A Little League in Golden, Colo., has pulled a local gun club as a sponsor for the organization after receiving pushback from some league parents.
Tony Stitt, the parent of one 9-year-old little leaguer, said parents weren't told about sponsors until after their kids had already been signed up for the league.
“The lack of contextual awareness of the board and approving that, and then not informing the parents and not giving them a chance to swap out teams,” frustrated Stitt. “But all that seems to be resolved.”
After parents complained, the baseball association in Golden pulled the gun club as a sponsor, and Stitt says that was only after a compromise failed. Stitt had proposed the association give the children of families who objected different jerseys. He also offered to have his son moved to another team, but both solutions were rejected.
Stitt questioned who approved the sponsors, and what process was involved in the selection process.
“I said, ‘Would you allow a marijuana dispensary, perfectly legal, to advertise? Or a tobacco product? Or pornography? These are all legal industries that have no business being on our kids’ baseball jerseys,’” Stitt said.
The Golden Little League Board of Directors did remove the gun club as a sponsor, but by the time Stitt received notice, he had already enrolled his son in the Lakewood Junior Baseball Association.
“I risked my son not being able to play baseball at all this spring,” Stitt said. “Luckily I found Lakewood and they hadn’t closed registration yet. But had the GJBA said upfront, ‘Hey, your team might be named after a gun club,’ I wouldn’t have chosen them. I would have gone with another association and wouldn’t have missed the deadlines.”
