Peninsula Junior League Baseball Begins First Season
• New Peninsula league opens for Little League graduates.
The new Junior league is an organization put together by all four little leagues on the Hill, Palos Verdes, Silver Spur, Rolling Hills and Lunada Bay.
Junior League is a continuation of Little League for ages 13-15, played on a larger field. As the Peninsula Junior League website states, “We are committed to providing a fun and competitive baseball experience on the Hill for those graduated Major players 13-14 years old.”
As John Tellenbach explained, “We are working on inter-league play (Redondo Beach has 12-13-year old’s and the Peninsula has 13-14-year old’s) but currently we are playing 15-18 intra-league play and 3-5 inter-league play.”
The league will have two home fields, Ernie Howlett Park and George Allen Field, which have received a $50,000 renovation.
The Junior League held tryouts at Ernie Howlett Park on Jan 13. “It was like many other tryouts I had and it was nice to be on a baseball field again,” said Kendall Ward.
They were hoping for four teams, but currently with the 66 kids enrolled, they welcomed two more teams to make 6 teams. Next year they hope to expand the league to 10 teams.
Junior League replaces Peninsula PONY League, which folded last season after the retirement of longtime President Lee Frantz.
The four Little Leagues on the Hill wanted to create a league for all the kids not going into club baseball, so they all decided they wanted to provide an experience for the kids after their final year in Little League. This is why the Junior League was started.
As Tellenbach states, “All four (Little League) presidents wanted to start it, and we did.”
