youth baseball

Registration is officially open for all divisions of Batavia Minor League Youth Baseball for girls and boys ages 4 to 10. You are welcome to come to Dick's Sporting Goods on Veterans Memorial Drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday, Feb. 27, to register.

Also, online registration is now available. Log onto the league's Web site via the LeagueLineup.com portal at: 

http://www.leaguelineup.com/bataviaminorleague

Click on 2016 registration on the right side and proceed.

Any questions feel free to contact local league President Dan Utter via Facebook or e-mail to: bataviaminorleague@gmail.com

Hey MUCKDOGNATION!!! You and your friends and family are all invited to an open house this Thursday June 18th at Dwyer Stadium from 6pm-8pm. Meet the players, watch practice, get autographs or shop at the team store! Gates open at 6pm and its free and open to everyone! Bring your camera and get some pictures of the new St. Louis Cardinals 2009 draft picks!!! Also don't forget the season opener is this Friday the 19th at 7:05pm with fireworks!!!  Let's fill the stands and make this a record breaking season attendance this year!  LET'S GO MUCKDOGS!

Daily News reporter Matt Surtel was on the scene at the VA Medical Center when 85-year old Clifford E. Williams received "nine long-overdue medals in a ceremony attended by family and friends." Williams was due the medals when he got out of World War II 64 years ago, but for whatever reason, they were never delivered.

Williams fought in France in 1944, when he was 22-years-old. He rescued a fellow soldier who was wounded in an ambush, literally dragging the man to safety. Later, writes Surtel, "Williams was himself badly wounded ... caught in a shellburst." He was discharged, honorably.

Among the honors bestowed on Williams Saturday were the Purple Heart and the American Campaign Medal decorated with three bronze stars.

Twelve-year-old Mike Vogel won the first-ever Spirit of Michael Award at the Michael Napoleone memorial Foundation's youth baseball tournament Saturday. Michael Napoleone was 8 years old when he died in 2006 from an aggressive leukemia. "His family set up the foundation to support families undergoing similar cancer crises, and supporting research into pediatric blood cancers," writes Surtel.

As always, we encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News wherever the paper is sold. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

Look no further than the front page of today's Daily News for all you need to know about what it's like to be the first shopper at a new Target store — Janet Saile bought Tic Tacs — or why rabbits make good pets — they "take up less space" than a cow — or, on a more serious note, how to stay drug free — "just walk away," says 15-year-old Tessa Williams.

For more on that last item, check out the article by Joanne Beck about National Night Out, a "fun night to learn how to make your neighborhood safer" taht will be held from 5:30 to 8:30pm August 5 at St. Anthony's Parish Center, 114 Liberty St.

This year's night out will include a new focus on drugs with the Drug-Free Marshals program and a venue for residents of Highland Park and Pringle Avenue to share their concerns during a special community meeting

There will also be youth activities, interactive games, a DJ, Safe Child identification kits, caricatures and information booths about ways to get or remain drug-free.

Today's sports section of the paper is heavy with local sports coverage — congrats to the staff for filling the whole front page with it. We got up a link in our Local Headlines about the Muckdogs loss, which is covered. But there's also a preview of the upcoming Empire State Games with a focus on some Batavia representatives on the hockey and basketball teams.

LeRoy beat Batavia 12-5 in the District 3 youth baseball championship game Tuesday for 9-10 year olds. The team will advance to the Section 1 Tournament in Olean where they will face District 8 champs Fayetville Manlius at 12:30pm Saturday.

As always, we encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News wherever the paper is sold. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

Genesee County's 4-H'ers logged record sales of more than $100,000 at the 38th annual meat auction at the Fair yesterday, according to the Daily News. Unfortunately, the ever-increasing costs of feed, straw and fuel mean that the higher sales prices were barely enough to break even in many instances. Check out the article by Tom Rivers for more details.

Animal shelters in Genesee and Wyoming counties are "inundated" with cats this summer. PAWS Animal Shelter in Albion is already "at capacity" with 190 cats — and more getting dumped in the donation slot regularly.

News of the potential relocation of Youth Football to John Kennedy that is noted on today's front page appeared on The Batavian yesterday.

Batavia sluggers will travel to Oakfield tonight for the District 3 youth baseball championship. Batavia's pitchers threw two no-hitters in the past two matches (versus LeRoy and Oakfield). If they win tonight, they clinch the championship and travel to Elmira for the sectionals. If Oakfield wins, the two square off Monday for a tie-break match. Tonight's game is at 6:00pm.

We encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at local newsstands. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

So what's the bigger local story: That Federer-Nadal make a good tennis match, that CC Sabathia was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers, or that Tyler Pratt threw a no hitter to lead Batavia over LeRoy in the 11-12 Division of the District 3 youth baseball tournament?

Federer-Nadal dominate the sports page of today's Daily News (it's a wire story that was all over the Internet hours before the DN presses ran), and Sabathia gets a good 8 inches of copy with picture (and I bet if you follow baseball, you already knew all about the trade last night), while Pratt's heroic efforts gets two paragraphs.

If Tyler or his family reads this, or any of you know him ... The Batavian would be happy to post anything you have on the game (or you can post it yourself) ... pictures, video, a first-person account. Let us know ...

Batavia's next game is Friday at 6 p.m. against Oakfield, which beat Wayland 10-7.  If you're going, take a video camera and post a few shots to YouTube. We'll repost it here.

Before we move off the sports page, we learn that tabloids love A-Rod (hold the presses for that one), and the Muckdogs lost in Vermont to the Lake Monsters 3-2 when Blake Stouffer hit a walk-off home run.

On the front page of today's Daily News, Joanne Beck covers Walk The Villages. The 45-minute walk begins downtown Saturday at 6 p.m. It's a chance to get some exercise, meet some neighbors and learn a little bit about local history, culture and architecture.  Oh, and there might be a couple of ghosts encountered along the way.

The other front-page story of note, Scott DeSmit follows up on the parachuting death of Joseph Schickler.  Officials are looking at the rigging of his chute.  An autopsy revealed that Schickler had some heart problems, but it cannot be determined if that was a contributing factor to the accident.

And in the final item to include in our round up today, on A-5 eleven area girls who are competing for Fair Queen are profiled.

The are Katie Fales, Batavia High; Anastashia Spikes, Batavia; Elysia Summers, Corfu; Desiree King, Elba; Lauren Mullen, Byron-Bergen; Taylor Patterson, Pembroke; Damainique Bruce, Batavia; April Meier, Pembroke; and, Alyssa Hilderbrandt of Pavillion Central School.

As always, you can pick up a copy of today's Daily News at a local news stand (such as Main Street Coffee), or, better yet, subscribe on the DN web site at BataviaNews.com.