Joe Graves is ready to take the field again and he hopes many more former players do the same.

The former St. Aloysius baseball coach and current Vicksburg Parks and Recreation director is organizing an adult baseball league and hopes to have at least four teams by the time the league starts in July.

“There has been a lot of interest by people who are currently playing in our adult softball leagues who would like to see it,” said Graves, who is a former ballplayer himself, having been a pitcher at Mississippi College in the early 1980s. “We’re hoping to get enough people to sign up to have at least four teams with 12 to 15 players per team.”

Registration for the league began Monday and will run through June 17. The league will be for players 18-and-up. The cost will be $125 per team, with an additional $5 for each player that is a non resident of Warren County.

“This is a league for a lot of us older guys to see if we can still play, to enjoy ourselves and have fun,” Graves said. “We’ll play the games at Bazinsky Field.

“The only thing that will be required of the players, other than the fees, will be their game tops. We’ll provide the baseballs, catching equipment and umpires.”

The former St. Aloysius coach says he hopes there are enough teams to put together a 10-game schedule.

“We’d probably start around July 1 and let the league go at least a month,” he said. “When softball ends, there is not a lot for the older players to do. This just gives us another avenue to see what we’ve got. And for our department to expand and meet the needs of the citizens.”

The adult softball leagues are scheduled to end in early June. Currently, the rec department has six teams in its men’s A league, and 12 in men’s church along with a men’s C league.

“We’ve got a lot of teams in our softball program and that also means we’ve got a lot of ex-baseball players. We encourage a lot of former players at all four of our local schools to contact us,” Graves said.

An organizational meeting is scheduled for June 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the VPRD office on Army-Navy Drive.

“Jackson has had a popular over-30 league for several years,” Graves said. “With ours, we hope to build it up to a point where we can play teams from outside our area.

“But for right now, I think a lot of other guys, are just looking forward to get back out on the diamond.”