Joy League baseball registration set to open

Homewood Joy League Baseball begins registering boys and girls for its 57th consecutive season of daytime baseball on Saturday, Feb. 1. Registration continues each Saturday in February from 9 a.m.-noon at Edgewood Elementary School, 901 College Avenue.

League games are played on Saturday mornings from March 29 to June 28, followed by a watermelon picnic, and each team practices one hour a week. Boys and girls ages 4-12 are eligible to play. The cost per player is only $30.  

Now serving its third generation of players, the Joy League has been an important part of youth life in Homewood since 1958 when the league was founded by the late John J. Smith Sr. Smith, an attorney, was serving as the league’s commissioner emeritus at the time of his death in 2008 at the age of 96.

“We have always lived by the motto, ‘There are no bench warmers in the Joy League,’” Commissioner Perry Akins said. “Every player gets to play in every game. We want the players to have fun and learn the great game of baseball.”

Last year more than 200 boys and girls played in the league.

Akins (823-4929) and Ted Hagler (985-9608) direct Joy League play as commissioners.

-Submitted by Bill Hutto