Live baseball games? Gig Harbor based Narrows Baseball Club finding a way

As collegiate and high school sports are being cancelled in Washington state, there are some private athletic programs that are finding ways to remain active.

One such program is the Narrows Baseball Club, based in Gig Harbor. A select baseball program that caters to players aged 10 to 18, Narrows coaches players to play at an elite level.

With a large emphasis now placed on people to keep a minimum distance of at least six feet apart and wear masks whenever possible, questions were raised on how sports can be played in a safe manner.

“You can’t play Pierce and King [Counties] as far as actual games but you can have practices. We just can’t do the team versus team stuff in really all the big counties right now,” said Narrows head coach Jon Fuller. “I think we were all hoping that Pierce, King, Snohomish and Kitsap [Counties] would get to Phase 3, but they never did.”

Since most of the games the Narrows Baseball Club would play were located in the metropolitan heavy counties, the schedulers were forced to look for a place that would allow for a large enough capacity for all players, coaches and staff for the games.

They found that the city of Aberdeen in Grays Harbor County was close enough for the team to travel to, and had the adequate facilities that could keep the players at safe distances from one another.

Even though they can play baseball games in Aberdeen, the players and fans in attendance are still required to follow the guidelines that are listed by the Department of Health.

“We’re supposed to separate and wear masks in the dugouts. On the field, they don’t have to [wear the mask], but a lot of players do. It is kind of similar to what you see in the major league games,” Fuller said. “They’re kids, it’s kind of hard to monitor the whole time but they have it in their mind that they want to play baseball.”

The people that help put on the games also take the time to make sure that the players and onlookers are following the Phase 3 rules set for Grays Harbor County. Fortunately, there has not been a problem for the players or fans.

However, masks are not the only change that these players are facing. The landscape of when and where they can play their games changes very rapidly.

“We just go day-to-day, week-to-week as far as the schedule because we’ve had so much stuff scheduled and canceled then rescheduled,” Fuller said. “We’ve been pretty lucky, more than most teams, with the number of games that we’ve been able to get in.”

Weeks are filled with double-headers, umpires are now behind pitchers and down the line to judge where balls land and with the lack of space, teams are fighting just to get any space to play.

Despite what seems like a myriad of obstacles for the Narrows Baseball Club, they are able to go out and play baseball.

“I think most teams down there are following the guidelines pretty well. And when you start playing, it’s just like another game,” Fuller said. “Once the game starts, it’s just baseball again. The kids are getting used to how it works… It’s actually been kind of fun. Playing all these games, the kids are starting to feel a little normalcy.”

As the head coach of the 18U team, Fuller and his coaching staff are feeling an extra sense of responsibility in keeping their players safe as best as they can with COVID-19 being a concern. That’s on top of keeping the players rested between games as well.

Rest is important, especially for pitchers. Because the Narrows Baseball Club is interconnected, they can recruit some of their younger players to pitch for them.

However, any participation by the players is actually a choice made by their parents. And coach Fuller is completely on board with any concerns they may have.

“We never heard anything negative about [going to Aberdeen] but we made it a choice. If they didn’t feel comfortable doing it, they didn’t have to,” Fuller said. “We didn’t make it a mandatory thing. Although, we did not have anyone on the 18-year old team opt out. We did have a few younger players that opted out just because they played it safe.”

In these unprecedented times, safety from COVID-19 has become a hot-button issue that many people have different opinions on. It has put a strain on the everyday life that people were used to.

These athletes have found a slice of a modified normalcy and are handling it with proper precaution and care. Even though there is constant adjustment on the fly, the athletes and their families are making the most of it.

This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 6:00 AM.