Hundreds due in city for baseball

Published 12:00 am Friday, July 25, 2003

[7/25/03]Hundreds of young baseball players from Mississippi and Louisiana will be at Halls Ferry Park this weekend for the annual Governor’s Cup, one of the largest youth baseball tournaments in the state.

Thirty-two teams in four age groups will begin play tonight at 6. Games will continue on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the championship rounds will be played Sunday afternoon. Admission is $3 per day for adults and $1 for children under 12. Fans will be allowed to re-enter with a hand stamp.

“Prestige-wise, it continues to be a tournament that people ask us about wherever we go,” said Stan Woodson, a co-director of the Governor’s Cup and past president of the Vicksburg Baseball Association, which runs the tournament. “Whenever we play somewhere around the state, people always associate us with it and ask about it.”

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For the first time, baseball fans will be able to receive updates and information on the games over the radio. The Vicksburg Parks and Recreation Department will broadcast prerecorded tournament information on 90.5 FM. The message will be updated every three hours.

The broadcast, which will use a temporary signal and can be heard within a mile of Halls Ferry Park, is part of a program to help tourists in the city. The Governor’s Cup is the first major event the signal will be used for, but there are plans to install permanent low-power FM transmitters at several sites around Vicksburg.

“One of the things we’re thinking about is putting temporary stations at venues for special events. Tournaments, the fireworks show, anything where you have a lot of people,” said Bill Ford, an information systems specialist with the city’s Information Services Department.

As big as this weekend’s tournament is, it’s just the beginning of the Governor’s Cup.

Next Friday, 30 more teams will come in for the tournament’s second weekend. Five more age groups, ranging from 5- and 6-year-olds to 13-year-olds, will play then. In all, nearly 60 teams and 700 players and coaches will participate in the tournament.

The profits from the tournament, which are generated through entry fees and concession sales, benefit the VBA and keep the organization running. Woodson said last year’s tournament brought in about $20,000 that helped the VBA buy trophies, uniforms and other equipment for members.

“Financially, we could not survive without this tournament. We can make $20,000 to $25,000 if everything goes well,” Woodson said. “That’s very valuable to us. That helps us reward the kids with better uniforms, better trophies, things like that.”