The Batavia Muckdogs Boosters held their annual Hot Stove Dinner Saturday night at Sacred Heart.
Club President Brian Paris gave a state-of-baseball-and-the-Muckdogs speech and talked about his trip recently to the Negro Leagues Hall of Fame in Kansas City.
The trip, he said, had him reflecting on the major transition baseball went through in the 1950s as Negro League stars and rising stars were finally admitted into Major League Baseball, and the transition facing baseball now as it tries to appeal to younger generations.
The way to ensure continued interest in the game is to bring children to baseball games. As an act of symbolism he surprised his son Zach with a gift from the Negro Museum, a jacket, that he said represented both baseball's past and its future by honoring its past in a memorable way.
Bill Kauffman discussed Bill Dougherty's book about the history of baseball in Batavia.
Previously: Batavia's rich baseball history recalled in new book by Bill Dougherty
Hal Mitchell, representing the boosters and local Vietnam vets, along with Paris for the Muckdogs board, made donations to the PTSD program for women at the VA Hospital. Accepting the donations was Caryn DiLandro, the program manager.
Todd Jantzi, owner of Bontrager's Auctions, conducted the live auction.
