By Jim Bloch
Opening Day of St. Clair Little League always begins with a parade.
When Klecha Field served as home to the league, the parade streamed down North Riverside Ave. past Riverview Plaza, over the Pine River bridge and down Goffe Street to the field on the south side of the city.
For the past decade, since the opening of multi-diamond complex on Fred Moore Highway, the parade begins at St. Clair High and flows west on Clinton Ave./Rattle Run Road to Knights of Columbus Hall, then cuts south through the Knights’ parking lot and into the Little League fields for opening ceremonies.
On Saturday, May 2, nearly 500 kids milled around the east side of St. Clair High School and Middle School searching for their Little League team. It wasn’t always easy. There are about 50 teams in the league.
The temperature stood at 39 degrees under dramatic clouds splashed with intermittent sunlight.
St. Clair Police and the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department shut down Clinton Ave. and Rattle Run Road at 8:55 a.m. Five minutes later, a VFW Honor Guard stepped out onto the closed roadway followed by a St. Clair police car and a St. Clair Area Fire Department truck leading the big procession with the deafening bursts and whoops of their sirens.
The St. Clair Middle School Marching Band followed the SCFD vehicle sounding every note as good as the high school’s Marching Saints. The band turned left off Rattle Run onto Knights of Columbus property and assembled along the east side of the parking lot, serenading each of the dozens of teams as they paraded by in their colorful uniforms.
All kinds of local businesses sponsored teams this season – The Timbers Timber Rattlers, the Sine & Monaghan Realtor Tides, Precision Care Grasshoppers, Riverview Veterinary Mudcats, Murphy Inn Yardgoats, Hamlin Pub Space Cowboys, Fowlers Creamery Mudhens, The Ark Rival Storm, Marcotte Trash Pandas and scores more.
The teams filed into the fields for the National Anthem, a prayer, speeches and the two words everyone was waiting for: “Play ball!”
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
