Daily Blog: Baseball in the Hamptons

The city of Sag Harbor, New York is home to 2000 residents and one brand new baseball league:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/nyregion/25metjournal.html

Sag Harbor is located in the Hamptons--a tony coastal area where New York City's elite spend their weekends. But Sag Harbor and other towns in the Hamptons recently inaugurated Hamptons Collegiate Baseball, "a summer league that is bringing the foul balls and dirt-stained uniforms that come with the game to a place better known for its celebrities, glamorous fund-raisers and crisp polo shirts."

According to the article:

“'We’re the Hamptons, and we have plenty of cachet to go with that reputation, but at the root of it, we’re small towns with year-round populations,' said Rusty Leaver, the league’s founder and owner of Deep Hollow Ranch in Montauk. 'This is bringing Iowa to the Hamptons.'”

The goal of the league is to use these baseball games to create a "sense of community." And it seems to be working:

"Robert Cleary of Sag Harbor comes almost every Sunday with his 7-year-old son, Dillon, who sings 'God Bless America' with a group of children during the game. Dillon also goes to a Sunday morning clinic that many of the players — who are regarded like rock stars by the town’s youths — put on to teach baseball fundamentals."

So even after the celebrities return to New York, small cities like Sag Harbor will still have their baseball league and their sense of community.