A few years ago, the pandemic led to the demise of the Viburnum Blue Jays baseball team. Viburnum has not had enough ballplayers to reach the magic number of 9 for three or four years now. But that finally changed this year. Kyle Douglas has been coaching 13 athletes as the Blue Jays formally bring back baseball tto Baker’s Field.
Coach Douglas moved to Viburnum last year and he taught high school social studies which he continues to do this school year. He also coaches middle school girls basketball. His wife, Erin Bays, now Erin Douglas, happens to be a Viburnum native.
Coach Douglas will literally have to start on the “ground floor” by teaching the basics of baseball to his young bunch of Blue Jays but somewhere down the road, he hopes to bring that competitiveness back to the old ball diamond and the small lead mining town in northwestern Iron County.
For this fall baseball season, Viburnum will play just a handful of games. The events calendar on the school’s website shows four road games in September and one game in October. The Jays will play at Bunker, Bourbon, Steelville and at Newburg. The Blue Jays lone home game will be against Bunker. That will be Monday afternoon, September 23rd. First pitch at Baker’s Field will be at 4 o’clock. Viburnum’s opening baseball game will be next Friday, September 6th when they travel to Bunker to face the Eagles. First pitch for that one will be at 4:30.
