Nelson's Little League baseball is open for registration for the spring season.
The city's fastest growing sport offers T-ball for ages five and six, rookie league for ages seven and eight, minor league for ages nine and 10, and major league for 11- and 12-year-olds.
Nelson's senior (Babe Ruth) leagues cater to teenaged players. At the T-ball and rookie levels, the emphasis is on fun and learning fundamentals with players introduced to game play in a non-competitive environment. The older leagues continue to emphasize player development coupled with competitive play throughout the region.
"Baseball is unique among team sports in that the game is made up of these little individual moments of success and failure, with failure being the more common outcome, even at the professional level," said outgoing Nelson Baseball president David Gray. "As a result, children learn to accept that a particular at-bat or play in the field doesn't always go their way."
Gray also loves the manner in which baseball rewards smart players, even at an early age.
"Baseball, especially at the little league level, may seem like a lot of standing around until all of a sudden a player finds themselves in the action," said Gray. "From an early age, we like to teach players to think about every available option in the event that the ball is hit their way. The kids end up with an extremely sophisticated understanding of the game's subtleties that's really cool to see them develop and execute."
Parents are directed to nelsonbaseball.ca to download the registration form, which may be submitted by mail or dropped off at the Nelson & District Community Complex. Prior baseball experience is not a prerequisite at any age. Registration closes at the end of March.