Whenever I visit a baseball park, meet a player, am introduced to a team, or learn something from a baseball resource, I try to make a connection at some point with that experience on social media. Not everyone uses social media to complain about a restaurant or show videos of backflips off a roof into a pool or the millions of other questionable acts currently on people’s pages. Some post positive news, uplifting stories, emotional tributes, and heart wrenching photos that just make you stop in your tracks and thank God you are alive. This morning, via the Batavia Muckdogs Instagram account, I witnessed something that stopped me in my tracks. Here is what I saw…

The Muckdogs play in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League and are based out of Batavia, NY. I visited the Muckdogs and historic Dwyer Stadium recently on a business trip for ABF Freight. I follow the team on Instagram and just so happened to have caught their news feed with the above photos and story. The thing that really caught my eye was the painted bases, the painted pitcher’s mound, the painted home plate, and the painted base lines – all blue striped in honor of a fallen hero, a police officer. It was a really amazing tribute to honor the life of a local police officer who lost his life in the line of duty, a Sgt. Thomas Sanfratello.

Have you seen other leagues, teams do this before? Paint the bases as a tribute to a fallen hero? Blue would be the appropriate color for police officers, I suppose. What about painting the bases for other heroes? Red perhaps for a firefighter who lost his/her life in the line of duty. Or green for an military serviceperson. Pink for a breast cancer hero of the community? I have to tell you, I was really impressed with this tribute. And it just strengthens how I feel about local, hometown, community baseball leagues like the summer collegiate leagues, like the Batavia Muckdogs community.

Great work, absolutely amazing tribute to Sgt. Thomas Sanfratello by the staff of the Batavia Muckdogs here. You can see more photos of the game and the tribute by heading over to the Muckdogs Instagram page – Batavia Muckdogs. And if you know of other tributes similar to this one, email me at ribaseballexperience@gmail.com and share the story behind it.