The status of youth baseball in the City of Newburgh has been precarious over the past few years. Recently, Newburgh’s youth baseball announced that they have parted ways with Cal Ripken Baseball, a division of the Babe Ruth League. As a result, some of the city’s youth baseball will be on pause for the 2020 season. Newburgh’s junior team, Red Storm will be still playing this season.

Youth baseball will be returning for the 2021 season with the Newburgh Thunder Baseball League. Joel and Jerry Fuentes will be in charge of this league.

“Because we had low enrollment and it was kind of hard for us to get coaches [we decided against continuing with Cal Ripken],” said Francis Garcia, treasurer for Newburgh’s youth baseball. The decision was made by the board for Newburgh’s youth baseball.

“With Cal Ripken, you only have certain territory,” said Garcia. “We felt that we wanted to have a little bit more control than be under the rules of Cal Ripken.”

With the closure of Newburgh’s Cal Ripken affiliation, the city’s youth baseball has been looking for sponsorships for Red Storm and the incoming Newburgh Thunder Baseball League. Garcia said she will be reaching out to previous sponsors for help. Sponsors include various establishments and individuals like Shapiro Furniture.

Prior to Cal Ripken, Newburgh’s youth baseball was affiliated with Little League Baseball. Youth baseball switched to Cal Ripken, because Little League had wanted to bring the team to the Town of Newburgh or New Windsor.

“We knew our kids were not going to be treated fairly,” said Garcia. “Because we’ve seen it in the past.” Garcia explained a similar situation occurred with Cal Ripken when it came to location.

Garcia explained that Newburgh Thunder Baseball League was a name coined by the league’s coaches. Joel and Jerry Fuentes are currently Red Storm’s head coaches. They have brought two championships to Red Storm.

Prior to coaching baseball, Joel coached football. “My love has always been baseball,” said Joel. “Baseball has always been my passion.” Joel and his brother were brought on to coach after being approached by a family friend.

One of the best aspects of youth baseball is recruitment. “We have an eclectic group,” said Joel. “We have some guys who are varsity players. We have some guys who’ve never played baseball.”

They aim to make sure everyone has a chance to play. When it comes to training, the team works all year long. Joel prefers when players can be “well rounded.” He hopes to have players play more than one sport, rather than just baseball.

When players prefer to play more than just baseball, they spend more time in the gym. “It keeps them out of trouble,” said Joel. The two hope to bring affordable youth baseball back to the city. “We kind of hope to help them [the community] discover baseball again.”

There are high hopes that the conditions for youth baseball will improve.

“It has gone down a lot,” said Garia over the atmosphere for youth baseball. “A lot of times people don’t want to play in the City of Newburgh, because [of the city’s] reputation.” She said the reputation mainly orients around the belief that Newburgh doesn’t have a clean enough environment for baseball.

Garcia said that youth baseball works with the city’s recreation department to clean the fields and keep conditions adequate at Delano-Hitch Stadium, where they currently play.

“We want to bring baseball back,” said Garcia.

Interested sponsors can reach out to youth baseball at Newburgh Red Storm on Facebook or at Garcia’s number, (914) 805-4191. Garcia also said that the tax id will be ready soon. Joel would also like to see more attendees at games this season. Youth baseball is also looking for coaches.

“My long term vision for the group is to kind of bring it back to the city,” said Joel. “We want to make sure it’s well rounded.”