PITTSBORO — East Chatham Little League hosted its 50th annual opening day celebration Saturday at Tommy Burns Ball Park behind Pittsboro Elementary School, marking half a century of youth baseball in Pittsboro and honoring the founders who built the league from scratch.
Before first pitches were thrown, the league held a ceremony with four of the founding members — Butch Phillips, Jim Springle, Gene Brooks and James Ellis — in attendance. Family members of two more founders were also present for the ceremony.
A full list of the founders is displayed in a plaque on the large field: Tommy Burns, Bobby House, Phillips, Springle, Ellis, Danny Bell Scurlock, Hobo Heath, Brooks, Rex Brooks, Sidney Partin, Lea Powell, Clarence Morris, Dan Glosson, Jimmy Harris, J. T. Griffin and Milton Seymour.
“We realize how important this league is to the community and the town of Pittsboro,” said Jesse Yeager, East Chatham Little League president. “We have so many families that have been involved here for generations.”
Yeager said there are grandchildren and great-granchildren of those original founders still playing in the league today.
The league president added that the honoring of the founders was the largest opening day in recent memory. The day was capped off with a league-wide photo in the outfield.
In the 50 years since the founders built the field, fences and concession stands from nothing, East Chatham Little League now has more than 420 players and 35 teams giving baseball to young people age 4 to 16. And the league is growing by the year.
This season the league added new scoreboards, concrete aprons and flagpoles. Yeager said they also applied for grant funding to add infield grass to potentially host an all-star tournament in the near future and to upgrade lighting at the fields.
“This league is the culmination of a lot of hard work from a lot of volunteers,” Yeager said.
For more information about East Chatham Little League visit www.eastchathambaseball.com.