JV baseball team keeping the sport alive

Published Apr. 18, 2024

News Editor

Benjamin Larkin

DDHS baseball is only fielding a JV team this year, but hopes to get enough players for a varsity team soon.

The current Baseball team was formed following the graduation and retirement of many older and more experienced players. Players of all experience levels were merged into a single Junior Varsity team that has been playing a reduced schedule while going through a training period, after the players gain more experience they plan to form a varsity team which they hope will be ready by 2025. 

While several games have been canceled this year they have played multiple out of league games for training purposes with only one game listed on the Oregon School Activities Association website, a 13-3 loss against Woodburn high school. JV coach Tom Flynn is the current head of the baseball program and has been unavailable for comment.

In the past, baseball was the most popular sport at David Douglas with four teams: a varsity team, a junior varsity team, and two freshman teams. Interest in baseball has been dropping nationwide since its peak in the 1950’s. Former coach Mike Fitz said "The interest in baseball has dropped across the cities, not just Douglas" 

There is currently only a junior varsity team. Some reasons for the loss of interest in baseball are more sports programs becoming available to the students; Covid 19 damaged the sport of baseball in Portland Oregon and caused the baseball team to effectively shut down during the covid lockdowns; the disbanding of the youth league due to a lack of parental volunteering; and the expenses of baseball as a sport with increasing expenses for the administration and students. 

"It can be successful again but we need to invest time in rebuilding and continuity," Fitz said.