Summer Baseball Continues in the Villages

For those that are baseball fans, there will be plenty of chances to watch local baseball without leaving the area.   

That's because the Tarrytown/North Tarrytown Baseball/Softball Association has six teams, ranging from the ages of 9-16, competing in the Westchester Putnam Baseball Association this summer under the name Sleepy Hollow.

Action is already under way and goes through the middle of August, including playoffs.   

In charge of the summer program for TNT is Mike King. King has been with TNT the last 16 years, coaching in it each year. The latter 10 he has been the director of its summer program.   

King keeps returning each summer because he says he just can't stay away the sport and the kids playing it. He is still coaching this year, but more as an assistant to the 16-and-under squad.   

King enjoys running the summer program because he feels it's very important for the youth in the area to have something constructive to do during the summer months.   

"I see these kids and they would have nowhere else to go, I can just see it," King said. "I grew up in the city and it's tough if you don't  have something to do for the summer. It's a lot easier to get in trouble if you don't have something to do during the summer."   

Besides the summer program and spring program, which just concluded on June 19 that TNT runs, there are also opportunities for the youth in the community to play baseball when the leaves turn brown.   

"We even play fall ball and fall ball goes into October," King said. "They are playing baseball basically from when they finish school in June to pretty much when they go back to school in September and October."   

Besides having something constructive to do, another great thing about playing in the WPBA is that it gives the players the chance to test their skills against players from different towns. For example, the 16-and-under team will play teams from Yonkers, Bedford-Pound Ridge, Haverstraw, Ossining, Shrub Oak, Patterson, Peekskill, LaGrange, Beekman and Somers.   

"That's very important," King said. "You take a couple of kids who are a good ballplayers and they play just kids in town, you will only improve so much. But if you can play kids from places all-around Westchester and Putnam, it will just make them better competing against these other kids."   

That in turn helps the players when they get to high school and it showed as Sleepy Hollow High School's varsity squad went from three wins to eight wins and qualified for the Section 1 Class A tournament this spring.   

"It was nice to see the high-school team turn it around this year," King said.   

What was especially satisfying for King about the Headless Horsemen's improvement is that he is very familiar with most of its players.  

"The majority of those players have gone through the TNT program, travel ball with me and the other coaches," King said. "We won the 14-and-under travel fall league last year. It gave them some confidence that carried on into the high school season. They realized that they could play against these kids and that helped build their confidence."