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By Carey Reeder | Staff Writer

America’s pastime, baseball. There is nothing like it. When the winter weather begins to break and the warm spring evenings start rolling in, the sport that helped drive a nation in the early 1900s comes back into season.

I played baseball growing up and after an injury and when I got to high school, I played just one sport and did not choose baseball. I regret I stopped playing the game to this day. I picked up baseball again when I got to college, and I really got immersed in the game when I started covering the University of Alabama baseball team in 2020. We all know how that season ended.

The love for baseball was back, and then I got the opportunity to come to Chilton County. Everyone says football is king in the south. Well, I would argue that baseball is king in Chilton County.

With so many youth rec leagues, middle school and high school teams in the county, it seems like every family has at least one person involved with baseball in Chilton County in some capacity. You could feel the build up to this baseball season throughout the county, and there is a lot of pride that comes out in all communities surrounding the teams that represent them.

The baseball tradition runs deep in Chilton County, and teams are doing everything they can to keep the legends of the game alive here. Baseball was kind of a big deal in North Carolina growing up, but basketball is the biggest sport there, and why I stopped playing baseball. The North Carolina baseball scene does not touch the baseball scene here in Chilton County, and I am glad I arrived when I did during this second wind of baseball love I have developed.

I have been out to a number of baseball and softball games already this season, and it is awesome to see the stands full each and every game. The support of the young kids chasing their dreams is what makes this game so special here. I am proud I get to document their journey one game at a time.