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Sauk Valley Living

Bases loaded with youth baseball in Dixon

The Al Morrison Memorial Baseball League has provided a round-tripper of fun since the late 1960s, and its experience gets a little better each year thanks to a group of volunteers who invest their time for the kids.

Jack Ceballos of the Rock River Ready Mix team swings at a pitch during a Koufax League game on June 9, 2025 at the Al Morrison Baseball Complex in Dixon.

DIXON — As school winds down, pitchers begin winding up, along with the rest of the players who trade school bells for baseballs during the summer as part of a local league that draws several hundred kids to its ranks each year.

For 58 years, Dixon’s youth baseball league, Al Morrison Memorial Baseball, has been covering a lot of bases, helping children learn not only game skills but life skills: the importance of teamwork and hard work, dealing with pressure, learning how to win while knowing how to act if they lose — lessons that can go a long way in life.

And in the dugout, supporters who pitch in to make it possible each year: volunteer commissioners on the league’s board of directors, paid umpires and concession stand workers, and local businesses who support the program.

Drew Hines of the Dixon Rural Fire Department team hurls a pitch during a Bronco League game against 1st National Bank of Amboy on June 9, 2025 at the Al Morrison Baseball Complex in Dixon.

As much as the league does for players, the end goal is making sure the kids have fun.

“This is something to keep your kids occupied for hour upon hour upon hour,” said Al Morrison’s president Scott Johnson. “That’s what we’re most proud of. With all of the crazy stuff in the world, we want to be able to have them come and spend a couple of hours to just be kids.”

As the person who oversees the league’s operation, Johnson is where the buck stops when it comes to making sure everything goes as planned, from team management to facility maintenance to fundraising, and whatever else it takes.

Scott Johnson, president of the Al Morrison Baseball board of directors, oversees a league of 570 children who spend a part of their summers in 2025 learning America's Pastime in Dixon. He is serving his second three-year stint on the board.

Al Morrison provides baseball opportunities for children ages 4 to 14. In the T-ball league, kids hit from a tee. In Coach Pitch, coaches pitch to their own batters. The Future, Bronco and Koufax leagues offer more traditional games for older children. The Koufax League, named for Major League Baseball hall of fame pitcher Sandy Koufax, consists of teams of teenage players from throughout northern Illinois; Al Morrison currently fields four Dixon-based teams in the league, which is operated by the Byron Park District. This season had 570 children participate, which also includes players from Amboy, Ashton and Franklin Grove.

Around 300 regular season and postseason games are played from May to July at the league’s facilities in Page Park. It’s up to Johnson and his commissioners to prepare the diamonds, clean up afterward and maintain order during games. Not everything is perfect: a base might wiggle out of its affixed place, injuries may unfortunately happen and passionate fans may get a little too passionate.

Prior to this season, there was one board member in charge (“BMIC’s” for short) of the facility on a given day. Two board members are now at each game, and it’s helped with everyday functions and keeping crowds in more control, especially on days when each of the facility’s five diamonds are utilized.

“When you have so many people here, you have some who can get out of control or have issues, problems or anything else,” Johnson said. “This is the first year we’ve went to two a night. The board members in charge help get the fields ready, clean up, and help cook, but the biggest thing is that we have to watch the games that have umpires. We have ‘experts’ in the stands who want to help umpires sometimes, and they can be a challenge.”

Typically, the league enlists more experienced umps, many of whom also do high school games during the spring, for Bronco and Koufax games. As the high school ranks are seeing a decline in umpires in recent years, there have been a few more umpires at this year’s games than a year ago; one of whom wrote a letter to Johnson after his first umpiring gig with the League, grateful for the experience.

“Typically when you get feedback during the summer, usually someone is mad,” Johnson said. “When you get the positive feedback, it’s like, we’re doing something right here.”

The relationship between the Al Morrison league and high schools goes both ways. While the high school umps help out with the league games, some players go on to help out in high school games.

After a players’ hone their skills on the diamond through Al Morrison, high school baseball can be the next step, which has helped schools’ baseball program — Dixon High School’s, for example: Its experienced more success in the past seven years than it had throughout the rest of its history: The Dukes placed fourth in the 2019 Illinois High School Association 3A state tournament, and regional championships were won in 2019, 2021-22 and this past spring.

Dukes head coach Jason Burgess grew up playing in Al Morrison in the late 1970s and the 1980s, and his father Troy was one of its board members during that time. He recalls seeing how his father and other board members over the years — such as Ike Mercer, Speed Saunders, JB Long, Al Wikoff and John Jacobs — built a foundation that’s helped hundreds of young baseball players through they years.

“It’s amazing to see the many people who have stepped in for so many years. Without the adult volunteers this program would not be successful,” Burgess said. “This has to be one of the longest tenured local programs that provides our kids in the area a safe place to go have fun and try and learn the game of baseball. It’s great to see our town having such a program that helps support our children in our community. Throughout the years baseball has changed significantly, with travel ball, and Al Morrison leagues have provided a chance for younger generations to play baseball and have fun.”

The league’s operating costs come from player registration (from $50 for T-ball to $120 for Koufax; rates that have changed little in the past 15 years, Johnson said), sponsorships for teams and signs, and fundraisers such as an annual Trivia Night each February or March at the Elks Club.

The community’s commitment makes a big difference in what Al Morrison can provide its players, Johnson said.

“If we didn’t have that, we’d have to charge quintuple of what we charge.” Johnson said. “The community as a whole has always taken care of us, and it’s been a wonderful relationship.”

Enhancing players’ experiences is a yearly goal for the league. In recent years, improvements have been made to scorekeeping areas, dugouts, access areas among the diamonds, and its onsite batting cages. “One thing I wish we would have done is taking a time lapse picture of this place,” Johnson said. One of the long-term goals is to attain 501 (c) 3 nonprofit status to further enhance the youth baseball experience.

“It helps with getting more donations and things like that,” Johnson said. “Then you can get into the grant area and things like that.”

Fostering young baseball players has been a joy for Johnson since he became involved with Al Morrison in 2009. He also is a former board member for Dixon Public Schools, and his kids have come up through the youth baseball program over the years.

He hopes the momentum from recent improvements will continue, and encourage even more improvements in the future.

“This group of people has been the best I’ve had as an entire cumulative group since I’ve been doing this,” Johnson said. “It’s truly caring that you provide an environment for a kid to come and play baseball without the hassles of the world.”

Find Al Morrison Baseball on Facebook, email almorrisonbaseball@gmail.com or go to almorrisonbaseball.org for more information on Dixon’s youth baseball program.

Cody Cutter

Cody Cutter

Cody Cutter writes for Sauk Valley Living and its magazines, covering all or parts of 11 counties in northwest Illinois. He also covers high school sports on occasion, having done so for nearly 25 years in online and print.