The safety, protection and the well-being of our participants is always the top priority of Babe Ruth League, Inc.  Any form of child abuse is contemptible and goes against the program’s mission.  We want to ensure that the young athletes participating in the Babe Ruth League program learn valuable life lessons in a safe environment that help them develop into happy, healthy and productive adults.

Like many other youth organizations, Babe Ruth League relies on the efforts and resources provided by our volunteers and seeks to attract the most qualified adults to serve as league officials, managers, coaches, board members, and in any other volunteer position.  At the same time, we realize that this could make us a target for those who seek to do harm to children, to rob them of their right to feel safe and grow up in an enjoyable and healthy environment. These are child abusers, and although it is not an easy or pleasant topic for any of us to think about, the fact remains that child abuse happens.

Whether they are our children, or the children of others, each of us has a responsibility to protect them. Babe Ruth League has several programs in place to encourage safe interaction between volunteers and youth, as well to create a safe, educational and enjoyable environment for all.  These include mandatory Coaches Education and Certification, Risk Management disclosures, and mandatory background screening (including a check of the applicable government sex offender registry) on all managers, coaches, board members, as well as any other persons/volunteers, who provide regular service to the league, and/or have repetitive access to, or contact with, players or teams. 

Babe Ruth League, Inc. will continue to review and implement rule changes and other initiatives to combat the threat of child abuse and molestation. 

It is important that the Babe Ruth membership review the  Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017, which is now federal legislation signed into law effective February 14, 2018.  This new legislation creates a new standard of care that affects all youth-serving organizations around the country, not just Babe Ruth League, Inc. or just the sports of youth baseball and softball. 

Each Babe Ruth Baseball, Cal Ripken Baseball and Babe Ruth Softball league should customize its own child abuse risk management program to protect its participants, to adhere to the Safe Sports Act and to meet its own unique needs. The end result should be an environment unsuitable for the abuser and/or sexual predator.

To review a copy of Babe Ruth League, Inc.’s Child Protection Risk Management Program, click here.