Joy League set to begin 60th consecutive season

Joy League Baseball in Homewood begins registering boys and girls for its 60th consecutive season of daytime baseball on Saturday, Feb. 4. 

Registration continues each Saturday in February from 9 a.m. until noon at Edgewood Elementary School, 901 College Ave.

League games, which are played Saturday mornings, will begin March 25 and end June 24, followed with a family watermelon picnic. Boys and girls ages 4-12 are eligible to play. Each team practices one hour a week. Cost per player is only $30.

Now serving its third generation of players, the Joy League had an interesting beginning. Several boys ages 10-12, including a son of Joy League founder John J. Smith Sr., tried out for area youth baseball teams. Many of them did not get on a team. However, they still wanted to learn how to play baseball.

So, in the spring of 1958, Smith rounded up 67 of these boys, and the league was established. Smith visited fire stations and police precincts in the area to recruit volunteer coaches, one of whom was then-Homewood Fire Chief Howard Fields.

“Mr. Smith said many times that there are no benchwarmers in the Joy League,” league Commissioner Perry Akins said. “That’s still true today. From the beginning, Joy League assured, and still assures, that every player plays in every game, and there are no tryouts.”

Smith, an attorney who lived in Homewood, died in 2008 at the age of 96.

There are four divisions — Bucs, Cards, Sox and Yanks — consisting of 16 teams. A total of 178 youth played last year. They are coached by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends. All games are played at Edgewood Elementary School.  

Two former Joy League coaches, Perry Akins and Ted Hagler, currently serve as commissioners of the league.

– Submitted by Bill Hutto.