PARKVILLE, Mo. — Some tournament baseball teams thought their season was over before it even started.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tournament teams in the Kansas City metro area were unable to travel for games.
A new league was recently created to get teams back out on the diamond this summer.
“Our games will take place Monday through Thursday, so four days a week for eight weeks. So we’re basically going June 8th through the end of July," said Dale Reed of the KC Club Baseball Association.
The KC Club Baseball Association is for high school-aged players. It's made up of 14 clubs, 53 teams and more than 800 players.
“We’re typically traveling around and playing in highly competitive tournaments all around the Midwest and even beyond, so like Dale said this just seemed like a safer alternative than that, if we were able to play which we didn’t think we would even be able to play the league," said Jeff Jolliffe, coach of the Yard Baseball Club.
Due to the pandemic, teams were unable to practice and travel out of state to their annual tournaments. Starting June 8, the new league will begin at the new Creekside Baseball Park in Parkville, Missouri.
“At least we’re playing against kids from the metro, all in one place, not dragging them around to different areas and then dragging them back home," Joliffe said.
While play can resume, guidelines must be followed.
According to Creekside's website, players, coaches, fans and umpires will be required to social distance.
Reed said teams have already been practicing while following the new guidelines.
“I’ve had one practice with my club which was actually yesterday, and I will tell you that we practiced social distancing, we didn’t do any team huddles, we took precautions that we felt were necessary, no sharing equipment," Reed said.
Dugouts will also be cleaned after each game and sanitizing stations will be set up throughout the ballpark.
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