Sports

Youth Baseball Club Slides into Home at Chesterfield Training Facility

A 4,000-square-foot facility in Chesterfield Township will serve as boys club and training grounds for young baseball players.

Local ballplayers will have a home base in a new training facility and social club in Chesterfield Township.

The spacious Bay Area Baseball Club facility at 28157 Kehrig near the Selfridge Air National Guard Base entrance off M-59 officially opened Tuesday.

The 1,000-square-foot office space will serve as a club for the ballplayers to form friendships, hang out and study. While the 3,000-square-foot training area, which was completed in three weeks by dedicated club members and volunteers, will help them improve their baseball skills.

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"What we offer is youth development," said Bay Area Baseball Club President John Graybill, who also serves as varsity baseball coach at . "We offer them a chance to interact with their schoolmates. We're treating it, for lack of a better term, like a boys' club."

Bay Area Baseball Club coach Gary Landless Jr. added, "these kids are going to be very well-prepared to play this year."

Find out what's happening in New Baltimore-Chesterfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The nonprofit club consists of 70 boys and four full-time teams, including players 12 and under, 14 and under, 16 and under, and 10-11 year olds who play in tournaments only. The teams, which will hold tryouts again in summer, tentatively play at Anchor Bay High School. The club, on its fourth official season, has attracted local talent in coaches who have many years of high school and college experience in the sport.

Boys as young as 6 and older players with a range of experience are welcome to use the training facility, as well as other area baseball clubs for a fee. Private lessons will also be available. Clinics, which have not yet been scheduled, will be held multiple times a year.

Inside the large, green training room, players will find a 70-foot-long retractable batting cage, pitcher's mound and other training aids. Graybill says the kids who use the club will also learn responsibility and lifeskills by helping maintain the facility.

He said doors are expected to open at 3 p.m. daily if there's a demand for it.

For more information about the Bay Area Baseball Club or training facility fees, call John Graybill at 586-949-4781 or email bayareabaseballclub@gmail.com.


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