​This article first appeared on Pittsburgh’s Public Source and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.PARSELY = autotrack: false, onload: function() PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView( url: “https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-neighborhood-youth-baseball-leagues/”, urlref: window.location.href ); AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFor Ken Hodges, one of the biggest obstacles to getting Braddock kids to play summer baseball is football. The ever-widening football calendar now features practice and flag football games during the spring and summer.“Kids have got to determine whether they’re going to go to their flag football game or to their baseball game,” Hodges said.“Football will always win.”Baseball is still known as the national pastime. But as the nation marks a landmark 250th birthday, its classic game is a withered version of itself in some corners of Pittsburgh.Youth participation nationwide has rebounded somewhat from a 2015 low point, according to MLB, but the landscape is different. Neighborhood-based, recreational leagues are thinner, replaced sometimes by more competitive and expensive options.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementInterviews with youth baseball leaders in communities including Braddock, Greenfield, Squirrel Hill, the South Side and Swissvale show how that shift is playing out locally: Some neighborhood leagues have shrunk or disappeared, while others are growing by keeping costs low, relying on volunteers or absorbing players from communities that can no longer field teams of their own.Lyle Schimizzi, 10, practices alongside Coach Danny Schimizzi at Lederman Field in Frick Park ahead of the Bob O’Connor Memorial Tournament on June 17, in Squirrel Hill. (Photo by Jason Alpert-Wisnia/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)Hodges has run Braddock/North Braddock Little League baseball for the past 24 years. He said when he started, back when his son was a 10-year-old player, the group had five in-house teams for each age bracket. Local kids could play against local kids, with no need to travel across the county.Now there are only enough interested kids for one team per age bracket. He spoke to a reporter just before one of his teams (filled mostly by 12-year-olds) faced off against a competitor from McKeesport.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementQuotationEver since the Pirates team declined, it brought the interest in baseball down.– Dane Welsh, South Side Athletic Association president/coachThough known these days as a football hotbed, Southwestern Pennsylvania has a rich baseball history. The Pittsburgh Pirates, founded in 1882, are one of the oldest Major League teams still located in its original city. Five World Series titles (including three before the Steelers rose to prominence) led to generations of local youth interest in the game. The city holds a storied place in Black baseball history as the former home to two Negro League teams