UPDATE: We have formed a partnership with the Bucks County and Southeast PA Youth Baseball/Softball COVID Coalition to move our petition forward. Their resolution can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KZl1Ko3ikTPlv1S7XpjjBRnEHCiCx-kwSJZkOSeXvWM/mobilebasic

Please have your organization reach out to Jon Biedermann at [email protected] to be added to the list of organizations in support of this resolution.

"Play Ball. Stay Safe."

The Pennsylvania Baseball Coalition is a group of baseball programs, organizations and industry leaders formed to support youth athletes, coaches, umpires and baseball businesses.

We recognize the importance of baseball to our communities and how it can be a key building block not only to our physical health, but to our mental health as well. Being part of a team helps build character, leadership and community. Baseball and softball build habits that contribute to an active lifestyle, foster strength of teamwork, addresses obesity by offering a means of physical exercise, and allows for socialization while eliminating the isolation that has been felt by so many boys and girls since the middle of March. This is something they need now more than ever.

Our goal is to provide a safe way to resume playing youth baseball. We are interested in a dialogue with governing officials as to how to reopen baseball activities. We have safe solutions and best practice recommendations to propose.

Reopening golf was a good step for communities, but mostly affluent people play golf with a significant portion of them being retirees who are considered “most at-risk” for serious Covid-related complications. According to the National Golf Foundation, golfers 65+ played 3x as many rounds annually as those aged 18-34. It is time to consider merits of opening up baseball and softball.

The baseball ecosystem supports people of all ages and socioeconomic classes, but mostly younger people. Younger people are considerably less at-risk than retiree-aged people with respect to Covid-related hospitalizations and deaths. People under 18 years old have ONLY accounted for less than 3% of all confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Pennsylvania (source: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Cases.aspx). Because data on children can be lumped together, the data can be misleading and misrepresented. US infants have a much higher hospitalization rate than any other child age group (source: www.sciencealert.com/here-s-the-biggest-study-on-kids-and-covid-19-published-to-date/amp). Furthermore, the balance of evidence suggests that children may also have lower susceptibility and infectivity than adults, lessening the concern that children will pass the virus to their parents/family (source: mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN22Y1UC).

While no one can deny that Covid-19 may be here with us for a while, the objective of staying at home and shutting down the majority of business and activities was not to prevent every individual from contracting the virus. The initial intent of the stay at home order was to minimize the burden to our health system. While that has largely been accomplished, it is time to safely allow the return of baseball and softball for these children.

Baseball is a low risk outdoor sport with limited contact and the sport should get the same opportunity as hunting, golf, and tennis to open up safely.

Here is a link to a great round table discussion, led by Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, regarding resumption of youth baseball and softball from May 21 https://youtu.be/rJ95NQ-MhdM

We ask the Governor and County Executives to allow us back out on the baseball field safely. We ask for an opportunity to present various safety measures, such as limiting the number of players/spectators, wearing masks, sanitizing hands/equipment, temperature checks, no concessions, no handshakes or high fives and more. The signers of this petition believe that not allowing baseball to be played in Pennsylvania this spring/summer will have a profoundly negative impact on the community's health, both physically and mentally. It's time to Play Ball. And Stay Safe.

Send this petition to your friends/teammates/parents/coaches/elected officials. Send along to our/your softball sisters too!

Here are the organizations who support this group:

*LOWER BUCKS PROSPECTS

*MORRISVILLE 1955 LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD CHAMPIONS

*ZOOM BASEBALL ACADEMY

*FLOURTOWN-ERDENHEIM LITTLE LEAGUE

*USABL

*US OVER THIRTY BASEBALL

*JSBL

*ABCC

*NESHAMINY WILDCATS

*GLENSIDE YOUTH ATHLETIC CLUB

*MT CARMEL JR BASEBALL LEAGUE

*If you would like your organization to be added to this list, please email: [email protected]