When Glen Palmer looks at the old baseball field on Mission 66, he remembers a time when they were bustling with life.

Parents brought their children to games, got involved in a neighborhood league and kept their little ones out of trouble. It’s a scene Palmer would like to create again, with a new generation of kids.

Palmer, now in retirement, is leading an effort to restart the Mission 66 Youth Baseball League. He’s got a few sponsors, help from the city and a number of volunteer coaches.

All he needs now are players, who he hopes will show up for the league’s open tryouts on April 2. There is no registration fee for the league, which is open to all children ages 9-12. If all goes well, games will be played on Mondays and Wednesdays beginning in late May and go through the summer.

The idea is to provide an activity for children whose parents are unable to find the time or money to play in one of Warren County’s other two youth baseball leagues – the city-run Vicksburg Baseball Association and the Culkin Baseball Association.

“It’s for kids that tried out for Halls Ferry or Culkin and couldn’t make it, or they couldn’t afford the $50 entry fee,” Palmer said, adding that the league’s focus won’t just be about teaching kids the ins and outs of the game. “It’s not going to be about baseball, it’s going to be about life.”

For years, children played ball at the fields along Mission 66. Palmer and other neighborhood residents played or coached in the league and credit it with helping them escape the dangers of the street.

“It was great, because we had a lot of camaraderie,” said Charles Clark, who played and coached in the Mission league in the 1970s, and has helped Palmer with the new league. “We had a lot of parents coming out and not a lot of kids getting in trouble like they do today.”

In the early 1990s, however, the neighborhood league died out for lack of participation. Palmer and others saw the area declining and decided something needed to be done, so they put together an effort to resurrect baseball at the Mission.

Palmer is hopeful, but knows a lot of work must still go into the league just to get it off the ground. A similar effort failed last year when a string of bad weather killed momentum.

The plan is to have enough players to field eight teams, about 75-100 children in all. So far, Palmer has found four sponsors for teams and needs a few more. And there’s never enough volunteers.

If everything comes together, though, Palmer will get his players and his sponsors. And maybe, just maybe, the Mission fields will be hopping again.

“We ask the whole city to pray for us, that it takes off and goes from there,” Clark said.