sports

The American Red Cross estimates that over 90% of families with children spend at least some time in the water during the summer months, so it makes sense that summer is the prime season for children’s swim lessons.

On September 28, grab your cleats and head to Hermann Stadium at Saint Louis University for the third annual Great America SCORES Soccer Dribble. Your goal?

For baseball diehards, it’s a long, dark, cold winter without the sun on your face, a St. Louis dog in hand and Mike Shannon on the radio. The 2012 baseball season is a distant memory, and spring training is still seven ice-covered weeks away.

However, Jackie and Me, a new production from Metro Theatre Company and Edison Theatre is keeping baseball in play this January and bringing kids face to face with the man who broke down barriers in stadiums across the U.S.

Through the power of a magical baseball card, Joey Stoshack, a young baseball fan, and the Metro Theater Company audience are transported back to 1947 on the day Jackie Robinson becomes the first black man to play for the major leagues.

I’ll probably get hate mail for saying this in a town like ours, but I've never been a big baseball fan. 

In St. Louis, that’s pretty much the equivalent of saying I hate America and apple pie. 

Don’t get me wrong – I have respect for baseball and even greater respect for the St. Louis Cardinals. There are so many elements of the sport I’ve loved since childhood – the history and the tradition and the camaraderie. I love the energy as the fans pour into the stadium and the good-natured ribbing of the Cubs fans who enter our midst. 

But the game itself, ehhhh. 

For the past two weeks, players taking the field for Challenger Baseball games Saturday mornings at Tilles Park have been just like those in every other league around town – watching the sky for rain, adjusting their caps and uniforms, taking practice swings with their bats.

These game-time rituals have added poignancy, however, because the players in this league all have developmental disabilities. The unique program pairs the players with volunteer “buddies” ages 10 to 20 whose role is to help the players hit or field the ball when needed, and to encourage them continually.