They call it the “old-timers” game, but those on the field tend to look more like champs than gramps.
Mostly.
The 12th annual Stars & Strikes Old Timers’ Alumni Game, a July Fourth weekend Bainbridge baseball tradition, will return to the Bainbridge High School field a day early this year, from 9 to 11 a.m. Sunday, July 3, bringing with it many, many collective years’ worth of home runs, pop flies, slides, bunts and strike outs.
The beloved fundraiser face-off pits island baseball players from all kinds of experience paths — including former BHS and Little League players and coaches as well as collegiate players who live here — against each other for a good cause.
Even younger players are allowed — but not too young.
“We’ll allow high school players that have graduated after four years,” event spokesman Troy Niehaus said. “We don’t want too new graduates because they’ll tear apart some of the real old-timers.”
The game is free to attend, with a suggested donation of $5. There are also some choice offerings from local sponsor businesses up for grabs in the yearly raffle, with tickets on sale during the game. All donations gathered from the attendees and sponsors as well as raffle ticket sales will benefit the BHS baseball program; the C, JV and varsity teams.
Visit www.facebook.com/oldtimersgame for more information.
The game was switched this year, Niehaus said, from July 4 to the day before so that fans and players could better enjoy all of Bainbridge’s holiday festivities, including the July 3 street dance and a full day at the Grand Old Fourth.
“We may end up keeping it on the third of July just because the fourth can be so busy,” he said. “You start with the fun run and then people prep for the parade, but on the third it opens up a little bit and we can have the game and then people can have a little more time to go and do a cookout or two before the downtown street dance happens.”
Stars & Strikes is one of the most pivotal fundraisers for the BHS baseball program of the entire year, Niehaus said.
“We generally have about a 100 people,” he said. “We’ve got an announcer. We’ve got music that gets played.
“It’s certainly a group effort,” he added.
Money raised enables the coaches to get new equipment, helps with field upkeep and the dozens of other small expenses that come along with the excitement of every season.
“They don’t get a lot of funding from the schools,” Niehaus said. “This is one of the largest single events that we use to gather funds for the teams the program can use.”
Baseball is one of the sports that Bainbridge athletes routinely excel at. This past season’s high school varsity squad, despite the loss of 12 seniors to graduation, was the number one seed in their division and saw two players make the All District First Team.
The year before the Spartans were fourth in state.
“We’re excited,” Niehaus said. “We had a really good-sized C team and the number of starters that are going to return on the varsity team, I think will put us in really good standing next year.”
