Feud Over Field Use Continues for Local Baseball Teams

The travel baseball teams with the local Little League over field use have found a place to play for now, but parents and coaches say they want the township to help them as they push for a compromise with League officials on rules effectively excluding two travel teams from township-owned fields.

The issue began late last year when the Barnegat-Waretown Little League board decided to allow only registered, active league participants to play on the fields it leases and maintains on Barnegat Boulevard.

While many local travel baseball players – mostly 13- to 15-year-olds – are still enrolled in Little League, some aren’t. As a result, two travel teams coached by Barnegat residents and made up of Barnegat players can no longer practice and play on fields they were accustomed to using. 

Members of the Township Committee announced at their meeting Monday that they have helped to play on the baseball fields on 11th Street near Seneca Boulevard in Ocean Township, just a quarter mile north on Route 9 from the Little League fields. 

It's a resolution travel coach John Harashinski said he was "very happy" with.

He said he, fellow coach Chris Padilla and the parents of their players are thankful for the time and effort put in by Barnegat Township officials to find an alternative field for their kids, and grateful to Ocean Township for allowing them to play. But they see the playing at 11th Street as a stop-gap measure.

The kids will be set for spring and summer, said Sue Fraim, whose son plays on a travel team, but the teams play through the autumn.

“Once September hits and the fall hits, the hours after 5 o’clock are dark,” she said, and the 11th Street fields don’t have lights.

As a result, Fraim said, parents and coaches want to keep talks going, and are urging the township to re-examine the 50-year lease the Little League signed with the township in 1980. 

“We really are hoping that between the Township Committee and (the League) and the parents, there’s something we can eventually agree on,” Fraim said. "We're not looking to take over the fields. We're willing to pay. We just want a compromise."

Township Administrator David Breeden said he’s believes that’s possible. The 11th Street fields are a short-term solution, he said.

“Long term, we want the teams to play in Barnegat,” Breeden said, “so we’ll take the necessary steps to achieve that goal.”

It might take awhile, though, to work through what’s become a tense fight for both parties.

“We had one meeting,” he said. “There are issues. It’s going to take time to resolve them.” 

Barnegat-Waretown Little League Vice President Dereck Davis said he believed it was possible for travel teams and the League to coexist.

“It’s happening now with teams that are following the policy,” he said. 

But Davis said the League entered into the new rules for good reasons. 

Self-preservation is part of it. Little League relies heavily on parent volunteers, and Davis said the growth of the travel teams has come in part at the expense of the League.

But his primary concern is safety, he said. Little League has strict rules designed to protect kids – pitching multiple days in a row isn’t allowed, for example, to prevent injury, and all coaches have to pass background checks.

“That’s one of the big things with travel ball that scares me,” Davis said. “We don’t see the rules for kids.”

If teams are going to play on fields the Little League works hard to maintain, they need to follow Little League rules, Davis said, and the only sure way the League sees to accomplish that is to bring everyone under the same umbrella.

If they don’t, they could be liable in the event of an accident or some unforeseen event, said Davis. The Little League has insurance, but if a non-League parent sued over an incident, it could be financially devastating. 

Sue Fraim called the insurance argument “a crock.” The travel teams have their own insurance through their membership with the United States Amateur Baseball League, she said.

In her eyes, the League’s board is seizing on any argument possible to throw up roadblocks for young athletes who just want alternatives.

“The problem is, they’ve come up with so many things in the past,” she said, and keep bringing up new objections. “They went from one thing to another to another.”

And if the Little League is worried about staying afloat, she said, alienating longtime League families isn’t a good idea. Many families have pulled their kids from Little League over the issue, she said.

Lingering anger over the disagreement has been hard on the town’s baseball community, she said. There’s a lot of overlap among the travel teams and the Little League. At one point, Fraim said, nearly all the travel ball players were Little Leaguers. Her own son has been involved since the T-ball days.

“My son is still playing in Barnegat,” she said. “My husband’s a head coach of Little League. It’s tough.”

For his part, Davis said it frustrates him to see Little League leaders depicted as bullies.

They’re just trying to do what’s in the best interests of the League, he said, so they can keep offering a safe, inexpensive way for kids to enjoy baseball.

In his years of involvement with the League, Davis said he’s put in countless hours volunteering maintenance work, from installing the lights to hooking up the sewer line to clearing trees for the parking lot. 

“I can show you the blisters on my hands,” he said. “You’re there for one reason, and this is why I’ve been there so long. We’re there for the kids.”