Garfield Park Little League teaches baseball and responsibility to both young fanatics and those new to the sport.
League cofounders Frank Brim and Jerry Mack started the Garfield Park Little League in 2008 after they noticed a lack of baseball teams in the area. It’s the only sanctioned little league from Austin Boulevard to Kedzie Avenue, Brim said.
“It’s not the sport of choice on the West Side of Chicago. Typically, kids want to play basketball and football,” Brim said. But on the first day of Garfield Park Little League, about 250 children and parents came to the Garfield Park Gold Dome Field House to sign up.
“Kids came out of nowhere,” Brim said. “We had kids wrapped around the field.” Everyone who was interested was put on one of 13 teams, organized by age from 4-year-olds to 16-year-olds. Brim and Mack each coached three of those teams.
Since then, over 500 girls and boys have played in the league and more than 60 volunteers have helped coach. Throughout the summer, kids play games at Garfield Park, Columbus Park and Les Miller Field at Curtis Granderson Stadium.
Brim, 67, grew up playing baseball. At 19, he experienced spring training with the Chicago White Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates, but was cut at the end of the training. In the late ‘70s, Brim joined a recreational summer team on the South Side, where he played against Mack’s West Side team. Both still coach Garfield Park Little League teams, but to them, the program is a lot more than just a game.
“I realized the second day of our program we needed a lot more than just baseball,” Brim said. He and Mack started instilling a standard of no cursing or littering, and treating the umpire, coaches and other players with respect.
“We found ourselves talking on the phone nightly about individual kids and about what we can do with this parent, how we should approach this parent about something that we see that might not be in the best interest of, not just their kid, but all of the kids in our program.”
This attention to character helped foster deep connections on teams.
“We were not just coaches, we formed relationships,” Brim said. “We formed community within the community.” This included organizing outings to go bowling and skating, plus other activities to keep kids engaged outside of baseball.
“Every Friday, I had kids that wanted to stay at my house,” Brim added. “We can create this program where these kids feel like, ‘I can share things with you that I can’t share with my mom and dad.’ And then mom and dad trust us enough to know that I love your child. I love my community.”
Garfield Park Little League also prioritizes kids performing well in school.
“First thing I ask them every day: ‘How’s your grades?’” Brim said.
In 2016, the little league launched its Bases Loaded program, communicating with teachers and parents to improve players’ grades and attendance at school. If a kid is misbehaving or often absent, they are connected with tutoring and academic resources, and they don’t get to play in a baseball game.
“We have to show them that if you don’t do what you’re supposed to, you don’t get what you want all the time,” Brim said. “You want to play baseball, you don’t need to.” This teaches them about the give and take of life.
“I can square the ball up and hit it hard, and still somebody’s playing defense. That’s what life is all about,” Brim said.
Garfield Park Little League’s seventeenth season starts May 1. Sign up to play at https://www.gp-league.org/.