By Ingrid Marie Rivera, La Prensa Correspondent 

LORAIN: The NorthCoast Knights, a collegiate baseball team based in Lorain, is planning to honor U.S. soldiers by bringing military men to play U.S.-America’s favorite pastime.

The U.S. Military All-Stars team will face the Latin All-Stars for a baseball game at Lorain’s Pipe Yard stadium, located at 2840 Meister Road, within the Campana Park Baseball Complex in Lorain, Ohio, on Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. It’s the first time the two famous teams will play in Lorain.

Cost for the game is $5 but free parking is available. Military personnel and veterans have free admission.
 

Ingrid Marie Rivera

Rey Carrion, president of Lorain is ProBaseball non-profit group and construction administrator for the Lorain department of community development, said combining the game of baseball with the recognition of local veterans would be a perfect match for Lorainites who passionately support both.

“We figure a lot of people in Lorain love baseball and the military forces in Lorain are strong so it's a way to honor and shed some light on those that are still fighting,” Carrion said.

Several veterans of Lorain will be honored in an elaborate ceremony put on by members of the Military All-Stars and Latin Stars, but those to be honored and the details of the ceremony are still not finalized.

One possible veteran to be honored is fallen soldier Airman 1^st Class Eric Barnes, 20, of Lorain, who died on duty driving a convoy in Iraq when hit by a roadside bomb in 2007.

The Military All-Stars, based in Boston, MA., was founded in 1990 by retired Navy Lieutenant Commander Terry Allvord. The joint-forces team allows members of the military to travel the country and play baseball during a nine-month season, called the “Red, White, and Blue Diplomacy Tour.”

They play against professional, semi-professional and independent baseball teams in Major and Minor league parks.

The Latin All-Stars team, also newly founded in 2009 by Allvord, was created as a team to play against the Military All-Stars when no other team was available. The Latin-All Stars have Latino players of Mexican, Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Costa Rican heritage. They are planning to play in various Latin American countries in the near future, just as the Military All-Stars team has done in the past.

Josh Hayes, general manager of the NorthCoast Knights, said his team would not be in Lorain during the game as the players would be on the road traveling to an away game.

For more information on this game, contact the NorthCoast Knights at http://www.northcoastknights.com/index.htm. See future editions of La Prensa for coverage of this event.