CARSTAIRS - Minor baseball is booming in Carstairs with registration numbers rising in recent years.
Carstairs teams are part of the Chinook Baseball League and play against teams from all around the region.
"We've grown quite a bit this year," said president Bill Parker. "We have two rookie teams, two mosquito teams, a peewee team, a bantam team and a midget team. We start at aged seven right up to 18."
The league has about 135 players signed up this season, including 35 T-ball players.
Each team practices twice a week with games either on practice nights or other nights.
"Right now everything is during the week," said Parker. "The T-ballers are the only ones that don't travel."
Parker said it's good to see resurgence in baseball popularity.
"Carstairs baseball was pretty popular back in the late 1990s and early 2000s but had fallen off," he said. "We're in year five or six and we're finding we're getting more involved again. The other thing is the rise in population in Carstairs.
"There seems to be more young kids getting involved. It's a good outside sport. We're trying to teach these kids how to play baseball and how to be part of a team and respect one another."
The league has already started practices and plays league games between May 1 and June 30.
