"Mud Day told me that everything I hoped for this summer had been accomplished. Bringing baseball back to the neighborhood, getting kids excited about playing, reclaiming an abandoned field," said Bryan Morton, 40, league founder and North Camden native.
The shoestring league got rolling in June with more than 100 youths, and equipment and uniforms donated by the Phillies and others. Players wore their Phillies practice uniforms so often off the field that shirts and pants faded and shrank after washes.
Some children had never played baseball and didn't know how to throw a ball. Hitting was marginally better. A handful wanted to quit.
Still, they came to practice - even after rainy days. On the mound, sibling rivalries were tempered.
"It brought some unity to the community," said Estelle Miller-Rogers, whose son Cedric Boswell Jr., 7, played on a T-ball team. "Parents who didn't interact on a regular basis, we got a chance to meet . . . to encourage each other's children."
The league wrapped up inter-squad play a month ago after repeatedly trying to reschedule rained-out games.
An awards ceremony is planned for October.
Residents near the field at Point and Erie Streets, on a block where landlords make money renting rooms, grew fond of the league. Gang members agreed to curtail activities for practice. Residents offered the team ice at practice and old bats from their basements.
For a $15 registration fee, the coed league catered to children 5 to 12.
It is part of the Phillies Jr. RBI League, an effort to encourage baseball in inner cities, according to Jon Joaquin, manager of fan development programs for the Phillies.
Baseball isn't new to Camden. The Cramer Hill Little League has been around for two decades.
