Vandals Target Lynn Little League Field
LYNN (CBS) - Like the Red Sox, the boys of summer are now playing fall ball in Lynn. A team from the Lynn Shore Little League is heading to a championship game later this week. "If people knew the time and effort that it took to run the program," said volunteer Yvelisse Duverge, whose two sons play in the league. What happened at their field at Kiley Park over the weekend, she still can't believe. "I'm mad because you know we're here every day," she said.
Sometime Friday night into Saturday morning, while the volunteers and players were away, vandals broke into the batting cage the league worked hard to build. They tore part of the fencing and cut the overhead net. "Several nets were toppled over and stomped on. They pulled this (a net frame) apart," league President Dave Dorgan said. Whoever did this also targeted the clubhouse, using a brick to try get in. "They pulled the screen out and tried to open the window," Dorgan said. "It's very likely that from the street somebody saw that it's a monitor," he said pointing to a donated monitor on the wall inside. "We use the GoPro camera to record the kids at bat and play it back for them," he added.
In all, Dorgan estimates the damage at about a thousand dollars. "I'm just glad it wasn't worse," he said. But for a non-profit with a majority of its players at or below the poverty level, every single cent counts. "So, in Little League terms, it's a lot of money."
Yvelisse Duverge is frustrated someone would target the place where her family spends a great deal of time. She'd like to see an arrest and can't help but take this crime personally. "These are all my babies. I know every kid in this program and they all know me as Coach Y. So if you do something against the league, you're doing something against my children. These are all my kids," she said. The league filed a police report and is now working to repair the damage.
MORE LOCAL NEWS FROM CBS BOSTON
