With spring on the horizon, one of Cleveland’s longstanding community enterprises, the B Buzz Baseball League is lining up for a big inning in 2022.
The league is currently recruiting players for the 2022 season. Practice begins May 7, with the first regular season pitch scheduled for June 6. The league has three programs, starting with tee-ball for children who will be at least 4 years old by May 1, 2022, and including both minor and major leagues [ages 9-13 and 14-16 as of May 1, respectively].
The season ends July 28 with an awards ceremony scheduled for August 6 that will feature former Major Leaguers Kenny Lofton and Ellis Burks.
Additional coaches are also being sought to handle the anticipated increase in player participation after the past two COVID years.
Started in the late 1950s, B Buzz has been a longtime staple of the Lee-Harvard community on Cleveland’s southeast side. The nonprofit organization has undergone the normal cycles of growth and stagnation over several decades but now appears to be on a solid upswing.
Businessman Wendell Fields, the League’s commissioner, exudes enthusiasm as he talks about the league’s mission and the services the program offers. Fields grew up in the area and played in the league as a kid, forming solid friendships he continues to this day.
B Buzz Baseball League Commissioner Wendell H. Fields
Those deep roots helped out when the League, after being dormant for decades, formed a new board of directors and reincarnated itself as a tax-deductible nonprofit organization. Its new advisory board includes several present and former public officials, including the current mayors of Warrensville Heights and Woodmere Village, as well as Desmond Howard, the former Heisman Trophy winner.
According to Fields, the goal is to provide today’s youth with the same examples of character and responsibility he and his childhood peers experienced growing up in the area in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The revitalized operation, which registered 24 players in 2014, is aiming for ten times that number this year as it bounces back from the bad bounces induced by the pandemic of the past two years.
The league’s home fields — at the city-owned 76-acre Kerruish Park at Tarkington Ave and Lee Road — need improvement, but Fields anticipates the Bibb administration to offer some refurbishments this spring. Long term, the League’s board of directors is proposing to build a state-of-the-art baseball complex by 2025 that will include at least four Astroturf fields. Fields also foresees a new multipurpose indoor structure that will support the expanded family programming the League is already offering.
In addition to the baseball programs for boys and girls, B Buzz supports summer reading, financial literacy and other family-centric programming with various community resource partners, including the Phe’be Foundation and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Parents/guardians may register children online here. In person registration is available the first four Saturdays in April from noon to 4pm at Zion Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, 4234 Lee Road [44128], Warrensville Heights Recreation Center, 4270 Warrensville Road [44128], and Keritin Barber College, 4071 Lee Road [44128].
The $75 registration fee includes the uniform cost for each participant [$70 child if two or more enrolled from same household].
Adult coaches and volunteers should reach out to Fields at 216-712-2721 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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All photos by Lori Joyner
