LYNN — The Lynn Babe Ruth baseball organization will do away with registration fees for the coming season and offer all youth in Lynn and Nahant to play for free at the Ben Bowzer Complex on the grounds of Breed Middle School.
The Devereaux family, which runs R.J. Devereaux Corp. in Lynn, offered to provide the money for all of-age players in the group. Mike Devereaux, president of the corporation, and Jeff Earp, Babe Ruth president, ironed out the details over the winter.
“Mike and I are very good friends,” Earp said. “In conversation, we were talking about the decreasing numbers of kids playing baseball, nationally and locally.
“We shared thoughts and ideas on why this was happening in such a dramatic fashion and so quickly,” he said.
Earp said Lynn’s Little Leagues have seen a major drop in numbers over the past couple of years.
“In fact,” he said, “three of the leagues are having a very difficult time putting together two teams in their Majors for the second year in a row.
“That is astonishing,” he said.
On the other hand, Earp said, Lynn Babe Ruth has been growing.
“Last year (2019) saw the largest number of teams in memory,” he said. “There were 13 teams between the two levels (13-year-old prep and 14- and 15-year-olds).
However, he said, “this year projects a slight decrease due to extremely small number of little league graduates.
Earp said the city is teeming with kids who qualify to play Babe Ruth, “but they just aren’t playing.”
Earp said there is a misconception that Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)-sponsored youth baseball teams cut into numbers for groups such as Babe Ruth.
Not true, he said.
“AAU doesn’t hurt and take kids like many think,” he said. “The vast majority of AAU players in Lynn play both. Only a couple per year play only AAU.”
Earp said one area for the decline in numbers seems to be the inability of some families to pay the fees.
“Even though Babe Ruth fees are very small,” Earp said, “Lynn Babe Ruth has about 50 percent of its membership unable to pay each year.
“We hear more and more that families don’t sign up because they are unable to pay and are not aware that we would waive their fee or we hear that some are uncomfortable having that discussion and some embarrassed,” he said.
“The baseball numbers in urban areas in general have decreased sharply,” he said. “No doubt the same reasons apply.”
With the fees waived across the board, Earp said, “we feel that when word got out that Baseball was free that many of Lynn’s demographic would hear about it and come forward to play.
“Each year we hear from kids and families well after the season started or even in the off-season that people just didn’t know how to register or where and when, etc.”
Earp said he hopes that once word spreads, the news will entice others to come forward.
“Lynn is a City, a community with a natural abundance of baseball talent,” he said. “We all know that. Yet there are many many kids that miss out on playing for one reason or another.”
Earp thanked the Devereaux family, saying that it had “removed perhaps the biggest obstacle — the money.”
Mike Devereaux got involved with a Senior Babe Ruth team four years ago with his brother, Jim, winning the North Shore League title. He is a 1985 graduate of St. John’s Prep.
He has been Lynn Babe Ruth’s dominant financial sponsor the past few years. He is a member of the league’s board of directors in an at-large position, focusing on fields, finances and baseball.
His uncle Robert, who founded the company, is a longtime North Shore philanthropist who runs the Devereaux Family Charitable Trust, which focuses on education and sports.
“In the past few years, he has shown unsolicited financial support to all Lynn Little Leagues, Swampscott Football and many other youth organizations,” Earp said.