A local parent was surprised to find out his son’s little league baseball team would be named after, and sponsored by, a local gun club in the area.
Dad Tony Stitt said the parents of kids in the Golden Junior Baseball Association weren’t told the names of the team sponsors until their children had already signed up.
The name of the gun club would be displayed on the jerseys of children around 9 years old.
“The lack of contextual awareness of the board and approving that, and then not informing the parents and not giving them a chance to swap out teams,” frustrated Stitt. “But all that seems to be resolved.”
Since parents complained, the baseball association in Golden has pulled the gun club as a sponsor. And that is only after a compromise failed, according to Stitt.
He said a proposed solution from the association was to give the children of families who objected different jerseys. Stitt wanted to move his son to another team, but that was rejected.
The back-and-forth with the league raised some follow-up questions for Stitt, like why aren’t the sponsors advertised on the website or disclosed to the parents in advance? The “sponsors” page on www.gjba.net is blank.
Also, what is the process for selecting and approving sponsors?
“I said, ‘Would you allow a marijuana dispensary, perfectly legal, to advertise? Or a tobacco product? Or pornography? These are all legal industries that have no business being on our kids’ baseball jerseys,’” Stitt said.
Colorado Community Media reached out to the GJBA for comment on Thursday but did not hear back by deadline. This story will be updated if and when CCM hears from the association.
The concerns Stitt raised seemed to prompt a change: “Golden Little League Board of Directors held its regularly scheduled meeting tonight and decided to remove (the gun club) as a uniform sponsor,” a March 13 email from GJBA to Stitt stated.
But by the time he received the email, Stitt said he had already been removed from the team chat and other GJBA connections. Stitt has since enrolled his son in the Lakewood Junior Baseball Association.
“I risked my son not being able to play baseball at all this spring,” Stitt said. “Luckily I found Lakewood and they hadn’t closed registration yet. But had the GJBA said upfront, ‘Hey, your team might be named after a gun club,’ I wouldn’t have chosen them. I would have gone with another association and wouldn’t have missed the deadlines.”
The GJBA season opens on April 13.
Disgraceful! What isn’t mentioned within the article is that this family was told they were no longer welcome in Golden Little League Baseball. Their young children played for Golden last year and were looking forward to playing baseball again this season with their friends. Kicked out of their community baseball league. It was my understanding Little League offers a place for everyone to play. Little League should be ashamed.