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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesLITTLE LEAGUE BUMPED FOR BALL PARK CONCERT

LITTLE LEAGUE BUMPED FOR BALL PARK CONCERT

When is the Emile Griffith Ballpark not a ball park? The answer is when it's a concert venue, and it's an answer that has the Elrod Hendricks West Little League feeling that youth sports is taking back seat to commercialism.
The league has been forced to reschedule its games set for Thursday and Friday because of the Carnival Explosions 2000 concert featuring The Mighty Sizzla that has been booked in the park for Friday night. League president Lydia Simmonds-Lettsome says the group is hoping — but has no guarantee — that the field will be ready for play on Saturday.
It's not a new problem, Simmonds-Lettsome said. "Two years ago," she said, "it was with Housing Parks and Recreation deputy commissioner Francisco Jarvis." Then, she recalled, the department cut into scheduled Little League time by making the ballpark available to the New Generation Youth Group for a weekend concert. "Now it is with Housing Parks and Recreation assistant commissioner Leon Battiste," she said.
According to Battiste, "A scheduling mishap within Housing Parks and Recreation caused the confusion." He said a department employee assumed that Little League was going to take a carnival break and wouldn't play this week. When he learned this wasn't the case, he had to make a decision. "The event sponsors have already invested thousands of dollars in airline tickets and the general booking of the acts for this performance," he said. "I felt that it would be easier for the league to reschedule."
The department's own sponsored Government and Industrial Coed Slowpitch Softball League is on a two-week Carnival break. Little League, however, had a full schedule of games planned for this week.
"We did not want to take a break but instead scheduled the league's regular season to conclude just before carnival," Simmonds-Lettsome said. "Now we have been forced to finish the season after carnival."
The Little League president is frustrated but says she has a wait-and-see attitude about the situation. She is skeptical that the ball park will be ready for play to resume on Saturday. "If the field is prepared, we will continue," she said.
Barring rain, Battiste said, "the ballpark will be ready for play on Saturday."

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