In short, the Buddy Ball concept consists of established young ballplayers and adults teaching kids with physical and developmental challenges between the ages of 5 and 20 to learn and play the game of baseball. While Buddy Ball has been around awhile, we began our own Danbury Buddy Ball program 3 years ago in the Spring of 2010.
When we started, we had 7 players and not everyone could be there for every game. We had 6 games in the Spring and 6 games in the Fall. While we succeeded in teaching baseball, the frustrating part was that the kids had to play against themselves all the time, thus they became exhausted because if they weren't on base or in the field they were up at the plate - as you can imagine, these kids were worn out by the 3rd inning!
After plugging along with our program, we hit it big at the end of our Spring 2012 season when our Danbury Buddy Ball - now known as the Danbury Lions and 10 players strong - played the Danbury Westerners (a summer team of college baseball players). Not only did the Buddy Ball "Danbury Lions" win the game but we turned out a huge crowd and got noticed!
This year, we have established our first annual Franklin D Roosevelt Buddy Ball Tournament on April 27, 2013 - the week before our season starts. We have also established a second team called the Southbury CT Knights. Danbury will play the Knights in the tournament at Hyde Park NY at 11:30am on Saturday April 27 - rain date Sunday April 28. The game will take place behind the Franklin Roosevelt Library. It is being held in Hyde Park to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the March of Dimes which was founded by President Franklin Roosevelt.
The Lions and the Knights players currently reside in Danbury, Southbury, Newtown, New Milford, Ridgefield, Bethel & Brookfield CT. The registration to play Buddy Ball is free! For more information about Buddy Ball or how to sign up for the 2013 Fall season please contact: Rick Flannery at cmadbase@yahoo.com.
Also for the first time, we will now always play as a team and we have uniforms! We have 15 players on for Danbury and are poised to create a 2nd Danbury Buddy Ball team.
We kick off our regular season in Southbury CT on Saturday May 4th and open in Danbury CT on Saturday May 11 complete with opening ceremonies and special guests.
Our Schedule is below. GO LIONS!!
The Southbury & Danbury CT Buddy Ball Schedule:
SAT APRIL 27 11:30am - First Annual Franklin D Roosevelt Buddy Ball Tournament at Hyde Park NY - Danbury CT vs Southbury CT
WED MAY 1st 6-8pm - Pasta Dinner fundraiser hosted by the Danbury High School seniors and peer leaders to benefit Buddy Ball - cost is $7 per person
SAT MAY 4th 12pm - Danbury vs Southbury at Settler #1 Field in Southbury CT
SAT MAY 11th 9am - Southbury vs Danbury at Rogers Park Field #1 in Danbury CT - opening ceremonies prior to game
SAT MAY 18th 12pm - Danbury vs Southbury at Settler #1 Field in Southbury CT
SAT MAY 25th - NO GAME
SAT JUNE 1st 9am - Southbury vs Danbury Rogers Park Field #4 in Danbury CT
SAT JUNE 8th 12pm - Danbury vs Southbury at Settler #1 Field in Southbury CT
SAT JUNE 15th 9am - Southbury vs Danbury at Rogers Park Field #4 in Danbury CT
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