By Rit Carter
Following the lead of the CIAC, NECBL and American Legion baseball programs, which all canceled their respective seasons, Bristol’s three little league programs (Edgewood, Forestville and McCabe-Waters) are the latest local baseball institutions to cancel their season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With heavy hearts and great disappointment, the leagues began announcing via their websites and Facebook pages the cancelation of their 2020 spring season for all levels of play.
Sighting safety concerns for the players, volunteers, fans and parents alike, the leagues opted to table the season.
The McCabe-Waters Board of Directors addressed the issue with the McCabe-Waters families on their website:
“This decision did not come easy or without sadness. Little League is more than just a place to learn how to play baseball. It is friendship, it is family, it is community. We have been holding our hope that in some way we would be able to get a season in for our kids. Unfortunately, we do not believe that we safely move forward with team activities under the current guidelines put forth by the state of Connecticut.”
For the full statements from Edgewood and McCabe-Waters announcements they can be found here:
https://www.mccabewaters.com/teams/?u=MWLL&s=baseball
Incidentally, another casualty of Covid-19 is the City Series, which will not be played for the first time since 1984. This is a double elimination tournament between the champions of the three leagues to crown the city’s best Major’s Division baseball team that began in 1956.
Rit Carter is a native Bristolite and contributing editor to The Bristol Edition (TBE).