A young Amsterdam Fire Fighters Rookie League player waves to a friend across the diamond Saturday during the league's opening ceremonies on Isabel's Field in Amsterdam.

AMSTERDAM — Players of all ages and skill levels gathered to celebrate the 71st year of organized baseball in the City of Amsterdam Saturday during opening ceremonies on Isabel’s Field.

More than 200 players making up 19 teams were introduced and raced from the outfield fence  to their respective places on the baselines followed by standing silently for the national anthem before being dismissed to continue the 2022 Amsterdam Youth Baseball season.

This year’s enrollment saw a welcomed increase.

“Before COVID our numbers were starting to go down,” Amsterdam Youth Baseball president Ruben Perez said. “This year I think parents decided to sign up a lot of the kids, get them out of the house, let them out there and do something fun.”

Perez said the organization has also assisted more than 20 families in need with assistance in securing the $50 to $75 fee for the season based on level of play.

The opening day team introductions were assisted by players with the Amsterdam High School baseball team, leading the charge of announced players from the outfield to the baselines.

It is something familiar to the majority of the Rams line-up.

“I played here my whole young life,” Amsterdam High School first baseman Jacob Nasadoski said. “As a kid this is just a great day. I got to be with all my friends on opening day, it was just a good day to start baseball.”

Amsterdam Rams head coach Robby Hisert shared his own memory of his first opening day at Isabel’s Field, keeping an eye on his five-year-old son, Cole.

“It was the same day as First Communion and I remember I didn’t have baseball socks,” Hisert said. “I ended up wearing yellow dress socks with my uniform just to make it work because I didn’t want to have low socks and high pants. It’s one of those days you don’t forget.”

Hisert said the increased turnout helps out the game locally.

“Baseball is a hard game and you have to get involved early and really work on those things,” Hisert said. “You fail most of the time, one hit out of three times and you’re a really good player. You have to start learning how to fail, how to bring yourself back and keep working to do a little bit better when you’re young. If you do it late, you’ve never had those experiences and the game feels harder.”

This year’s crop of hopefuls could pay off for Hisert in the future.

“The numbers as the low-level [T-ball, Rookie] are great,” Hisert said. “We want them to keep going all the way up until you know, hopefully I’ve got 250 guys trying out someday.”

During the morning’s ceremony First Ward Alderperson Kelly Quist-Demars announced improvements to Isabel’s Field beyond the basepaths, replacing the current swing set and climbing apparatus.

“ We were able to find some extra money in the recreation budget which would allow for us to update back there,” Quist-Demars said. “We picked out new swings that would have the kids swings on the side and an apparatus with slides, climbing and a clubhouse. We’re going to try to give it a full facelift back there.”

With a budget of $20,000 Quist-Demars had the order placed last Friday with expectations of a spring completion.

“I made sure to pick items that were in stock and ready to ship,” Quist-Demars said. “We want it to be during the spring that we would be able to get things in the ground and go.”

As a neighbor to Isabel’s Field, Quist-Demars is looking forward to the improved area.

“We want it to look like a full park once it’s done,” Quist-Demars said. “It will make it a nice destination for the neighborhood, but also for kids to play on while their siblings are playing baseball.”

Isabel’s Field had major improvements to its infield, including improved draining and an artificial turf infield installed in 2015. 

The organization is not done.

“We play [fall baseball] here in August through almost Halloween and we have surrounding teams come here,” board member Stephen Porcello said. “I think in the last seven years of turf we’ve had maybe two rainouts and they were due to lightning.”

With lighting already installed above the field, the board is hoping to host higher level Little League Baseball tournaments after the recreation season completes.

“Little League [incorporated] has a lot of rules regarding the field, more fencing, replacing our backstops at the bottom of the fence,” Porcello said. 

Perez said he expects to run for another two-year term as president, looking to keep the player numbers up and the fields pristine.

“I used to play on this field 20 years ago and here I am watching my kids,” Perez said. “My goal is to try to stay ahead of other organizations and their fields. I want our fields to be the main field that other teams around the area want to play on.”

Recreation baseball games are held Monday through Friday evenings at 5:15 and 6 p.m., all day on Saturday. Sundays are reserved for Amsterdam’s travel baseball program, Upper Deck Titans.

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