East Butler Baseball Association returns to home fields after reaching agreement
Baseball will once again hit the fields of East Butler, Butler County.
Since the summer of 2023, a disagreement had kept the East Butler Baseball Association locked out of the four fields in East Butler, where they had played for more than 70 years. If anyone like association president Drew Mooney went on them, they could be arrested for trespassing. That's now a thing of the past.
"It's great. It's a nice warm sunny day. The only thing missing are all the kids running around," Mooney said while walking the fields on Tuesday.
A new agreement has been reached with the borough that addresses the use of fields, advertising and concession stands. The deal had been in the works for the last month.
Last year, the league had to go play games in Prospect.
"It took some time because there were just disagreements on both sides, and until that could really be worked out in the right way, we were at a standstill," Mooney said.
With the agreement in place, registration just opened up for their spring season. The league is offering free registration to get people involved.
"The real goal with this park, it's a beautiful park, let's get hundreds of kids up here. Let's get the kids off the screens and back here running around playing baseball," Mooney said.
The hope is to start practices in April with games to follow later that month or in early May. Between now and then, they have to work on getting the four fields ready.
"It's a relief for the community to be at peace. Gosh, to come together for baseball and kids, it's a big thing," Mooney said.
In the end, it's all about the kids getting out there and having fun in the summer sun.
