Dedicated volunteers return baseball to Blyth after a hiatus of nearly 10 years

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

After a missing near-decade, baseball has returned to the Blyth diamonds thanks to a small group of volunteers and an association that has grown from one team to three this season.

 

Katie Ansley of Blyth is the president of the recently-resurrected association with Becky Jervis, Brad Lapp, Jason Fleet and Sarah Shannon coming on as members of the executive with plenty of help from Kelly Wharton.

 

What began with one parent looking to bring her daughter’s baseball team back to Blyth where it belongs has since expanded to three teams with the potential for more in the coming summers.

 

Ansley has three children and she admits to not being overly engaged with the state (or lack thereof) of baseball in the village when her first two children, Mikayla and Rodney, came of age, but when her daughter Alexis wanted to play baseball, she began to take note.

 

The young lady wanted to play baseball and, because there were no active baseball teams in Blyth, Ansley sent her daughter to Londesborough to play.

 

However, during the first season, Ansley estimated that there must have been about 18 young girls on the team and, on some nights, her daughter wouldn’t even see the plate for an at-bat. 

 

She figured there had to be a better way and, after looking at the roster, saw that about half of the team was comprised of Blyth residents who were travelling to Londesborough for baseball. So, one by one, Ansley began calling parents, asking them if they would consider playing in Blyth if she were able to find a way to make that happen and they were supportive of bringing baseball back home to Blyth.

 

Ansley then embarked on a bit of a journey to make that happen. She was in touch with Heather Stewart, who had control of the finances of the association when it was last in operation and had everything transferred. Then she began connecting with local baseball associations to find a place for her daughter’s team to play. 

 

At first, she found a league that only accepted boys’ and co-ed teams. However, she was directed to a girls’ baseball association and Blyth was accepted. She calculated a reasonable registration fee in order to pay for uniforms, umpires and diamond rentals and the team was off.

 

This is now the third season and Blyth has three teams: the U9 Girls, the U13 Girls and the U15 Boys. Ansley and Shannon both say there has been sufficient interest for a T-ball team to be explored next year, in addition to growth and increased interest through word-of-mouth.

 

Ansley says it feels good to have baseball back on the diamonds in Blyth and for children of the village to be able to play baseball in their home community once again.

 

The team now has sweaters that are available for $65 each, tax included, designed by Kyla Shannon and Dunny’s Source for Sports in Stratford. They first served as a fundraiser for the league, but are now publicly available. The hope is to have them for sale at Wharton’s Spa Essentials and then in Blyth in September as part of the annual reunion of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association.

 

Ansley said the association hopes to have its own website ready and active in advance of next season, but for now, there is a Facebook page (Blyth Minor Ball) and an e-mail address for more information or registration at blythminorball@outlook.com.