Take the field!

Any day from now to mid June, you will be able to watch a baseball game at one of the diamonds at Waimanalo Beach Park. There are almost 400 kids in the Windward Youth Baseball League alone, in addition to the Bobby Sox League, and adults who also use the fields. On Saturdays, games start at 8:30 am and go until 4 pm. The older divisions play games weekday afternoons, and evenings under the lights. Watching the kids play is a lot of fun--especially the younger kids where playing the game is stressed more than competing to win.

Not that our young athletes don't learn how to win. For two years in a row, our Bobby Sox won the State Championships and represented Hawai'i in the nationals.

"We just don't have enough fields for practice," said Ivy Carter of the Windward Youth Baseball League. The youngsters will practice between fields to use any available space.

The fields could use some additional facilities. There are no bleachers and no dugouts, not even benches--features that other fields have. Parks and Recreation has budgeted for the material for the dugouts and even has dismantled bleachers from another park ready to be installed here. Job Corps is willing to supply the labor to put it together. Everything is ready--except the concrete for the foundations. A donation for the concrete fell through and everything must wait. Meanwhile the kids on the sidelines sit on their gloves in the hot sun.

But come on out to the ballgame! And maybe the community can figure out a way to get the concrete we need.