• The excitement of new “family members”.
• Respect and friendship from your visiting players and their parents.
• A new social and cultural experience for your family and theirs.
• Added enjoyment and fun supporting and rooting for your visiting players’ team.
• The thrills of seeing your visiting kids make a great hit, make a daring catch or their team win the game.
• Correspondence and even visits from your players and their parents after the event is over and they have returned to their own homes.
• The feeling that you have broadened their horizons about how other families in the state, region or country live.
• Establishing a long-lasting bond with your players and welcoming them into your family.

• Once the tournament is over, having to say good-bye to the players who have become temporary members of your family. Sometimes this one requires special equipment: a box of facial tissue.

As you can see, the qualifications to be a host parent are simple, the rewards are plentiful and the one disadvantage is manageable (at least for some).

I would like to take this opportunity to share a few “Host Family” experiences with you:

• A player from California wrote about her tournament experience in Houma, Louisiana, “I was a little nervous at first. But once I arrived there and met my host family, all of my worries disappeared. My host family was wonderful. By staying with a family, we got a really good taste of Louisiana and southern culture. We learned the local lingo. We met a lot of nice people and made great friends. I’ll keep the memories and experience with me forever.”
  
  
• A tournament player from Eastern North Carolina spoke to a group of league representatives from around her state and said, “Our host parents were as excited as we were. They made posters to welcome us when we arrived. They took us to the grocery store and told us to point out what we liked to eat. We had cookouts. They were our biggest cheerleaders. Now, months after the tournament, we talk all the time to them on the phone. I’ve been back to visit them since then.”
  
  
• The mother of a World Series participant who played in Jamestown, New York, wrote, “I never expected to experience what we experienced. I realize now how important it was for our team to stay with host families. They were truly the nicest people I have ever met. They have very special people living in Jamestown. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

I could go on and on with real stories like the above. As you can see, the Host Family program is a hit with coaches, parents and players. If you have any Host Family stories you would like to share, please email them to info@baberuthleague.org or bullpen@baberuthleague.org.

To every host family who will be welcoming our players into their homes and communities this tournament season, we sincerely wish to express our heartfelt thanks and appreciation. And to every player who will have the unique privilege of staying in a host family home, you are in for one of the best experiences of your lifetime! And to all of you, HAVE FUN!!