Donations of baseballs, equipment pour into small Ohio town trying to save youth baseball

Nation embraces Ohio town to help save baseball

DAYTON, Ohio — Donations have been pouring in to a tiny band of volunteers who saved youth baseball in the small southern Ohio town of Greenfield.

Tough economic times threatened to torpedo the 450-player league, but volunteers stepped in and saved the program. They got a shot in the arm when their plight made national news.

Donors from Florida and Pennsylvania are sending batches of new baseballs. A car filled with gloves, bats and catcher’s gear arrived courtesy of a Columbus man. An Illinois woman who lived through the Great Depression and has a soft spot for baseball is writing a check.

The town of 5,000 about 50 miles southwest of Columbus expects 500 auto-related jobs to be gone by October. The loss of tax revenue has forced the town to all but drop its financial support of the league.