Star Spangled Kick-Off of Downtown Little League Season

Following the traditional parade from City Hall Park to the Battery Park City ball fields, the Downtown Little League kicked off its 23rd season on Saturday, April 18, with what league president Andrew Zelter called "by far our largest program to date."

Nearly 1,100 kids are playing on 81 teams, led by more than 200 volunteer coaches.

Those large and growing numbers mean greater demand than ever for field space at a time when the Battery Park City Authority has announced that after this season it will open the field-permitting process to organizations outside of Lower Manhattan. That decision sparked a response from community leaders, some of whom made references to the impending competition for field time in their opening day speeches.

"We're fighting very hard to make sure these fields are available to our local groups and our local leagues so that you can continue to play on them," said Councilwoman Margaret Chin.

"These fields are precious," remarked Paul Goldstein, representing Assemblyman Sheldon Silver. "We've all fought very hard for them including Assemblyman Silver and as far as we're concerned our priority for continued use of these fields goes to Downtown Little League and Downtown Soccer League."

"We must preserve what we have fought for," said Community Board 1 chair Catherine McVay Hughes. "We have more work to do but now have fun and play ball."

While the young players might have been wondering what all that "fighting" was about, they were indeed ready to ‘have fun and to play ball.” But first would come the ceremonial highlights of the day: Tom Goodkind conducting his TriBattery Pops with "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and a rousing rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" by 11-year-old softballer Darby Steininger. (Watch the video to hear her sing.)

"I'm not exaggerating," Zelter told the crowd following the ovation for Darby’s performance. "I've been waiting for that since she sang last year!"