As winter turned to spring, Joe Graff was excited about how the 2020 Pittsburgh National Adult Baseball League was coming together.

Then the coronavirus pandemic threw the league, as well as so many other entities, into doubt.

But with Gov. Wolf putting southwestern Pennsylvania into the green phase of recovery June 5, those doubts turned to promise.

Graff, the Pittsburgh NABA president, said the league hopes to blossom over the next couple of weeks, and several teams already are making their mark on fields throughout the region.

“It’s exciting to see the guys get out there and be on a baseball field and be around people even if you are taking more precautions than usual,” Graff said.

“The high fives and handshakes aren’t as common as they once were. It’s not a sportsmanship issue, but it’s trying to respect the space from the people across from you and not putting any undue stress on anyone.”

The 19-team league again is split into divisions — AAA, AA and A — based on experience level.

The AAA division typically is for players with several years of college and/or professional experience.

The intermediate division (AA) is generally for teams with players with high school or some college experience.

The recreational level (A) gives players the chance to play whose love of baseball might exceed their experience.

Pittsburgh NABA is an open-division league with players age 18 and over, including some participants in their 40s and 50s.

The Monroeville Cardinals, largely made up of current and former CCAC Boyce players and their friends from high school, began AAA play last Sunday with a doubleheader against the Shaler Rebels at Stoneridge Field in Allison Park.

The teams split, with Shaler winning Game 1, 4-2, and Monroeville taking Game 2, 13-0.

“That first game, it was about shaking off the rust. But that second game, we really opened it up and scored some runs,” Cardinals manager and CCAC Boyce baseball assistant Bill Spina said.

“When they said the (college) seasons were going to be canceled because of the virus, I said I was going to get a team together when they opened things back up. I promised those guys I would do it. It took some work, but we were able to do it.”

The Cardinals play their home games at Gateway High School.

When Allegheny County went green and the league was good to go, nine games were played June 6 and 7.

Last Tuesday saw a pair of games in AAA — Shaler taking on West-End Elliott and the Pittsburgh Bulldogs taking on Jefferson Hills — and 15 games are on tap this weekend.

The league normally lines up the team rosters and has the schedules set by the end of March, but the uncertainty of the season put things on hold. Zoom meetings among the managers discussed the latest news and what the guidelines and restrictions might be if and when the league could happen.

The schedule for the next several weeks of regular-season play, Graff said, remains fluid and incomplete as the remaining field permits, including ones located in the City of Pittsburgh, are finalized.

“As time went on, we had a good sense of roughly when the county was going go green,” he said.

“We wanted to make sure that if (field) permits were issued, we would be ready to go that first weekend. We’ve been staying in touch with managers, players and umpires. We’re looking at backloading the schedule for those affected teams.”

Graff said players have read and signed a waiver and acknowledgement of risks for league play that includes the understanding of the risks under the covid-19 climate.

“It’s been quite a process, and everything has come together like 100 miles an hour since going to the green phase,” Spina said.

The Boyce Park Warriors, who host teams at Boyce Park Field No. 3 in Plum, returns this summer in Division A.

They are one of nine teams that entered this weekend hoping to start play. The Warriors were slated to host a doubleheader against the West View Frogmen on Sunday.

“It was great news and a huge relief to know that we are going to have a season. I was getting worried for a while,” said Boyce Park manager Mitchell Johnston, a Leechburg resident who played baseball at Apollo-Ridge through 2014.

“With our team, we’re there just to have fun and play a game we love. We’re competitive, but we’re not overly serious. My desire to be on the field playing will be there until I can’t move.”

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