The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

FREEDOM Farm Baseball League is set to make its return to the Babe Ruth’s Cal Ripken Baseball Major/70 World Series and Greg Burrows Sr has been appointed to an executive role in the tournament’s organising committee.

Burrows, who also serves as the Babe Ruth Baseball Commissioner in the Caribbean, is appealing to the general public for assistance with funding to offset team expenses for the upcoming event, hosted August 5-14 at the Ballparks of America in Branson, Missouri.

“We need as much assistance as we can to get the team there. The parents and the coaches are doing their best to try and seek sponsorship, but the cry is always out there, funding is essential. If we want to see more players like Jazz [Chisholm], this is the time to make a contribution,” Burrows said. “Financial contributions are so important to youth sports, especially during this time and means just as much as the time we contribute on the field. Guys like Jazz and Lucius Fox came through this same Cal Ripken World Series and we may have other players like that in this pipeline, so I am hoping people can contribute in any way they can.”

Interested persons can email freedomfarmbaseballleague@hotmail.com or contact the league via its social media pages for more information.

The Bahamas is one of 25 teams competing in the event and one of just five international teams in the International Pool alongside 2019 champions Mexico, Puerto Rico, Curacao and Aruba.

Team members include Marlon Bostwick Jr, Alexander Burrows, Justin Colebrooke, Teron Davis, Mario Dean, Kaizen Dorsett, Ajay Knowles, Jamar Miller, Trae Neymour, Ethan North, Sheldon Jones, Elvis Pardo, Logan Rolle, Doyle Sears and Carlton Storr.

The team will be managed by Marlon Bostwick Sr.

Burrows has been invited to serve as a member of the 2021 Major/70 World Series Task Force. The task force comprises distinguished administrators in the game of baseball with a firm grasp of the rules. Members are tasked with ensuring that all procedures of the game are adhered to and protests are avoided.

Last September, he revealed plans for the first ever Babe Ruth Caribbean Zone Championships, hosted July 7-11, 2022 at the new Andre Rodgers National Stadium, featuring 12U and 15U divisions.

“It’s always a good thing to have a Bahamian named to an international position and I’m elated to have this opportunity with the understanding that next year we are hosting the Caribbean Zone Championships, so this gives me somewhat of a training ground to learn what will be expected of us and learn the logistics of what we need to do for next year,” he said.

“It puts me in the right environment to learn what we need to implement for our tournament to further solidify our role as hosts and a premier sports tourism destination.”

Freedom Farm has a rich tradition of success in Cal Ripken Baseball tournaments after winning the 2010 Southeast Regional Championship and the 2010 Major/60 World Series. Four players from that roster - Jazz Chisholm Jr (Miami Marlins), Lucius Fox Jr (Kansas City Royals), Chavez Young (Toronto Blue Jays) and Quinton Rolle (Cincinnati Reds) - went on to have professional careers at various levels of baseball.

Chisholm eventually became the seventh Bahamian to advance to the Major League and is currently the starting second baseman for the Marlins while Fox is in AAA and Young is in AA baseball. “Freedom Farm has been a part of the Babe Ruth organisation for a long time now, representing The Bahamas. Of course we had our biggest accomplishment in 2010. To put together a team in our short, tournament style season was a challenging time and it will be interesting to see how they perform having played less baseball compared to kids who have played a lot more than us over the course of the year and throughout the pandemic. But we will be ready, we will be physically fit and if we are mentally up to the task. I believe we will do well,” Burrows said. “All of our recent visits to the World Series, we have always had a good showing and just falling a few steps shy of the championship. This may be the year we make that step and represent the international bracket. Despite the circumstances we find ourselves in, we feel like this team may be the one to do it.”

Major 70 is a level of baseball beyond Little League but before professional baseball that allows players to play on 70-foot base paths with a 50-foot pitching distance. It also allows runners to take leads and steal for the first time, playing mainly by official baseball rules.

This innovation helped to prepare the youth for better transition to the 90-foot diamonds of the Babe Ruth Baseball 13-15 and 16-18 divisions of play.

The Babe Ruth League has well over one million players on over 60,000 teams in more than 11,000 leagues and over 1.9 million volunteers.

The Babe Ruth League consists of five divisions: Cal Ripken Baseball (ages 4–12), Babe Ruth Baseball (ages 13–18), Babe Ruth Softball (ages 4–18), Bambino Buddy Ball (ages 5–20), and Xtreme Fastpitch (ages 6–18).