Where are South Brooklyn’s softball leagues?

I’m totally ripping off a page from the excellent Capitol Region web site, All Over Albany, because this is a topic I’ve had in the back of my mind since the snow was knee-deep to a tall blogger. One of their readers writes:

A friend of mine would really like to get involved with a softball league that’s fun and not too competitive. He’s not a bad player but he’s afraid he’s not good enough to be welcomed by some of the more competitive leagues out there. Also, he’s gotten the impression that without an “in,” he won’t be able to find an opening.

Any ideas?

An excellent question, and one I’d like to have answered for South Brooklyn. I’ve seen listings on Craigslist for occasional empty spots in competitive leagues. I have no idea where to find general sign-up info, though, either for these competitive leagues, or more casual and co-ed leagues. And it isn’t for lack of looking around.

In the past couple of years, I’ve signed up for touch football with Zog Sports. Most of their games are on Randall’s Island (220 teams last fall), but they have a league of 8-16 teams that plays at Brooklyn Tech’s football field off Atlantic Avenue. I love it, and I’m looking forward to the fall season. But even though I’ve met a lot of fantastic people through Zog – including a few that hail from Bay Ridge and Sheepshead Bay – I wouldn’t mind doing something that’s a little closer to my home and neighbors here.

A few months ago, I asked both Zog Sports and the NYC Social Sports Club – two of the City’s leading organizers of adult softball, basketball, soccer, and touch football social leagues – about any possible plans they had for starting leagues in southern Brooklyn – specifically, to ballfields in Bay Ridge, Dyker Beach Park and Marine Park (and also the multi-purpose field between MCU Park and the Boardwalk). For varying reasons, the short answer is no. Zog says that they’ve looked into areas in southern Brooklyn, but are focusing on building out their North Brooklyn base first – which makes sense, if you think about the 220-teams-to-16 disparity between their “Manhattan” league and its Brooklyn counterpart.

The NYCSSC was even more specific. “We offered leagues in Brooklyn years ago, but the simple math of it is that Manhattan leagues do much better,” Matt Archambault wrote to me in February. “And I’m not talking just ‘more than there.’  Attendance is always an issue in leagues like ours.  And when the games aren’t offered right near the place where players work, they don’t show up often at all.  Our Brooklyn leagues ended up being a glorified pickup game, trying to form teams out of those who showed up.”

But hey – just because the Manhattan-based organizations aren’t doing anything here doesn’t mean it’s isn’t happening. Right?

Do you know of any softball, touch football, or soccer leagues in southern Brooklyn, either casual or competitive? Do you have information on team and individual signups, either for this summer or for fall ball? Do you have any pictures of the teams in action you would like to share? We would love to hear from you! Please drop me a line at tips@bksouthie.com.

P.S. We’ll even take tips on southern Brooklyn kickball leagues, if such things exist here.