For followers and fans of the Fairmount Sports Association baseball program, I would love to hear thoughts on best baseball teams this year and why.

7-9 Machine Pitch Boys
10-12 Boys
13-15 Boys

We are big fans of the 10-12 Red Sox...great coaches who together won the prior 2 years championship in the 7-9 age group. Also the 7-9 Phillies and Yankees have been fun this year.

Whose your favorite?

Tee Ball 3 - 6

• They get a hit everytime up
• They score every inning
• They get to play with the opposite sex
• They are free to head over to the bathroom during the game.
• They never lose
• They have the most fun

Personally, I like the Clippers in the 7-9 league. Okay, so my son played for them which makes me a bit partial but I enjoyed watching them play. The coach was encouraging and demanded group hugs at the conclusion of each game. They had a lot of first year players who learned a lot and got much better as the year progressed. I won't name the teams but I witnessed a couple players that were actually ejected from games for cursing and throwing helmets after striking out, etc... Overall, though, it was a great first year experience for us and we are very excited for next year.

My 7 year old is sitting with me as I type this and he would like everyone to know that he also liked the Mets, Astros, Braves, Phillies and Yankees. That's every team in the league .

Sadly FSA leaders every year lose sight of the kids and the hard work of parent volunteer coaches. There is a small cadre of old Fairmounter's who run this league. There inner sanctum is smoky, boozy backroom...a real disgace compared to every other program I have seen. They always put together a team at every level that is comprised of the insiders kids, which is always almost all white. They do no outreach to the near neighborhood (Francisville, Brewerytown). There were barely enough kids for 4 teams in the 10-12 division this year...my son's team started with 11 and ended with 9; his other team (in another part of the city) had 8 teams of 14 kids at the 11-12 level, 8 teams 9-10 and 10 teams for the 7-8's.

The 7-9 coach/commissioner of the Astro's is a total disgrace. Has had a major blow-up with other coaches and teams each of the 4 years we have played. Pissed his stacked team of white kids has been schooled each year by upstart teams that are well coached and take the cast-offs (meaning black and latino kids) and end up beating them. He is a little short bully with a serious emotional problem. He would be tossed for his behavior by every other league...at Fairmount though if you disagree with the alcoholics who run the place, they want to show you the door. Same **** with the 10-12's this year. The Pirates are about to be shown the door tonight by my son's team which has 2 12 year olds who never played before, and 4 ten year olds. The Pirates have the 11's and 12's from there travel team, and still got whipped last night. Good pitching and hitting is tough to beat....especially satisfying when the kids hitting started the year never having swung a bat.

There was a book written several years ago by a Temple sociologist about the racial dynamics of the program.

Most of the good kids we have known have all moved on to better run programs including Taney, Roxborough and Mt. Airy.

FSA has been a feeder program for Roman Catholic for years...as the quality of this program has waned, so has Roman as a baseball power in the Catholic League...they were absolutely brutal at all 3 levels this year. I can't wait for my son to kick those kids asses for years to come in tournaments and in high school.

No kidding! Last summer, on my way home from work, there were a number of kids raising money to send a team to the LL World Series. Being new to the neighborhood and wanting to help out what seemed like a good cause, I tossed 10 bucks into the bucket. A few hours later, I come back with my son to the playground next to the ball fields, and there are the parents sitting at one of the picnic tables counting all the donations. And apparently they did pretty well, because they were celebrating with a bottle of vodka, wine and beers... all out on the picnic table. I can almost maybe understand a beer (or even wine), but vodka? And out in front of a bunch of children at a playground? I came very close to walking over and asking for my $10 back, but figured I should probably stay out of the way of booze and testosterone fueled little league officials. Needless to say, I won't be donating anything this year.

While the boys at FSA have a virtual bar (beer fridge with 2 kegs and plenty of whiskey and smokes) in their fieldhouse (does anyone know if the Fairmount Park Commission owns the building?), the scammers you mentioned are another group of folks, probably from Brewerytown. They regularly run this scam as people que up off the Vine Street expressway to turn onto the Parkway. More frequently they are raising money for basketball uniforms. The FSA program is not affilitated with "Little League baseball" or any other sanctioning body. I don't think any of the city programs are affliliated with LL, Cal Ripken, Pony or Dixie...have to go to the burbs for those programs.

I know the scammers of which you speak, but these were definitely them. One of the gentleman who appears to be one of the lead organizers of the league was right there with the kids collecting money. And the money the parents were counting at the picnic table (between swigs of vodka) was coming out of the same bucket that I put my contribution in.

There is a disgusting attempt by the Commissioner of the 7-9 league and Astros coach to steal the championship even before the game is played.

The teams, and commissioner agreed in April to allow a number of young, in-experienced 10 year olds continue to get experience playing in the 7-9 league. This is a basic courtesy to children in all baseball leagues to allow kids who aren't ready to move up, to continue to play and develop.

Now that the Yankees are in the championship game against the commissioners team (Astros), he has decided to protest the presence of several 10's on the Yankees, potentially forcing them to forfeit a championship game without an inning of play.

If you know Kevin McGonagle, John Dunn or anyone else in leadership at FSA and think that this stinks to high heaven, let them know.

THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT THE KIDS!!!!!! LET THEM PLAY, AND IF THERE REALLY IS CONCERN CROWN THEM CO-CHAMPIONS!

If they allow this underhanded power play to go down, then this league is finished, kaput. Disgusting that adults care more about being a winning coach then the good and welfare of 7-10 year old boys who have spent 3 months working hard learning to play baseball.

Halaca, why did you start this thread? To air your gripe with FSA? It obviously isn't about the best teams.

Citygal;

You seem to have loyalties to the old Fairmount, and I suspect know some of the local-yocals who run FSA. Don't you find any of what people have posted here disturbing? I, and many others who have left or are now leaving have similar gripes.

How bout you set us straight and defend these folks?