Since 1952

A group of fathers and local business people met in the basement of a sporting-goods store on Turney Road owned by the city's recreation director. Out of those meetings came the Garfield Heights Little Boys Baseball League, later the Garfield Heights Baseball League. Its first commissioner and two other founders traveled to Columbus to charter it.

The league's website carried the line "Garfield Heights Baseball League - Since 1952" at the top of every page.

From maybe eighty boys in the early years, the league grew to nearly 1,500. At its peak more than 90 teams played on nine fields, by then on the grounds of the Garfield Heights City School District instead of Garfield Park.

The league inducted the first class of its Hall of Fame in 1987. In the 1990s it added a travel program and realigned its in-house divisions.

The league dropped a long-outdated rule so that women could become league members, and later coaches and board members.

Divisions were Peewee, Minor, Major, Pony and Colt, plus travel teams (9U, 13U, 14U, 15U and 16U). The Peewee schedule that summer had games most weeknights at 6:00 PM. The history page called the league "one of the oldest self-supporting leagues in the entire country" and listed what its volunteers emphasized: "Discipline, teamwork, pride, sportsmanship and playing by the rules."

The league described itself as a 501(c)(3) organization and posted its financial statements. In 2015 it announced its first "Bulldog Brawl" tournament for 12U to 16U teams. After thieves emptied its storage room that year, a big-league club, a bat maker and local businesses helped replace the stolen equipment so the season could begin on time.

The last season the website announced: registration for ages 6 to 17, applications at the Garfield Heights Recreation Center on Turney Road, and a plain warning: "If people do not step up, the league will cease to exist."

The address showed a holding page: "GHBL.us is not in service right now, please check back."

ghbl.us opens again as GHBL Online, an electronic rec department where the league's name lives on: 3-D T-ball and baseball, five diamonds, and league games every day at 3, 5 and 7.