Local schools turn to men’s adult league to upgrade facilities

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, April 22, 1999 | 10:52 a.m.

If you're a high school athletic director with a run-down baseball field, take heart. The local chapter of the Men's Adult Baseball League may be coming to the rescue.

For the past three years, the MABL has been helping area schools maintain their diamonds with donations of cash, materials and labor. In exchange, the adult league gets to use those fields on Sundays and off-days during the season.

"It's a matter of taking care of the field, which is good for their program and good for us," said George Johnson, executive director of the local chapters of the MABL and its sister organization, the Men's Senior Baseball League. "It's a nice circle."

It hasn't always been that perfect, though. After founding Southern Nevada's MABL/MSBL chapter in 1996, Johnson discovered that many area high school coaches weren't jumping at the idea of sharing their fields.

"We really had to win some people over with some things we were doing," Johnson said. "A lot of coaches wanted nothing to do with adult baseball."

Despite the MABL's offer of a $1,000 up-front cash donation to every participating school's baseball program, along with a $25 donation for every game the adult league used the field, most high schools declined to get involved with Johnson's group.

But with Edi Gomez in the fold, the MABL ultimately made inroads at four local schools. Gomez is the former commissioner of the local American Legion league who now coordinates field use for Legion baseball.

"(Gomez) is the wheel that has everybody getting along," Johnson said. "The guy's worth his weight in gold."

One of the schools that got on board was Durango. The Trailblazers' field (which doubles as a county facility) is among the finest prep ballparks in the nation, and the team's coach happens to be Edi Gomez's son, Mike.

"The adult leagues try to do a good job of taking care of the fields, and the money they donate certainly helps," Mike Gomez said. "Now, more of the coaches in town are starting to realize it's a good way to make extra money for their programs."

Johnson agreed: "You can only sell so much candy; you can only wash so many cars to raise money for your program."

For Cheyenne, a relationship with the MABL also has been a good way to bring a seemingly dead field back to life.

After the Desert Shields' infield dried out during the summer of 1996, the adult league provided the school with a fresh batch of Hybrid-Bermuda sod, which Johnson helped lay. And this year, Gomez provided two truckloads of Tufflite to complete the infield repairs.

Now, Cheyenne's field is among the best in town. And Shields coach Dave Snyder, an MABL player himself, is thankful for the help his school received.

"That old infield was horrible," he said. "And it would have been tough to raise the money to fix it. A lot of schools in town could use the help."

The success at Cheyenne also has been a winning situation for the adult league, which gained a positive reputation in the community. Johnson has received calls from many of the schools that turned him down three years ago.

"Working on the field at Cheyenne got people talking about us," Johnson said. "Before, we were banging on doors for fields, but now the tide has turned. They're coming to us."

With Durango, Eldorado and Cheyenne already in the fold, Johnson's group has lined up fields at Basic and Valley for upcoming seasons. And as the MABL and MSBL continue to expand, Johnson will continue reaching out to programs in need.

"If there's someone out there that needs help with their field, we're here," he said.