Local partnership to bring travel baseball tournaments to Dyersburg

 

Jason Peevyhouse

Editor, JP Productions Sports

Two local youth sports organizations will be working together later this year to bring Dyersburg three travel baseball tournaments with the first on the calendar for mid-August.

The Dyersburg Activity Center and the Dyersburg Diamond Youth Baseball league will be working together to host three tournaments this fall with Grand Slam Baseball.

DAC Director Patrick Holden, talked about how this agreement came about.

“Tyler Baker with Grand Slam Baseball reached out to me about wanting to bring some travel baseball tournaments this fall to Dyersburg,” Holden recalled. “We have always been pretty much softball only, rec softball and travel ball.

“So, that’s when I reached out to Kyle Hinson, president of the Diamond Youth Baseball Organization.”

Holden explained that when he learned most of these travel baseball tournaments are two-day events, he reached out to the local DYB league for help and a chance to benefit both organizations.

“We as a facility here at the activity center could host Saturday tournaments without any issue,” he said. “But we have a tenant that is here on Sunday until lunchtime.

“It would be hard for us to do back-to-back Saturday and Sunday. So, I decided to reach out to Kyle and see if they would be willing to go in and kind of partner with us.”

The first tournament, “Back to School Bash”, is scheduled for Aug. 15-16.

Representatives from the Dyersburg Activity Center and Dyersburg’s Diamond Youth Baseball organization met with Tyler Baker, Grand Slam Sports’ tournament director for West Tennessee and Northeast Arkansas, on Friday at the Dyersburg Activity Center.

Baker said Grand Slam has been looking to expand into West Tennessee for the past year.

“We have made some inroads out at Millington and USA Stadium and Tennessee just on the Grand Slam side of things,” Baker added. “It’s been a lot of East Tennessee, so we’re trying to kind of fill that gap.

“We have a lot of teams that play for us in Marion and West Memphis that are from this area. From here, Union City area, and all the way into Kentucky. So, we really kind of wanted to provide something for the teams that have put into us, find them a location where they’re not having to travel as far and be able to bring something to some of the areas within that pathway.”

Baker said the amount of support that is expected from the local area was one of the biggest positives in bringing these travel baseball tournaments to Dyersburg. Also, having two separate organizations like the DAC and DYB be willing to work together to expand the number of fields is a positive that not many places have.

After the initial tournament in August, two more tournaments are scheduled for Sept. 26-27 (Cornfield Classic) and Oct. 17-18 (Pumpkin Destruction).

City of Dyersburg Mayor John Holden spoke about the partnership between the two local organizations.

"The partnership between Dyersburg Parks and Recreation and Dyersburg Diamond Youth Baseball is about much more than hosting baseball and softball tournaments; it’s about investing in our community,” Mayor Holden said. “These events bring families, athletes, and visitors from across the region to experience everything Dyersburg has to offer.

“Our local teams get the opportunity to compete at home, while out-of-town teams discover our outstanding facilities and our community’s hospitality. Every tournament creates a positive economic impact by supporting our hotels, restaurants, retail businesses, and local attractions. Working together, we’re not only growing youth sports, we’re strengthening our local economy and showcasing Dyersburg as a premier destination for travel baseball and travel softball."

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