BBP Little League Prepares to Play

Piles of snow and an icy parking lot melted into warm thoughts of baseball this past weekend for registration at

The long standing tradition of Bayport-Blue Little League was started almost 50 years ago.  Today, nearly 700 children sign up each year to play baseball with the guidance of 100 volunteer coaches. 

Dane Swedborg, 9, registered for Little League on Saturday with his mom Kim Swedborg.  Playing baseball for the past three years, he is looking forward to the season and said, “Baseball is so much fun.”  Swedborg said his favorite part of baseball is pitching.   His mother said, “It is a wonderful program and the coaches are great.”

Bayport-Blue Point Little League is broken up into three parts: hard ball, softball and t-ball.  This year the t-ball program has expanded to allow pre-schoolers that will be 4 years old by April 30.  The League is also in the process of building new dugouts on the fields.

Tyler Solomon of Bayport started playing t-ball and this will be his 5th year in the league.  His position is catcher. He said, “My favorite part of baseball is hitting home runs.”  His father, Darryl Solomon has been his coach for three years and will probably do it again in the spring. 

Co-president of Little League Robert Draffin said, “I love the fact that we are talking about blizzards and snow, but baseball is on the horizon.”  Draffin played in Little League when he was growing up in Bayport in the late 60s.  He has fond memories of Little League and really enjoys that his son plays baseball on the same fields he did.  “One of the things that makes Little League work is that it is a true community effort," Draffin said.  "We cannot do it without the volunteers.”

Opening day for Little League is April 9, but there is still time to register online at Bayport-Blue Point Little League’s website.  Little League also runs free clinics throughout the winter for hard ball, t-ball and softball that will be posted on its site.