Years ago when the baseball season ended, most players didn't pick up a ball or glove until the next spring.
But, those days are long gone. In today's society, it seems that all sports are played year round. Baseball is no different.
Larry Wolfe, the Mifflin County American Legion manager, plans to hold a few practice sessions this fall to work on fundamentals.
The Mifflin County Babe Ruth league also plans to have a fall league for players who are interested in gaining experience and new players coming up from Little League can adjust to the size of the field.
With the start of fall ball, it marks the end of the summer baseball season.
Here is a look back at this past year in youth baseball in Mifflin County.
Babe Ruth
After winning the district tournaments, Mifflin County ran into two of its most recent nemesis in the state tournament: West End of Williamsport and Bensalem.
Mifflin County lost seven games in the three brackets in the state tournament (13, 14, 15) and five of those losses came at the hands of those two teams. The Mifflin County 13-year-olds finished in the final four, while the 14 and the 15-year-olds were eliminated in the first round of single elimination play.
American Legion
The Mifflin County team finished its regular season with an 8-15 record and then lost its first two games in the Central Penn League playoffs to Philipsburg and Clearfield.
The big surprise in Legion baseball was how good the West Snyder team finished. After going 3-11 in the regular season, West Snyder ran off four wins in six games in the post season and finished in the semi-finals of the Susquehanna Valley American Legion League.
High School
The Huskies had a great first year under veteran manager Travis Zook as it rolled to a 16-2 record. But in the District 6 Class AAAA playoffs, it was gone after the first game, losing to Central Mountain.
Now, Zook and his players are off to the Mid-Penn Conference and will have a young team as he heads south.
On a personal note, I took a weekend trip recently traveling to Detroit and saw the Tigers play. It's always fun to go to a major league game, especially to a different stadium for the first time.
But, for me the true fun is writing about baseball in Mifflin County. From the Little Leagues to high school, all divisions of youth baseball have contributed to the rich history of baseball in the area. The Little Leagues have produced state champions and state runners-up, along with teams that have made it to the state's final four.
In Babe Ruth, Mifflin County holds numerous state records and has sent two teams to a World Series.
The latest edition of the American Legion in Mifflin County has produced a final four team as recently as 2010.
In high school baseball, Lewistown won the PIAA Class AA title in 2002 and the Indian Valley team was a state runner-up in 1990 at the highest level of PIAA competition, which I consider the top high school feat in the modern era of local high school team sports.
Not to mention, the numerous players who have gone off to college and performed on the highest level.
This year was not the grandest for the area, but it did provide thrills and highlights for another spring and summer.
And now pardon me for the winter, I'm off to the archives room to look up another Babe Ruth record.
