Bottom Of The Ninth

Success and its discontents

by Ben Geman

Back when South End Baseball got rolling in the mid 1980s, it didn't have opening-day fanfare, or all-star tournaments, or traveling and college coaches coming to see the older kids. There weren't even complete uniforms for the 75 or so players -- just T-shirts.

Today, there is all that and more: tournaments, games against teams from the suburbs, award banquets and trophies, and even baseball cards featuring the kids. The league has 44 teams and more than 800 participants, ranging from five to 18 years old. But it hasn't attracted money as successfully as it's attracted players. Owen Carlson, who started coaching in 1987 and became head of South End Baseball in 1989, says the private, nonprofit league is $38,000 in debt.

The league draws sponsorship support from neighborhood businesses and counts the Mighty Mighty Bosstones' Dicky Barrett among its fans. Still, Carlson says, it can't keep up with rising costs, which have reached $100,000 per year. "The size of our program has just way outdone the size of our fundraising efforts," he says. "We have about 100 adult volunteers, great role models, adults working with children on a strictly volunteer basis, but we don't have a lot of fundraising people."

Carlson, the 34-year-old manager of a Back Bay courier company, is now covering a lot of the costs out of his own pocket. If he doesn't get help, he says, the league will have to cut back.

"We would have to become like most other programs -- charging [fees], not doing everything, the tournaments, the field trips, Red Sox games, barbecues, batting cages," he says. "We would have to cut down on all that stuff."

And that would be too bad, because South End Baseball is a success story that unites kids from the South End, Lower Roxbury, and even Dorchester and Chinatown. I saw its benefits for myself a few years ago, when I covered some league games as a reporter for the South End News.

"Whether or not they are successful playing is not as important as becoming involved and being a member of a team, showing commitment," says Carlson. "My favorite part is the way that it bridges gaps between kids in different neighborhoods-within-a-neighborhood. When kids and parents show up at a park, you have the entire South End area represented."

To help keep South End Baseball afloat, you can call the league at (617) 421-9683 or (617) 430-0917, or call executive director Paul Rinkulis at (617) 267-0100, ext. 19. Donations can be sent to South End Baseball, Box 1120, Boston, MA 02118.