By Kathy Johnson
NCAA and Major League-sanctioned baseball is alive and well just over Afton Mountain in Waynesboro and the Shenandoah Valley.
For only $5 general admission ($3 for seniors 60+ and children 12 and under), baseball fans have the opportunity to see some of the best (near) professional ball in the country as the Waynesboro Generals take on the rest of the Valley Baseball League teams.
General’s general manager, Chris Graham, a hard-core baseball fan, gets animated when he talks about baseball and the Generals. The Valley teams “each receive a stipend from the major leagues,” Graham explained. This is not just baseball for fun. It’s baseball that helps create future Major League players, played with the same rules and with wood bats. “They send their scouts to see our players,” Graham said with obvious pride.
“The league dates back to the ’50s and forerunners back to the ’20s,” said Graham. Officially, the league was formed in 1923 and NCAA-sanctioned in 1961 and includes the North, Central and South Division, with the Generals in the South League playing against the Covington Lumberjacks, Rockbridge Rapids (newest league team) and longtime rival the Staunton Braves. “We have the cream of the crop of amateur players and the games have a minor league feel to them,” Graham said.
“We have a ‘fun zone’ with a pitching machine with radar,” Graham gushed. Recently, “two Little League teams nearby, 10- and 11-year-olds, came over and you get three throws for a dollar,” he said. The machine can tell the rate of speed of each pitch (or throw) of the ball and the little players really enjoyed trying it out. The machine is available for anyone interested in giving it a try.
Valley League players are all currently enrolled in college, including UVA, LSU and Auburn. The players have to be freshmen, sophomores or juniors. Baseball is played in the valley during June and July with league playoffs scheduled to start the end of July and finish in early August.
Graham ‘dropped’ a few names of past players: “Mike Lowell played for the Boston Red Sox and was the 2007 World Series Most Valuable Player. He played in Waynesboro in 1992.” He also mentioned Denny Walling, who played at Waynesboro in 1975, was drafted by the Oakland A’s and went on to the Major League. This is not your neighborhood game of catch.
Last Sunday (June 28) the Generals ended a three-game losing streak by winning over Rockbridge and currently lead the South League standings with an 8-3 record, winning 72 percent of their games They are bested only by the Harrisonburg Turks in the Central Division who are winning 83 percent (based on six games).
The Valley Baseball League is a member of the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball, a national affiliation of summer leagues. More than 1,000 professional baseball players have come from the league. Seventy-nine former players (a record) were drafted in the June 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
The Generals are running some special promotions. “For just $250 you can be ‘owner for the day,”’ Graham said. “It’s great. You get 30 seats right behind home plate for friends, family, employees. You can go to the press box for an interview, or just to watch. It’s that one time when someone asks, you can answer, ‘Actually tonight, I do own the place.’”
Friday night, July 3 at 6 p.m. they are hosting “Ladies’ Night, Take Two.” It will be a “Shop ‘til you drop festival!” as the Generals face Harrisonburg. A potentially tough game between the two league leaders, this is a home game held at the Kate Collins Middle School field.
For more information about the games, to purchase Generals memorabilia, or to sign up to “own the team,” visit www.waynesborogenerals.com.
Kate Collins Middle School field is located at 1625 Ivy Street. Route 250 to Waynesboro; turn right on E. Broad St. (250 bypass). Turn right on North Poplar Ave. (VA 254); left on Ivy St. (VA 254). The field is to the left of the school.
Home Schedule
July 3 – Harrisonburg
July 5 – Covington
July 10 – Haymarket
July 17 – Front Royal
July 19 – Winchester
July 22 – Staunton
July 25 – Staunton
July 26 – Covington
July 29 – Covington
July 30 – Rockbridge
All HOME games start at 7 p.m. at Kate Collins Field.
This is really fun and exciting baseball to watch. It’s very family friendly and with the games starting at 7:00, you’re not out too late, unless there’s extra baseball to be played. 🙂
I’ve been going for years and the family loves it.
Bring a chair or blanket and sit on top of the hill to get a different view of the field.
GO GENERALS !!!!
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