BUENA PARK, Calif. \u2014 The sport of baseball is known as America\u2019s pastime, but it\u2019s getting more expensive for youth to take part in Little League.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The average cost for a season of Little League in Southern California ranges from $580 and $1,085, and around 60% of parents in the region can\u2019t afford the fees, according to a report by the LA84 Foundation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Getting access to the sport has been difficult as well. With field times booked up throughout the year and the Southern California heat, a new facility opened in Buena Park that aims to help with that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, it\u2019s too hot, you get dehydrated,\u201d said 10-year-old little leaguer Dom Samawii, who is practicing at HAX batting cages in Buena Park. \u201cHere, it\u2019s very, very convenient, you get AC.\u201d<\/p>\n
The facility just opened, and the owner, Roger Samawi, said while it is a business, HAX will be partnering with local nonprofits to get younger people discounted and free cage time to work on their game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to work with multiple organizations and charities to start our nonprofit organization so we can get cage time funded for underprivileged youth,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we can work with the local little leagues in this area and surrounding areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buena Park welcomes the new business. The pandemic slowed growth in the city, and as recovery continues, local officials are hoping more businesses will begin to open up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCOVID did slow things down quite a bit,\u201d said Buena Park Council member Susan Sonne. \u201cBut we\u2019ve really noticed an uptick in businesses opening, and we\u2019re so excited about the different kinds of things that are coming into Buena Park.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Dom, getting a place to work on his swing and game will help him try to achieve the lofty dreams he has for himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanna get to the Majors, hopefully,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUENA PARK, Calif. \u2014 The sport of baseball is known as America\u2019s pastime, but it\u2019s getting more expensive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,31532,6632,7,31533,59022,5999,127,5996],"class_list":["post-429258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-sports","tag-california","tag-human-interest","tag-jas-kang","tag-socal-what-you-need-to-know","tag-sports","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}