Chico man, Baja friends collecting old baseball gear

CHICO ? With the idea there are plenty of households around town that have old baseball and softball gear gathering dust in closets and garages, Bill Yoskowitz says he has a use for it.

Yoskowitz, who takes fishing trips to Baja California each year, uses a community billboard site, thebajaponyexpress.com, to get news about the area. He read about an American, Link Forte, who lives in El Triunfo, Baja, and sells real estate in Los Barriles.

On the web site, Forte sent out a call for baseball equipment for Little League programs he is starting in eight villages.

According to an email Forte sent to Yoskowitz, some 160 kids in El Triunfo as well as El Carrizal, Todos Santos, San Pedro, San Antonio, San Bartolo, Los Planes and Los Barriles on the Sea of Cortez side have signed up to play ball this year. Right now, they are sharing equipment and have no uniforms.

These communities, located in the Sierra de Laguna Mountains, centered between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez, are some of the poorest along the Baja Sur peninsula. Transportation to ball games is difficult for the players, some of whom don't attend junior high or high school because their families can't afford the $18 a month tuition.

On one weekend in February, Forte was able to give 25 baseballs to the El Triunfo team.

Yoskowitz, who owns a construction business and coaches Chico High School girls shot put and discus, volunteered to collect

equipment in the Chico area. He plans to use thebajaponyexpress.com to connect to anyone with trailers heading south to Baja from Washington, Oregon or Northern California.

"Anybody who is driving down to Baja and they've posted on the web site they are coming through I'm willing to meet them with equipment, whether they come to Chico or I can meet them out on Interstate 5," he said.

Yoskowitz said he's already collected a "good sized" box with bats, balls and bases. "I hit up all my friends," he said.

Forte notes that El Triunfo was the place where baseball was introduced to the country of Mexico by a mining engineer, Arthur C. Nauls of San Francisco, who was working as a mine superintendent. Silver and gold were mined along the peninsula from 1878 to 1926 ? a time when the area was much more prosperous.

Forte learned about the town's baseball past when he had a chance encounter with one of Nauls' descendants, exploring El Triunfo.

Today, the El Triunfo "Mineros" still play in the old cement stadium. Forte said in his email that there are hopes someday for a baseball museum and a large playing field.

Any kind of baseball or softball equipment is needed, said Yoskowitz. He can be reached at billyoskowitz@gmail.com.

Laurie Kavenaugh can be reached at 896-7765, lifestyle@chicoer.com or @LaurieKavenaugh on Twitter.

Source: http://www.chicoer.com/ci_22809729/chico-man-baja-friends-collecting-old-baseball-gear?source=rss

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