Pleasant Hill Babe Ruth Baseball a Success Story

Tucked away in the Willamette Valley of Lane County Oregon is the little community of Pleasant Hill, a community so small that there are no stop lights, movie theaters, skate parks or malls. If you make a stop at the Pleasant Hill High school or Pleasant Hill Elementary School on just about any evening or weekend you will find youngsters on the field or in the gym playing some type of sport such as baseball, softball, soccer or basketball. From Little League to Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken – baseball is among the favorite youth sports.

Pleasant Hill Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken Baseball is not composed of youngsters from a single community. Kids come here to play baseball from the surrounding and distant communities of Jasper, Lowell, Dexter, Drain, Creswell, Cottage Grove and  Oakridge. When you add the populations of all of these little communities together we are but a fraction of the size of  Springfield and Eugene and yet we are a true success story.

So what is it that makes Pleasant Hill Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken such a youth baseball success story? It certainly is not the state of art training facilities that you will often find in larger cities! It is not the ability to select players from a large pool of players! It is not the number of wins each season though our teams do well! So what is it? What makes Pleasant Hill Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken Baseball great is the players, families, coaches and other volunteers.

Not having the distraction of movie theaters, skate parks, public swimming pools, malls and the like, many of our children take up sports such as baseball, softball, basketball, football, soccer and wrestling. Many of the children of our communities want to go on to college so education plays a big part in the lives of our families, and yes sports is important to education for strong bodies support strong minds.

I would need to fill a book to tell you about the many great coaches and volunteers Pleasant Hill has. Still, a person that I would like all of you to know that works effortlessly to bring the Pleasant Hill success story together is a man by the name of Forest Tomlinson.

Forest is the president of Pleasant Hill Babe Ruth Baseball. As president he is not paid, in fact he often spends his own money to assist our teams. As president he is called on to make the hard decisions that others are unwilling to make. He puts in countless hours along with other volunteers building and maintaining our fields. He works closely with coaches, players and other volunteers and still makes time to coach a Babe Ruth team.

During any given year you will find Forest coaching or assisting with soccer, basketball, football and a championship chess team.  How one man does so much and still makes time for his family, tutoring children in Spanish and music and playing the fiddle with the Coast Fork Ramblers I sometimes wonder?

Forest is not alone. Working hard beside him are so many other volunteers and parents that I will not mention their names for fear of leaving someone out. Together these many families, coaches and volunteers with the leadership of Forest make Pleasant Hill Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken Baseball a true SUCCESS STORY!