Tri Valley (CA) celebrates a World Series of Babe Ruth Baseball 14-Year-Old championship victory at Bullens Field in August 2016. (File photo by Marc St. Onge)
WESTFIELD – Westfield’s 350th anniversary celebration already figured to be a Whip City hit. It is now a grand-slam event.
According to the Greater Westfield Babe Ruth Baseball League, Westfield will be the host city for the Babe Ruth World Series for the second time in three years. The 13-Year-Old World Series will be held in August 2019.
The announcement came just one day prior to the start of the 13-Year-Old Regionals, which begin Friday at Bullens Field.
Hosting the World Series will showcase the Whip City and western Massachusetts to eight Babe Ruth Regional champions from across the United States and Canada. The event will be held Aug. 8-15, 2019.
“Westfield Babe Ruth and the Westfield 350th Celebration Committee will be working closely together to promote the World Series as a showcase event in our great city,” said Dan Welch, president of the Greater Westfield Babe Ruth League.
Welch said this grand event continues to enrich and enhance the strong tradition and heritage that has been created over the last 350 years.
Westfield hosted its first Babe Ruth World Series in 2016 after having played in past World Series in 1992, 2012 and 2014. The tremendous support from Mayor Brian Sullivan and all the volunteers and Westfield area businesses made the 2016 series a huge success.
It is estimated that the 14-Year-Old World Series in 2016 brought some 6,000 visitors and created more than $1 million in economic activity, according to the Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Visitors to the eight-day tournament rented area hotels for a total of 1,300 nights, according to the visitor’s bureau. There was $522,036 in direct spending in Westfield and surrounding towns, said Michele Goldberg, the bureau’s director of marketing.
The $1.03 million figure includes direct spending — that is, money teams and visitors spent on food, lodging and attractions — as well as indirect spending like business-to-business supply chain purchases and induced spending like when incomes earned through the direct and indirect spending are then spent in the community.
Goldberg said counting all three — direct, indirect and induced — gives a more complete view of the impact of an event as dollars flow through the local economy.
Jim Hagan, president of Westfield Bank has already signed on as the first Platinum Level sponsor for the 2019 event, noted Dan Welch. Hagan has been a strong advocate for Westfield Babe Ruth and many other youth and city activities.
Players coming out of the Westfield Little League program as 12-year-olds this season will be the nucleus of the team of 13-year-olds selected to play on the Westfield team in 2019. Players from the surrounding towns of Southwick, Agawam, West Springfield, Southampton, Huntington, Granville and Middlefield are also invited to play on a team for Westfield Babe Ruth.
Robert Faherty was in Westfield Thursday evening to announce Westfield’s selection as the host city and officially sign the World Series Host Contract with Welch.
“Now the fun begins to plan another successful World Series in Westfield,” Welch said.
“We hope to have a portion of our World Series Executive Committee from 2016 return and will be seeking new members to join our planning committees,” he stated. “We are fortunate to be able to continue to utilize Bullens Field for our games and continue to reap the benefits of the money spent in 2015 and 2016 by the City of Westfield to upgrade the seating, lights, and access to the field. There was strong support from many of our City Councilors for these upgrades which will pay dividends for many years in the future.”
REGIONAL NOTES: The opening round of the Babe Ruth Baseball 13-Year-Old Regionals begins with four games slated to take place Friday at Bullens Field. The first game, featuring teams from Pittsfield and Connecticut, will begin at 11:30 a.m., followed by Vermont-New Hampshire at 2 p.m., Maine-Eastern Mass at 4:30, and finally, Westfield-Rhode Island at 7 p.m.
Games will continue all throughout the weekend and into next week before a champion is crowned on Wednesday evening. Stay up-to-date with the latest results online at The Westfield News Sports.
– Greater Babe Ruth Baseball League President Dan Welch contributed to this article
The 2018 Westfield Babe Ruth 13-Year-Old All-Stars are: coach Kelly Flaherty (left front), manager Aaron Wagner (left back), coach Greg Sturmer (right front), and Kevin Matuszczak (right back); players, left front to back, Brady Kerr (10), Jacob Wagner (15), Ben Blanchette (5), Caden Matuszczak (12), Josh Mayo (8), Cam Lisowski (13), right front to back, Dawson Kelly (11), Grady Flaherty (1), Scott Hepburn (21), Josh Sturmer (1), Bryan Bolio (9), Liam Poole (6), and Anthony Shabowski (14). Westfield begins regional play Friday at Bullens Field at 7 p.m. (Photo by Scott Hepburn)
