Cantonment Ballpark Won’t Have Organized Ball This Spring

January 21, 2020

“Play ball!” won’t be echoing through the Cantonment Ballpark on an Opening Day this year. There were be no league organized youth baseball or softball this spring at the Cantonment Ballpark, but county officials say they are working to make sure the park won’t be totally silent this spring.

The Cantonment Youth Sports Association recently announced they won’t be playing “due to unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances” that were not explained in brief social media announcement. The league told the county the decision was made due to a lack of participation and not enough players to field the teams necessary.

“The ballpark is a great asset, and we are still going to make it available to the community,” Escambia County Parks and Recreation Director Mike Rhodes told NorthEscambia.com. He said the park is available for team practices, travel leagues and tournaments.

Rhodes is urging Cantonment area parents to sign their children up for tee ball, baseball and softball at another county park near Cantonment. Registrations are underway at Northeast Pensacola (NEP), Molino BallparkNorthwest Escambia (NWE) and other county parks. For more information, visit each ballpark’s website or call Escambia Parks and Recreation at (850) 475-5220.

Rhodes said work is underway to make sure organized youth ball returns to the Cantonment Ballpark in the future.

Pictured: Opening Day 2019 last March at the Cantonment Ballpark. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

13 Responses to “Cantonment Ballpark Won’t Have Organized Ball This Spring”

  1. Becky on January 22nd, 2020 12:51 pm

    Can anyone tell me how often the three year olds practice t-ball ? For molino park

  2. Molino Ballpark on January 22nd, 2020 10:15 am

    Our dugouts are open to those looking for a place to hang your bags. This is very unfortunate for the Cantonment community. But we’ll understood, it takes a team to to run a program and often it’s hard to find players for your team. I challenge you, step up find a way to support your community. Be a coach, be a volunteer, be a donor, take pride, get involved!!!
    Please help us let these players know we are here for them.
    Molino Registration ends this Saturday January 25th.

  3. Sherry Ewy on January 22nd, 2020 8:55 am

    Well, if it costs $85 to play t-ball on a church field, I can’t imagine what the “rich” kid leagues are paying. Kids are quite happy practicing on a dirt field with adult supervision. The county really shouldn’t have let this happen. The parents buy the glove, their kid a bat and a ball. Most of the coaches and sponsors pay for the extras like shirts and again the patrents money goes towards that to. All the county has to do is keep up the field, and I feel relatively sure that a simple ad in the paper would provide volunteers if their just too dang lame, too busy with navy federal I should say, to mow a field! Heaven forbid they do something for our children or for the public, NOT related to navy federal

  4. Brandon on January 21st, 2020 9:42 pm

    I hate to see this happen in any location. If anyone is looking for a place that will welcome your child/children to play, Olive Baptist has their registration open for their BST (Baseball, Softball, T-ball) leagues.

    Registration is $85 for tee ball (ages 4-5 year olds) and $100 for their other divisions. Current divisions include, tee ball (4-5), coach pitch (coed 6-8), minor leagues (9-11), and major leagues (12-14) with a softball division for ages 9-14.

    Fields are in great condition, all teams will have 1 practice per week and games will be on Saturdays. This is an 8 game season with a tournament for the minor league, major league, and softball divisions. Practice and game schedules will be set before first week of practice and will not change unless weather creates an issue.

    Practice will begin the week of Feb. 24th and opening day will be on Saturday, March 21st.

    Please visit: olivebaptist.org/baseball to register your child/children for the league. They have a schedule for evaluations, and other important dates listed on this page as well.

  5. Mart on January 21st, 2020 1:20 pm

    This is so sad. I do not live in the area any more. My son play youth ball there. Just breaks my heart to know that it has got this bad to close it.

  6. Mr. Anderson on January 21st, 2020 1:09 pm

    If you went through last year softball you could have seen this coming, They had one team that played well there but it was not due to the coaches they had what we all come to know as daddy ball coaches, And the baseball side was like a runaway train had a coach that lost his temper at every game and they throw him out of the park. It was poor leadership that killed that park. The park was just not kept up the bathrooms and concession was in terrible shape. You only seen one or two guys try to keep the fields up with a lawnmower is sad. I hope the county closed it for a year and fix the park the way it needs to be

  7. Cindy on January 21st, 2020 11:26 am

    Well, well. “New management” lasted one whole season.

  8. Tabitha Bennett on January 21st, 2020 11:00 am

    We played ball at Cantonment last year and quit half way through the season because the lack of organization of the program was to much to handle. This could very well contribute to why no one signed up.

  9. Rhandy on January 21st, 2020 10:16 am

    This isn’t surprising. I was there when the park reopened a few years ago and we all want to blame the park president and the county for the lack quality and upkeep but let’s not forget to run a park it takes parent involvement. It takes people getting out there and doing the work to maintain the fields to get donations to do upgrades to run concession to make money. That wasn’t happening period. Parents didn’t want to do the work that was involved then they wanted to complain to the powers that be that their fields weren’t ready and the concessions weren’t open when you have a handful of people doing all the work it’s hard to make a difference. Unfortunately that park is sitting in an area where it’s not going to pull in the kids and families it needs to help it run.

  10. fisherman on January 21st, 2020 9:21 am

    This is the parents fault they all think their kid is the best player in the world. I stopped going to games due to the way the parents treated their children.I have seen parents go onto the field and scream at their kid when he failed to make a play. This travel ball is all about money they tell the parents the only way their kid is going to make it is play travel ball and they shell out the big bucks so their child can play. There are only 750 professional baseball players in the big league so only a few will ever make it. Most will be drafted and play on a minor league making little money.

  11. deBugger on January 21st, 2020 8:47 am

    well, that’s just sad

  12. Terry Sullivan on January 21st, 2020 7:46 am

    It a shame that park is not going to be open. But I think it due to travel ball taking all the players on baseball and softball. Last year my grandson team was a live version of the bad news bears, playing on terrible fields conditions and the park is run down, and that to blame on the county! What the county needs to due it close the whole park for a year do all the work that needs to be done and get it back to looking like a ball park. Spend our money here not in perdido!

  13. Bubba on January 21st, 2020 2:29 am

    All the rich kids are playing travel ball. The price of league ball is so outrageous most families can’t afford It.