CLEARFIELD – Founder Jeff Potter of Maryland proclaims the Potter Baseball Tour as a celebration of the greatest game evey invented, and Clearfield is one of the stops for the third year in a row.
Potter’s goal each year is to recruit young players and take them on a one-month tour of towns and cities in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio to play games, be educated on the baseball history of the communities and, at least for that day, bring the people of the community together, just like it was “back in the day.”
“The tour is more than playing a few ball games,” according to Potter. “It is bringing kids, parents, everyone, back to a better time when life was fun and innocent.”
Wood bats are used for the games, which begin after a traditional “bat toss” and have an emphasis on sportsmanship and playing the game the right way.
Brandon Orsich of Clearfield is one of the two Pennsylvania players on the PBT team that is booked for a doubleheader arranged by veteran high school, American Legion and youth coach Sid Lansberry for Thursday at the Lawrence Township Recreation Park Field.
The Jim’s Sports Center 14U team will provide the opposition for the 10 a.m. game.
After the Clearfield Little League Women’s Auxiliary serves lunch at noon, the PBT will return to the diamond to take on the Wise Eyes Optical 16U team at 1:30 p.m.
A family picnic for players and parents of all three teams is planned for 5 p.m. at Parker Dam State Park, where the PBT team will be staying in cabins overnight.
Under the direction of Kellie Truman, Main Street Manager for the Clearfield Revitalization Corporation, players from the three teams will join together to clean up downtown Clearfield Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
They’ll be sweeping sidewalks, pulling weeds and cleaning windows for the merchants during the community service project.
The PBT team will depart Clearfield in mid-afternoon for a tour of Peoples Natural Gas Stadium, home of the Altoona Curve, before returning to Maryland.