Susquehanna Baseball League

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'Early Bird' tourneys are great idea for baseball players COLUMN By LARRY A. HICKS The York Dispatch
For 42 years, York-area baseball fans have had the Colonial York Baseball Tournament to look forward to each Labor Day weekend.
It's always been a nice way for baseball players and fans to finish up the local baseball season. But there was never a season-opening tournament in York County, a way for teams to kick off the four-month-long baseball season that would follow.
Never, that is, until the Susquehanna Baseball League decided in 2005 to give local teams an early start to their seasons with an "Early Bird" tournament, all of which is played on five Susquehanna League diamonds -- McWilliams Field in Spry, and fields at Jacobus, Hallam, Conrads and East Prospect.
This year's Early Bird event -- the third -- kicks off Saturday with eight teams: York Township, Windsor and Hallam of the hosting Susquehanna League, Mount Wolf and Jefferson from the Central League, plus the Gildea Raiders, Middletown and Berkshire from outside York County.
Frankly, a preseason tournament, as good an idea as it might be, is a difficult thing to pull off. Hats off to the Susquehanna League for even trying it. I mean, it makes all the sense in the world to give your team a couple games experience with live pitching and hitting the week before your regular season begins. It surely beats taking batting practice and shagging fly balls on your home field and then starting the season cold-turkey. But the problem is it's not that easy to put a team together for a preseason tournament. Ask any of the teams playing this weekend, and they'll all probably tell you they had to borrow players from other teams just to fill out their rosters. A big part of the reason for that is that college players are still playing college baseball. And they'll still be playing for at least another week or two. Players on the most successful college teams could be tied up even longer with league, regional and NCAA action.
The same can be said of the most talented high school players, too, because those on the best teams could be playing for another two or three weeks. So it could easily be two weeks into the regular season before most local teams have all their college and high school players in uniform. That makes it difficult to play a preseason tournament with players limited to your own roster. Hence, teams are pretty much forced to borrow players from other teams.
And weather can be a hassle, too. For one thing, spring weather is unpredictable -- our own recent experience, for example. That makes it difficult to hold practices or get fields ready for play. It also means there's no room to maneuver if tournament games are canceled due to rain or other bad weather. It's not like any of the Early Bird teams can come back to finish the tournament next weekend, because the Susquehanna League season starts May 5, and the Central League kicks off on May 12. So it's one weekend or bust.
It's a great way to get the local summer baseball season going -- if amateur baseball happens to be your thing.
And why wouldn't it be your thing?
Sports columns by Larry A. Hicks, Dispatch columnist, run every Thursday. Reach him by e-mail at: lhicks@yorkdispatch.com.

Kerrigan's life was filled with enthusiasm Frank Bodani
Apr 3, 2007 — Tom Kerrigan loved baseball, loved history, loved to talk. And when he got a chance to weave those things together in front of an impromptu audience, well ... it was difficult to slow him down.
He amazed with his memory. And with his boldness, if that's the right word.
It was just the way this small, old man full of life could walk into a room of strangers with a huge smile and sit down in the middle of everyone and start telling baseball stories and history stories.
He warmed people with his love of baseball, and that's what will be missed most.
Kerrigan, 84, died on Sunday after a life devoted to his family, to model railroading and to baseball, mostly the local Susquehanna and Central leagues.
"The biggest thing I remember about him is how he recruited (Central League) players in the middle of winter," said Curly Holtzapple, another local baseball fixture. "He was over at Elizabethtown and a snowstorm came up, and he was still out recruiting. He was awesome.
"He was the type of guy you had to like. ... He would just do just about anything for you."
I remember Kerrigan from his days running the Colonial York Baseball Tournament, which was eventually named after him. At the end of every August he would bring his baseball bracket to the sports department of both local newspapers, so we would know who was playing where. But that was only part of it.
He had no problem getting sidetracked, telling stories for an hour or more once he was there, no matter who listened.
From the 1950 Phillies to the Roman Empire. He would make himself at home in the sports editor's chair and we would laugh and he would go right on talking. About how baseball had changed or what adult education classes he was teaching at Susquehannock High School.
He taught for decades but also was an assistant principal and a director of transportation in the Southern School District. I remember him as the guy who called out the bus numbers in elementary school at the end of the day.
So when I saw him 25 years later in the sports department and mentioned where I went to school, he jumped at the chance:
"What bus did you ride?"
I told him, No. 19, remembering back somehow.
Without missing a beat he rattled off the name of my old driver, her route and what had happened to her in the 25 years since.
We all laughed again, and he seemed to love it.
"He was quite a character, and you might have heard the same story before if you've been around as long as I have," said Lee Rentzel, another longtime Central League player and coach. "Tom was a good guy."
The man certainly put in his work. He managed and umpired and served as a league officer. Even when that was done with, he still led the dwindling group known as the Central League Old Timers Baseball Association.
But what made him stand out was the way he did everything.
He pushed his way around to get things done the way he thought they should be done. And that certainly didn't sit well with everyone.
But how could you not like him?
That smile. That enthusiasm. The way he walked into a room, when you least expected him, and told you something interesting about the French Revolution.
The way he talked baseball even on a winter-coat day during a chance meeting outside of a grocery store.
The way he loved the game.
The way he loved it better than most.
Reach Frank Bodani at 771-2104 or fbodani@ydr.com.

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