The Cooperstown Youth Baseball Board of Directors has announced its plans for the 2003 season, and may have to start calling itself Cooperstown Youth Baseball and Softball next year.

The Board is planning a new division for girls that it will add to the baseball program. At the same time, the Board is reviving plans for an ambitious project that was initiated by predecessors on the Board ten years ago.

The Youth Baseball Board is pursing the development of a permanent building at Ainslie Field located on Linden Avenue Extension.

Working with the concept developed ten years ago by a previous set of parents, the plans call for a 2,600 square foot building. The heated structure would contain restrooms, a small kitchen, storage for league equipment and field maintenance machinery, and a large meeting room. A sub-committee has met several times to discuss design and layout.

However, before plans can be finalized, a site assessment has to be completed to determine that the soil conditions can support the building as proposed. The projected site, near the backstop of Ainslie Field, is near or within the vicinity of a former landfill used in the 1960s and 70s. Test trenches dug in the near future will determine if the Board must alter plans for the exact location of the building. Once finalized, the fund-raising campaign will begin.

Also, for the first time in the long history of youth baseball in Cooperstown, there will be a softball division established exclusively for girls.

The teams will be open to girls between the ages of 8 and 12. The new division will offer an opportunity for young girls to play a slightly different game that may be more suitable to their interests than the standard game of hardball.

As in higher levels of girls softball, underhand pitching will be used. While fundamentals of the game will be taught, the main emphasis, as it is with the hardball divisions, will be to have fun. Similar girls teams have been in place in other nearby communities.

While it won't be clear until after registration how many Cooperstown girls will sign up for softball, our local league expects to schedule some games with the girls teams from Richfield Springs, Milford and Edmeston. Local girls will still have the option of choosing to play on a hardball team instead of the other divisions—T-Ball, Minors and Majors. Terry Bliss is the commissioner of the new girls program.

"I think it's a true testament to the Cooperstown Youth Baseball board that the members see a need and act on it," said CYB president Brad Feik. "None of the members have girls who will be in the program, they just want to see the girls get a chance to play softball."

The commissioners of the hardball divisions are Bob Hall (T-Ball), Dave Borgstrom (Minors) and Bruce Brodersen (Majors). Another new change planned for next year is to extend eligibility to all Kindergarten students to play T-Ball.

Registration for Cooperstown Youth Baseball is scheduled for the following dates: Thursday, Jan. 16 from 6-8 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 21 from 6-8 p.m., and Saturday, Jan. 25 from 9 a.m. until noon.