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Seasons of change happening for local baseball organizations this spring

LEWISTOWN — A couple years ago, there was an effort to merge Mifflin County Youth Baseball and Big Valley Little League under one umbrella.

Now, thanks to a change in affiliation by MCYB, which serves mainly Burnham and Lewistown boroughs, both organizations technically have the right to claim the entire county as their territory.

Big Valley’s player agent, Bob Wilson, says he’s willing to at least open the door.

Both youth baseball organizations were long members of Williamsport-based Little League, although both flirted briefly with Cal Ripken baseball (which is part of the same organization as Babe Ruth) a bit more than a decade ago. The two — whose territories were formed largely along the same lines as attendance for the former Lewistown Area and Indian Valley high schools — went back to Little League, and it stayed that way until last year.

That’s when MCYB went back to Ripken baseball — a decision, league president John Pannizzo said at the time, that was fueled greatly by the natural progression to Babe Ruth, a 10-team league that covers Mifflin and western Snyder counties for 13- to 15-year-olds. Both Ripken and Little League serves youths age 12 and under.

The merger talks became possible when Little League changed rules that would have permitted the two to operate together because they were ultimately serving one high school. But the two boards so no major benefit to going together because their operations were so different, and there was no intent to change or merge the boundaries.

After MCYB changed its affiliation, Big Valley reached out to Little League District 5 administrator Frank Germino to determine whether interleague play — the Super Series — was still permissible.

“At that same time he said, ‘now you guys are completely responsible for all of Mifflin County as far as Little League Williamsport is concerned,'” Wilson explained.

The same is true for MCYB and Cal Ripken.

The leaders of the two leagues have a gentleman’s agreement to maintain the boundary. Some kids went different ways, Wilson said. Pannizzo confirmed that as well.

“We actually have had kids question us about crossing lines, but we share with them the pros (and) cons that would be impacted with their decision,” Pannizzo said.

“We just wanted to explain it,” Wilson said of the territorial issue. “They guys hesitate to want to infringe. But we do want to make it known.”

The issue began to play out more seriously when Belltown, long part of MCYB, moved to Big Valley. Wilson said there also was some concern about MCYB spreading the word in Indian Valley Elementary, but Pannizzo pointed out that’s because school district changes put kids in his territory into that building.

“We have kids in the Freedom Avenue, Walnut Street area of Burnham and the Ferguson Valley area that attend IVES but are in our unofficial territory,” Pannizzo said. “Last year, we did receive a couple of forms and money from new players that were clearly in the BVLL territory. We called them and put them in touch with the correct contact people at BVLL.

“The lines for Strodes Mills Elementary, Lewistown Elementary School and IVES are blurred by MCSD because they constantly move based on enrollment numbers.”

Wilson, who grew up here, moved away and got involved when he returned — but has no kids or grandkids in either league — said, “I’m just a guy trying to help these younger guys out. In the process, I’m learning there’s some politics involved.”

And he admits he’s not sure what would happen if too many kids who live outside Big Valley’s association system were to join — a problem he’d have to solve as the player agent.

“What would be a real kicker is, what if we get these additional kids?,” he asked. “You can’t turn them away. What do we do with those kids that don’t have an association? Conceptually, it would be a good problem to have. It would mean there’s a lot of kids involved with Little League baseball.”

Pannizzo and Wilson agree on one thing: The best solution involves more kids playing.

“Ultimately, it is the goal of our board to make sure every child has a team to play on,” Pannizzo said.

“I don’t care if they’re Cal Ripken or Little League,” Wilson said. “Just get them on the field.”

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