by www.baseballeurope.com
The Érd Baseball Team Club took up the challenge this year to organize its own Juvenile league. Last year two Juvenile teams were based in their club and both teams had too many players. Club head coach Terry Lingenhoel had the idea of trying to recruit enough players ages 9-12 to form two more teams. Terry with the help of others went into 9 local elementary schools and conducting baseball demonstrations in 45 PE classes for over 1500 kids. All the kids were invited to attend the Spring Training Camp.
Over 80 kids attended the camp and over 60 made commitments to play in the league. One of the teams, the Dodgers, was made up of foreigners from the local international school and the Hungarian kids were divided up into 3 teams: the Indians, Cardinal and Red Sox. The season started April 11 and ran 6 Saturday mornings with all four team playing simultaneously on two fields. On May 29, the Dodgers and the Indians both with a 5-1 record played for the championship. It was a great game with the Dodgers pulling out the win with superb hitting (2 homeruns and a grand slam).
The best players from all four teams were selected to make up the traveling team which played against other teams in the Hungarian National Juvenile League. This team also participated in the International Friendship Games for Kids in Hluboka, Czech Republic in July.
The Érd Baseball Team Club plans to continue the league next year and hopes to set a model for other Hungarian clubs.