As each season comes and goes and new memories are made at the ballpark for the new generations of baseball players and families, we take a brief moment of reflection of the past season and then quickly pivot looking forward to the next. For this past spring-summer season, 3&2 Baseball has hosted close to 7400 games already to date, starting in cool, crisp month of March and ending here in the heat of mid July.
League and tournament participation is steady and the 3&2 ballpark has been near full capacity 7-days-a-week since spring break. High School baseball in the area and the youth programs that feed into it is maintaining pace with other sports in this region of the country despite baseball participation nationally down up to 20%. Bucking this trend proves that Kansas City is still as much of a baseball town as football and our youth and high school sports drive that spirit.
3&2 Baseball is a 501C-3 non-profit organization, which means the dollars it generates from leagues, camps, concessions, retail, and tournaments gets invested right back into the program. 3&2 partners with local businesses, but one of our most strategic and historic partnerships is with the Shawnee Mission School District and dates back to 1974 when baseball was first introduced in the district and played on 3&2 Field #1. 3&2 and SMSD have literally partnered since high school baseball began in the region!
That partnership is as strong today as it has been over the last 50 years, as 3&2 hosts all Shawnee Mission school varsity and sub-varsity baseball games at the East Complex. Together, as we look at the next 50 years together, there is no denying the need to upgrade the infrastructure and surface of high school baseball fields in which we share so in 2024 the district approved funding to turf the infields of fields 1,2, & 7 at 3&2’s East Complex. Pre-construction is now underway to clear the way for excavation, drainage and irrigation planning, sub-structure development, and turf for the high school diamonds at 3&2.
3&2 is very grateful and excited that the district recognizes the value of the sport and is equipping each of its high schools in the district the ability to play on the same caliber of surface as most other baseball programs in districts of similar size and scope in the state.
We look forward to keeping the baseball community here updated on the status of this exciting project and making additional announcements of our other major park improvements laser-focused on the fields that your kids play on now and will in the near future.