Opening Day-Decatur DYB

Opening Day
April 9, 2011
Decatur Dixie Youth Baseball
National League
by Jerre Glover
President, National League
Decatur Dixie Youth Basebell
 
We began our day out with a parade that started at Eastwood Elementary and marched all the way to field one at the Bill Dukes complex at Point Mallard. All the teams lined up on the field and we officially began opening ceremonies. DeDee Jones did a great job of singing our National Anthem and Pastor Bill Hurt of First Baptist Church led our invocation.  I had a few opening words about how unique the Decatur National League is and about all the memories that would be made that day that would stay with some a lifetime.  I then introduced our board of directors and thanked our sponsors. We did a new fund raising drive that Parks and Recreation approved where we sold sponsorship signs at our concession stand and press box. It went over very well and made a lot of much needed funds for our league.
 
After all the sponsors were introduced we threw out the first pitch and we asked Jeff Dunlap to do the honor. I explained to the crowd that despite having massive budget cuts, Decatur Parks and Recreation did an outstanding job of keeping our fields in top shape and completed every request that we asked for. Not only does Decatur Parks and Recreation do a great job on our fields, but any sports area we have in Decatur is always top notch and we wanted to recognize them and thank them for a job well done. Jeff threw a strike right down the middle that had a little movement on it.  It was perfect.
 
After the first pitch, we decided to draw for the TV that we had been selling raffle tickets for. It was a 42" Vizio flat screen TV.  Ben and Abby Glover had the honor of spinning the wheel to mix up the cards and Grant Randolph pulled the winning ticket which was Allen Pendergrass. We then yelled "Play Ball".
 
Activities for the day included a silent auction that included several different items. Some of the items were a football signed by Phillip Rivers, a swim membership at Burningtree Country Club, a statue fund for Kevin "Bear" Burgreen and several nice gift baskets donated by several businesses across the city.
 
Something that was unique about the day was that Pastor Bill Hurt and First Baptist Church provided several free activities for the day. They brought out several inflatables that the kids could jump on and provided face painting stations and bottled water all for free. It was a very nice touch and was a huge success. All the bottled water they had left over, they donated to our league.
 
Besides all that, there were several baseball games that all went well and we even had a player in Minor A (Malone Johnson) hit a homerun over the fence, which is almost unheard of in Minor A (9 & 10 yr olds). I was told the ball actually went over the scoreboard.
 

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