why Casamento, 48, and her husband, Michael, 46, are watching closely for the ramifications of tariffs on their rising youth sports budget.

“All of their equipment I’m sure comes from China,” said Karli Casamento, a second-grade teacher in suburban Philadelphia. “As they get bigger, they need new equipment. So that is definitely a concern.”

For families like the Casamentos and businesses in the marketplace, there is continued uncertainty surrounding the possible effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs — the 10% baseline tariffs, along with a 30% rate on Chinese goods — on youth sports.

Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and Puma were among 76 companies that signed an April 29 letter to Trump asking for a footwear exemption from reciprocal tariffs. The Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America letter warned tariffs would “become a major impact at the cash register for every family.”

Amer Sports, the parent company of Wilson Sporting Goods and Louisville Slugger, downplayed the effect of tariffs when it announced its first-quarter earnings on May 20. But looking beyond this year, chief financial officer Andrew Page mentioned pricing as one way the company could offset higher import tariffs.

Dick’s Sporting Goods reaffirmed its earnings guidance for 2025 when it provided its first-quarter update on May 28. CEO Lauren Hobart said Dick’s had no plans to trim its product assortment in response to tariff costs, and that its guidance confirmation was based on its belief it can manage the situation.

“We are constantly assessing our pricing down to the item level, SKU level, and we do that based on consumer demand and the profitability of the business,” Hobart said in response to a question on possible price increases. “We have a very advanced pricing capability, much more advanced than we used to have, and much more enabled to make real time and quick decisions.”

The U.S. has been the largest importer of sporting goods since 2010, accounting for 31% of the world’s imports in 2022, according to a 2024 World Trade Organization report. Boosted by racket sports, China is the most significant exporter of sporting goods at 43% in 2022.

Fueled by golf, badminton and tennis equipment, Vietnam and Taiwan experienced rapid expansion in exporting outdoor sports equipment to the U.S. from 2018 to 2024, according to data from the consulting firm, AlixPartners. Vietnam increased 340% to $705 million, and Taiwan was up 16% to $946 million.

Tariffs of 46% for Vietnam and 32% for Taiwan could go into effect next month after a 90-day pause.

Hockey skates, sticks and protective gear are often imported. Same for baseball gloves and composite and aluminum bats, which are often imported or use materials that are imported, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Soccer goals, lacrosse nets and cones are often sourced from low-cost labor markets.

“You can’t get around the fact that a lot the stuff that we use in youth sports is coming from abroad,” said Travis Dorsch, the founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University. “So surely if the tariffs go into effect and in any long-term or meaningful way, it’s going to affect youth sports.”

The Casamento family cheers for the Philadelphia Phillies, and that’s how Jax and Colt got into baseball. Karli Casamento called sports “a safe way to socialize, and it gets them active.”

But equipment has become a major expense for the family. Jax has a $400 bat and a $300 glove, Karli Casamento said, and his catching equipment is $700. There is an additional cost for registration for his travel team, in addition to what it costs to travel to tournaments.

“We’ve tried to say to Jax, ‘Well, you’re in ninth grade now, do you really need to play tournament ball? You’re not going to grow up and be, you know, the next Mike Schmidt,’ things like that,” Karli Casamento said, “because it’s just, it’s $5,000 a year and now we have two kids in sports.”

That effect most likely will be felt by middle- and low-income families, threatening recent gains in participation rates for youth sports.

The Sports & Fitness Industry Association, which tracks youth participation by sport, found in 2023 there was a 6% increase in young people who regularly participated in a team sport, which it said was the highest rate (39.8%) since 2015. An Aspen Institute study released in October showed participation for girls was at its highest levels since at least 2012.

“I’m really concerned that we’re going to spike this great momentum because families, who are already saying that sports is getting increasingly more expensive, equipment’s getting more expensive and they’re continuing to stretch to make that work, like this might be the one that just kind of puts them over the sidelines,” said Todd Smith, the president and CEO of the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.

Smith was in China in April for a World Federation of Sporting Good Industries board meeting. He visited some manufacturing facilities while he was in the country.

“The ones that I went to are really, really impressive,” Smith said. “First class, high tech, like highly skilled. And the thought that tariffs are all of a sudden just going to allow a 10-plus million dollar facility to just pop up the next day in the U.S. is just, it’s not feasible.”

Low-income families were already feeling a financial strain with youth sports before Trump was elected to a second term. According to the Aspen Institute study, 25.1% of children ages 6-17 from households earning under $25,000 played a sport on a regular basis in 2023, down slightly from 25.8% in 2022. That’s compared to 43.5% of children from households earning at least $100,000, up slightly from 42.7% in 2022.

Youth sports participation has a wide range of ramifications for public health, said Tom Farrey, the founder and executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program.

“This incredibly virtuous cycle can be engaged if you can simply get kids off their phones and off their couches and into the game and they have a sustained experience into adolescence,” Farrey said. “And if you don’t, then you’re at risk for a range of health consequences, including obesity.”

Going along with playing on three baseball teams, Jax Casamento has workouts for his travel squad and also takes hitting lessons. The Casamentos turned a baseball trip to South Carolina into a family vacation last year.

Michael Casamento is a physical education teacher in an elementary school, so the family’s concerns about the effect of tariffs on the cost of youth sports go beyond their two boys.

“I work with a lot of kids that are a lower socio-economic status,” Karli Casamento said. “It really makes it harder for those types of families to be able to afford to play sports.”

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports



Link

Continue Reading

Rec Sports

Families and businesses are concerned about the effect of tariffs on youth sports

CHICAGO (AP) — Youth sports are a big part of Karli Casamento’s life. Her son, Jax, 15, golfs and plays… CHICAGO (AP) — Youth sports are a big part of Karli Casamento’s life. Her son, Jax, 15, golfs and plays on three baseball teams. Her youngest son, Colt, 6, plays baseball and basketball. The costs, […]

Published

on


CHICAGO (AP) — Youth sports are a big part of Karli Casamento’s life. Her son, Jax, 15, golfs and plays…

CHICAGO (AP) — Youth sports are a big part of Karli Casamento’s life. Her son, Jax, 15, golfs and plays on three baseball teams. Her youngest son, Colt, 6, plays baseball and basketball.

The costs, especially for Jax, add up in a hurry. That’s why Casamento, 48, and her husband, Michael, 46, are watching closely for the ramifications of tariffs on their rising youth sports budget.

“All of their equipment I’m sure comes from China,” said Karli Casamento, a second-grade teacher in suburban Philadelphia. “As they get bigger, they need new equipment. So that is definitely a concern.”

For families like the Casamentos and businesses in the marketplace, there is continued uncertainty surrounding the possible effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs — the 10% baseline tariffs, along with a 30% rate on Chinese goods — on youth sports.

Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and Puma were among 76 companies that signed an April 29 letter to Trump asking for a footwear exemption from reciprocal tariffs. The Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America letter warned tariffs would “become a major impact at the cash register for every family.”

Amer Sports, the parent company of Wilson Sporting Goods and Louisville Slugger, downplayed the effect of tariffs when it announced its first-quarter earnings on May 20. But looking beyond this year, chief financial officer Andrew Page mentioned pricing as one way the company could offset higher import tariffs.

Dick’s Sporting Goods reaffirmed its earnings guidance for 2025 when it provided its first-quarter update on May 28. CEO Lauren Hobart said Dick’s had no plans to trim its product assortment in response to tariff costs, and that its guidance confirmation was based on its belief it can manage the situation.

“We are constantly assessing our pricing down to the item level, SKU level, and we do that based on consumer demand and the profitability of the business,” Hobart said in response to a question on possible price increases. “We have a very advanced pricing capability, much more advanced than we used to have, and much more enabled to make real time and quick decisions.”

Many of the US’s most popular sports rely on imported equipment

The U.S. has been the largest importer of sporting goods since 2010, accounting for 31% of the world’s imports in 2022, according to a 2024 World Trade Organization report. Boosted by racket sports, China is the most significant exporter of sporting goods at 43% in 2022.

Fueled by golf, badminton and tennis equipment, Vietnam and Taiwan experienced rapid expansion in exporting outdoor sports equipment to the U.S. from 2018 to 2024, according to data from the consulting firm, AlixPartners. Vietnam increased 340% to $705 million, and Taiwan was up 16% to $946 million.

Tariffs of 46% for Vietnam and 32% for Taiwan could go into effect next month after a 90-day pause.

Hockey skates, sticks and protective gear are often imported. Same for baseball gloves and composite and aluminum bats, which are often imported or use materials that are imported, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Soccer goals, lacrosse nets and cones are often sourced from low-cost labor markets.

“You can’t get around the fact that a lot the stuff that we use in youth sports is coming from abroad,” said Travis Dorsch, the founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University. “So surely if the tariffs go into effect and in any long-term or meaningful way, it’s going to affect youth sports.”

The Casamento family cheers for the Philadelphia Phillies, and that’s how Jax and Colt got into baseball. Karli Casamento called sports “a safe way to socialize, and it gets them active.”

But equipment has become a major expense for the family. Jax has a $400 bat and a $300 glove, Karli Casamento said, and his catching equipment is $700. There is an additional cost for registration for his travel team, in addition to what it costs to travel to tournaments.

“We’ve tried to say to Jax, ‘Well, you’re in ninth grade now, do you really need to play tournament ball? You’re not going to grow up and be, you know, the next Mike Schmidt,’ things like that,” Karli Casamento said, “because it’s just, it’s $5,000 a year and now we have two kids in sports.”

Tariffs may not impact all sports families equally

That effect most likely will be felt by middle- and low-income families, threatening recent gains in participation rates for youth sports.

The Sports & Fitness Industry Association, which tracks youth participation by sport, found in 2023 there was a 6% increase in young people who regularly participated in a team sport, which it said was the highest rate (39.8%) since 2015. An Aspen Institute study released in October showed participation for girls was at its highest levels since at least 2012.

“I’m really concerned that we’re going to spike this great momentum because families, who are already saying that sports is getting increasingly more expensive, equipment’s getting more expensive and they’re continuing to stretch to make that work, like this might be the one that just kind of puts them over the sidelines,” said Todd Smith, the president and CEO of the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.

Smith was in China in April for a World Federation of Sporting Good Industries board meeting. He visited some manufacturing facilities while he was in the country.

“The ones that I went to are really, really impressive,” Smith said. “First class, high tech, like highly skilled. And the thought that tariffs are all of a sudden just going to allow a 10-plus million dollar facility to just pop up the next day in the U.S. is just, it’s not feasible.”

Low-income families were already feeling a financial strain with youth sports before Trump was elected to a second term. According to the Aspen Institute study, 25.1% of children ages 6-17 from households earning under $25,000 played a sport on a regular basis in 2023, down slightly from 25.8% in 2022. That’s compared to 43.5% of children from households earning at least $100,000, up slightly from 42.7% in 2022.

Youth sports participation has a wide range of ramifications for public health, said Tom Farrey, the founder and executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program.

“This incredibly virtuous cycle can be engaged if you can simply get kids off their phones and off their couches and into the game and they have a sustained experience into adolescence,” Farrey said. “And if you don’t, then you’re at risk for a range of health consequences, including obesity.”

Going along with playing on three baseball teams, Jax Casamento has workouts for his travel squad and also takes hitting lessons. The Casamentos turned a baseball trip to South Carolina into a family vacation last year.

Michael Casamento is a physical education teacher in an elementary school, so the family’s concerns about the effect of tariffs on the cost of youth sports go beyond their two boys.

“I work with a lot of kids that are a lower socio-economic status,” Karli Casamento said. “It really makes it harder for those types of families to be able to afford to play sports.”

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Copyright
© 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.



Link

Continue Reading

Rec Sports

PE Firm Led by Ex-NHL Star Invests in CCM Hockey

PE Firm Led by Ex-NHL Star Invests in CCM Hockey Privacy Manager Link 0

Published

on





PE Firm Led by Ex-NHL Star Invests in CCM Hockey



































Link

Continue Reading

Rec Sports

Northwestern University marks 1 year of construction for new Ryan Field facility, Wildcats football team playing at temporary site

EVANSTON, Ill. (WLS) — The new Ryan Field facility is slated to open September 2026 at Northwestern Univeristy. When it makes its debut, the expectation is that it will be a space for Northwestern Wildcats and also a resource for the whole community. ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch It’s been […]

Published

on


EVANSTON, Ill. (WLS) — The new Ryan Field facility is slated to open September 2026 at Northwestern Univeristy.

When it makes its debut, the expectation is that it will be a space for Northwestern Wildcats and also a resource for the whole community.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

It’s been exactly a year since Northwestern University broke ground on a new Ryan Field, and it continues to take shape.

University officials marked the construction anniversary with an announcement that the arena will be a shared space with several community groups.

“We won’t have football games and large crowds most days, but you wouldn’t build something like this to not have it be an asset that is used broadly,” said Pat Ryan, Jr. with Ryan Sports Development.

While the first tenant for Ryan Field will be Northwestern athletics, university officials announced the second anchor tenant will be a conglomeration of community partners, such as Evanston Township High School athletics, the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, the Fellowship of Afro-American Men, or FAAM, and Kuumba Evanston.

READ MORE | Northwestern University breaks ground on new Ryan Field facility

“The new Ryan Field will be a place for you young people who have all this opportunity and potential will have a place to build and expand that,” said Dave Davis with Northwestern University.

The new Ryan Field is not just a stadium, but a way to strengthen ties between the university and the community.

“We’re hopeful to partner with northwestern athletics and the office of community relations to find ways to dismantle systemic barriers to youth sports,” said Chris Livatino, Evanston Township High School athletic director.

The goal is to also bring more people together around shared experiences, like movie nights on the plaza and ice skating in the winter.

“What’s happening here is creating opportunities for communal magic in ways that are going to be inspiring in ways that are going to lift up whole community,” Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss said.

When completed, Ryan arena will be the first NFL-style stadium at a college.

Copyright © 2025 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.



Link

Continue Reading

Rec Sports

Lakeshore Foundation receives ESPN Innovation Challenge grant

The Lakeshore Foundation has received a $100,000 grant from ESPN’s inaugural Take Back Sports Innovation Challenge. Take Back Sports is a new youth sports initiative created by ESPN and Disney to expand access to sports for youth. They launched their official website on Monday. On top of ESPN’s $5 million charitable investment in the program […]

Published

on


The Lakeshore Foundation has received a $100,000 grant from ESPN’s inaugural Take Back Sports Innovation Challenge.

Take Back Sports is a new youth sports initiative created by ESPN and Disney to expand access to sports for youth. They launched their official website on Monday.

On top of ESPN’s $5 million charitable investment in the program to reimagine youth sports, ESPN announced the Take Back Sports Innovation Challenge at the Aspen Institute’s Project Play Summit in March. Through cutting-edge training models, inclusive programming and community-rooted solutions, the Innovation Challenge aims to spotlight approaches that reimagine how kids engage with sports — fostering a more accessible and positive youth sports experience for all. ESPN doubled its original investment from $50,000 to $100,000 per grant in response to more than 150 compelling applications from across the country, and the Lakeshore Foundation was named as one of 10 recipients.

Lakeshore’s Super Sports Saturday pilot will bring inclusive, Paralympic-style sports to youth with physical disabilities in underserved areas of Alabama. As the only multi-adapted-sports organization in the state and a national Paralympic training hub, Lakeshore is uniquely equipped to deliver high-impact, free programming that blends fun, fitness and skill development. With ESPN’s support, the pilot will host five events in Montgomery, train local mentors and lay the foundation for a scalable model that creates access, independence and a culture of multi-sport play for youth with disabilities across the Southeast.

This year’s other Take Back Sports Innovation Challenge recipients include:

  • The Center for Healing and Justice through Sport (CHJS) received a grant for Collective, a first-of-its-kind digital credentialing platform that brings visibility, accountability and trust to youth sports coaching. Developed in partnership with RAIS3 Partners, Collective allows families and organizations to see who’s coaching their children, what training they’ve completed, and whether they’re equipped to foster safe, inclusive environments. With ESPN’s support, CHJS will onboard 2,500 coaches, parents and programs in Boston — making it the first fully “trackable” city for coach credentials — setting a new national standard for quality, transparency and equity in youth sports.
  • City Parks Foundation’s impactful “Everyday Play” program delivers free, daily, multi-sport programming to underserved youth in New York City parks. By offering equitable access to tennis, soccer, track & field, golf, and more — along with trauma-informed coaching, career pathways for alumni, and extended summer play — CityParks is addressing systemic barriers to youth sports while keeping kids active, engaged, and supported where they live. This grant will directly fund operations at Kaiser Park in Brooklyn, serving children with high needs and helping sustain a proven, community-rooted model that prioritizes fun, health and opportunity for all.
  • Let Her Play has a proven, scalable model that connects young girls with collegiate female athletes to inspire sports participation and leadership. They uniquely address the gender gap through a groundbreaking “Playing the Long Game” initiative that empowers former athletes as fun-focused youth coaches and mentors to keep girls engaged longer in sports. Their data-driven, community-rooted approach tackles critical participation drop-off and creates lasting impact by fostering role models who reflect and motivate the next generation.
  • Mudsock Youth Athletics received a grant for its commitment to keeping teens engaged in community-based sports by making play fun, inclusive, and youth-driven. Through its “Mudsock Way” initiative, the organization is training coaches and expanding its Youth Action Board to ensure teen voices are centered in shaping programs — using the grant to deepen that youth leadership model and reduce burnout and attrition in year two.
  • The Official Leadership Network (OLN) uses a pioneering scalable, tech-driven solution to one of youth sports’ most urgent challenges: the critical shortage of trained officials — especially in underserved communities. Through a strategic partnership between UMPS CARE Charities, Sports Officials Care and RefReps, OLN is building a diverse pipeline of high school students trained not only in officiating fundamentals but also in life and leadership skills. With ESPN’s support, OLN will digitize its proven curriculum into engaging, multi-sport video modules — transforming officiating into a gateway for youth employment, confidence and long-term civic leadership.
  • Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative (PYSC) earned a grant for its transformative Game On Philly! initiative, which places trained community coaches and AmeriCorps members directly into neighborhood recreation centers to deliver high-quality, trauma-informed sports programming. The program’s innovative partnership with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation ensures scalable, sustainable recreation for youth ages 6–14 where they live, play and grow.
  • Shriners Children’s Portland creates lifelong athletes by proactively addressing injury prevention, sport burnout and early specialization. Leveraging its expertise as a nationally recognized pediatric orthopedic hospital, the organization will lead educational workshops and hands-on injury prevention programming for coaches and parents across Portland, equipping key community stakeholders with tools, resources and expert-led guidance. With ESPN’s support, Shriners will launch this first-of-its-kind effort in the region, helping ensure young athletes stay healthy, engaged and active in sports for years to come.
  • Volo Kids Foundation has an innovative, equity-centered approach to expanding youth sports access in under-resourced communities nationwide. By leveraging a unique partnership with its for-profit arm, Volo Sports, the organization activates a sustainable pipeline of trained volunteer coaches to lead free, multi-sport programming across eight cities. With a proven track record of engaging over 70,000 children and 15,000 volunteers, Volo Kids addresses both physical activity gaps and youth mental health challenges, while building character, confidence and community — making it a scalable and impactful model for reimagining accessible youth sports in America.
  • Women’s Coaching Alliance is tackling two major issues in youth sports: the lack of female coaches and the shortage of available coaches overall. Through its “Coach Today, Lead For Life” program, WCA is expanding a proven model that trains and pays young women to become leaders and role models in their communities — helping more kids, especially girls, stay in the game while creating a more equitable and sustainable coaching pipeline.





Link

Continue Reading

Rec Sports

Youth sports and military appreciation at ONEOK Field

TULSA, OKLA. (KTUL) — The Tulsa Drillers are set to kick off July with a series of home games against the Wichita Wind Surge, featuring three consecutive nights of fireworks in celebration of the July 4th holiday. The games will take place from Tuesday, July 1, through Thursday, July 3, at ONEOK Field. The Drillers […]

Published

on


The Tulsa Drillers are set to kick off July with a series of home games against the Wichita Wind Surge, featuring three consecutive nights of fireworks in celebration of the July 4th holiday.

The games will take place from Tuesday, July 1, through Thursday, July 3, at ONEOK Field.

The Drillers will wear special-edition holiday jerseys and caps for the series, which also marks the continuation of the Propeller Series against the Wind Surge.

Tulsa currently leads the series 7-5.

On July 1, the game will start at 7:00 p.m. and feature Youth Sports Night.

Young fans wearing sports jerseys will receive free tickets and can join a pregame parade on the field.

Then on July 2, it’s Military Appreciation Night, with current and retired military personnel eligible for two free tickets with proper identification.

The game will begin at 7:00 p.m.

The series finale on July 3, starting at 6:30 p.m., will include a blood drive by Our Blood Institute.

Donors will receive free tickets to a future Drillers game.

The night will also feature an all-you-can-eat buffet option for fans.

For more information, click here.

SIGN UP FOR THE NEWS CHANNEL 8 NEWSLETTER



Link

Continue Reading

Most Viewed Posts

Trending