Youth baseball is scheduled to return to the Carolinas this summer — minus the handshakes
The good news? Youth baseball is expected to be played in the Carolinas this summer.
There just won’t be a postseason to work toward.
The Dixie Youth Baseball league will not hold its 65th annual World Series tournaments this year, commissioner William Wade said Tuesday. Those events, scheduled for Laurel, Miss., will return there in 2021.
Wade said the league, founded in 1955, had been closely monitoring the spread of coronavirus as well as guidance from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
“In recent days,” he said, “we have started to see a gradual daily decline in the number of new cases of the COVID-19 virus in some areas. Unfortunately, we are far (from) out of the woods at this time.”
The league hopes to continue with regular-season play and has set a deadline for teams to submit rosters by June 15. It is asking teams to play 12 regular-season games.
The N.C. state tournaments are still scheduled to begin July 11. South Carolina tournaments also are scheduled to begin in July.
Dixie Youth Baseball has also listed several recommendations for teams and families, including potentially signing a waiver before participating.
▪ Health and safety measures will be implemented in accordance with local and state guidelines and “all participants should be aware of the risk and take the necessary precautions to avoid exposure to germs.”
▪ The league asks players to practice good hygiene, including washing hands often and covering your mouth and nose with a tissue, if possible, when coughing or sneezing.
▪ It says, until further notice, every coach, player, parent and attendee should practice social distancing; limit the use of team-shared equipment and encourage the cleaning and sanitizing of equipment after each use.
▪ It recommends all employees, umpires and coaches to wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and encourages the use of facemasks by players in close contact areas.
▪ Finally, the league is starting a “no-contact, no handshake” policy and asks that players say “good game” to opponents without shaking hands, high-fiving or fist-bumping.
The Dixie Youth leagues involve young baseball players from 11 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
The league was founded in 1955 after 61 all-white teams from South Carolina left the Pennsylvania-based Little League organization. The S.C. teams, during the days of legalized segregation, did not want to play in a tournament with an all-black team from Charleston.
Today, players of any race or nationality are welcome and more than 400,000 boys and girls play in the league annually.
Wade said canceling the World Series was not an easy decision, but he hoped to preserve part of the season for his players.
“The No. 1 priority of Dixie Youth Baseball,” he said, “is to offer regular-season play, which offers the greatest opportunity for all of our children to participate. We did not feel that we should sacrifice regular-season play in an already altered season for the sake of extended tournament play. Removing the World Series from our postseason schedule will allow for significant regular-season play in those communities that are able to do so this season.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2020 at 1:46 PM.
