The Owensboro RiverDawgs are using home runs to bring families together on Father’s Day at Chautauqua Park in the Father/Kid Home Run Derby.
This will be the first year that the event has been held after they couldn’t have it in 2020 because of COVID-19. Head Coach Vic Evans said they wanted to alter a past event while finding a way to incorporate the upcoming holiday.
“We used to do what we called ‘home runs in the outfield’ where we had wiffle balls and wiffle bats and our guys pitched to young kids and let them hit it over the fence at Chautauqua Park,” Evans said. “So we did that for a couple of years and we were looking to keep something like that, but incorporate Father’s Day and baseball hand in hand.”
The event will be set up with an NCAA Tournament style bracket, with the preliminary rounds taking place from 1-4 p.m. with the finals taking place shortly before the RiverDawgs game on Father’s Day.
There will be a point system for scoring the event, as they won’t have fences set up because of the game later in the day. Evans said that they are still finalizing the scoring system, but that the players and coaches will be in the outfield tallying up everything.
“Each round will have six swings,” Evans said. “You’ll get six and then you add up their points and then combine it with your son’s points and then you’ll go against the other father/son combinations.”
Evans said that they just wanted to provide families with some great memories through competition and just an overall full day of baseball with the RiverDawgs game afterwards.
“We just feel like Father’s Day and baseball go hand-in-hand and we wanted something that Fathers and kids could do together and enjoy,” Evans said. “So we just wanted to make it open to whoever wanted to do it and come out and give it your best effort and then hang around and watch a ballgame.”
For those interested, you can register through the RiverDawgs Facebook page, Fathers and sons can email their name to [email protected] or you can even register at one of Owensboro’s games.
“If you come to the ticket booth here at one of our games, you can give the ticket lady your name and contact info and then we will contact you with the exact start time for the preliminary rounds and that kind of stuff,” Evans said.
