Community Corner
Nyack-Valley Cottage Little League Celebrates Opening Day
The opening day ceremonies were Saturday at renovated Memorial Park
After his death last year, Stewart Baltimore’s family collected donations in his honor and knew exactly where the most fitting place to give the funds: the Nyack-Valley Cottage Little League.
Baltimore was involved with the league for many years, including time as the league’s president, before his death in March 2012 at the age of 63. Saturday, at the league’s Opening Day ceremony, the league honored Baltimore and his family. With the funds donated, the league put in a state-of-the-art-scoreboard at Liberty Field.
“It’s just awesome and I know my dad would like it a lot,” said Terrance Baltimore, one of Stewart Baltimore’s four children.
All four Baltimore children — Candy, Olivia, Bryan and Terrence — were in attendance, along with their mother Renee Baltimore. Terrance Baltimore said the family decision to donate the money to the little league was a simple one.
“Our dad just liked people, especially helping people out,” he said, adding he and all his siblings played Nyack-Valley Cottage Little League growing up.
Ron Mason, who served on the league board with Baltimore, made a speech about the former league president during the ceremony, noting how Baltimore helped the league to expand by including younger kids and reaching out to more girls to play. Mason also said Baltimore helped grow the partnership between the league and Challenger Little League.
Current Nyack-Valley Cottage Little League President Rob Wisner said they first talked about honoring Baltimore at last year’s Opening Day. He said the waited until this year because they knew they’d have the new scoreboard in place, and presented the family with a picture of it. He added that he didn’t know what the actual donation was off the top of his head, but said it was a “sizable” one.
“We went with [the scoreboard] because it’s something lasting and that affects children, and that’s what he did,” Wisner said.
Wisner was also excited about the location of Opening Day, which took place at the renovated Memorial Field.
“It’s gorgeous,” he said. “We were really given a state-of-the-art facility here. We had been talking about it for a while, but the renovations took place over the last year, and the village actually brought them to us.”
Wisner said the league has somewhere between 600-800 kids this year, which is steady with the enrollment in recent years.
