Plans for 2021 Freeport Invitational coming together
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Chuck Sarver always is busy this time of year.
The president of the Freeport International Baseball Invitational has made and answered hundreds of texts and phone calls setting up a myriad of items related to the latest edition of the weeklong festival of youth baseball from July 27-31.
It can get hectic, but Sarver said he is driven by the desire to uphold the event’s mission of it being “for the love of the game.”
“Preparations are coming along good,” he said. “We have so many people again working hard to make this happen.”
Last year, with covid travel restrictions a major issue, there wasn’t an international flair to the tournament. Also, players from Puerto Rico, a staple of the week for many years, were not able to attend.
Sarver hopes that changes this year.
“We still have a hope out for a team from France,” Sarver said. “They contacted us back in April. They had tickets bought and were waiting to see if they were able to fly out of the country. That still is an active issue.
“It’s been a couple years since France was here last. It would be awesome if they could come and play.”
Sarver said he also is not giving up hope of having some players from Puerto Rico this year.
“I just heard from Eddie (Arroyo) from Puerto Rico last Friday, and there is a team together in Florida, but he isn’t sure if any of those players would be able to come up,” Sarver said. “I told him to see if we could get six to eight players, and we’d get them a coach. We could make it work like the Tri-Con Roos.”
Four game sites — the home hub of James Swartz Memorial Field in Freeport Borough, Freeport Community Park and Springdale and Armstrong high schools — are set to host games.
Sarver was not able to say if any other sites could be used for games.
Traditional participants locally, from Colt and Pony divisions up to Legion-age squads, have booked their spots for games during the six days of play.
Sarver said annual participant Mercyhurst Prep is planning to bring a pair of teams.
He is excited with the response for Futures tournaments in the 9-10 and 11-12 age divisions, which will be played on five fields at Freeport Community Park.
“We hope to have a minimum of eight teams in each age group playing Tuesday through Saturday,” Sarver said. “We might even try to throw some type of game together involving players from all the teams.”
Sarver said traditional events such as the Old-Timers Game on Thursday, the 10K/5K race in Freeport Borough on Saturday morning and the closing all-star game and fireworks Saturday evening will be back and are set to provide extra energy to an already festive week.
Work is planned for Swartz Field — field landscaping and drainage — through a grant of $5,000 from Armstrong County Commissioners. The local Freeport league, Sarver said, contributed $1,500.
The project is expected to be completed in time for the week of games.
Sarver stressed that even though many of the covid restrictions and regulations in place last summer have been removed or eased, it is good to still practice common sense while attending the games and activities.
For more information on the Freeport International, visit twitter.com/FIBI2018, facebook.com/FreeportInternationalBaseballInvitationalFibi, and its website at Freeportinternationals.com.