Joy League Baseball registration to begin this weekend

Joy League Baseball is opening registration for its 59th season this February.

Registration for the daytime baseball league opens Saturday, Feb. 6 and will be held each Saturday in February from 9 a.m. until noon at Edgewood Elementary.

The cost per player is $30, and boys and girls between 4 and 12 years old are eligible to play. Games are played on Saturday mornings at Edgewood Elementary School, beginning on March 26 and ending on June 25, and the teams meet for a weekly one-hour practice. Every player gets to play in every game.

Joy League Baseball started in spring 1958 when Joy League Founder John Smith’s son tried out for other youth baseball teams and did not make a team. Smith’s son was one of several boys in that situation, and they still wanted to learn to play baseball. The Joy League has been based in Homewood since its beginning, but children from around the Birmingham area are 

Smith brought together 67 boys who wanted to play baseball and visited fire stations and police precincts to recruit volunteer coaches, and the Joy League had its first season.

There are now 16 teams in the Joy League, and last year 175 players participated.

For more information, contact league commissioner Perry Akins at 823-4929 or commissioner Ted Hagler at 985-9608.