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GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS | 2021– 2022 33 A HISTORY OF YS T-BALL By LAUREN “CHUCK” SHOWS F or the last 35 years, the name “Coach Jimmy” has been synonymous with Perry League, the summer T-ball program for the village’s kids. The league, as Jimmy Chesire wrote in his weekly summer reports on T-ball games, is open to ages 2–9, “regardless of race, color, creed, sexual orientation, ethnicity, spiritual inclination or practice, ability or disabil - ity.” So close is the association that this writer, at one point, assumed that Coach Jimmy’s surname must be Perry — but Perry League pre-dates Che- sire by some 19 years. Perry League is the name- sake of Don Perry, a villager who, during his time, was as associated with youth baseball as Chesire is with T-ball. Born in 1933, Perry had begun working with vil- lage youth while he himself was still a teenager. In a 1990 report on the history of Perry League written for the YS News — from which some of the following information is taken — Chesire wrote that Perry founded the village’s Little League program after graduating from Bryan High School in 1952. Perry had intended to join the Air Force after graduating, but a diagnosis of nephritis, a chronic kidney condition, quashed that plan. Taking a job at a local lumber company, Perry continued volunteering his free time with village kids in recreational sports, coaching Little League and eventually accompanying a team to the Greene County championships in 1965. According to a Sept. 8, 1967, story in the Dayton Daily News, former YSHS prin- cipal John Malone stated that Perry “was the Little League … the moving force on our rec- reation programs and behind most everything that taught good sportsmanship.” Perry’s work with village youth inspired him to seek a career in elementary educa- tion — but the rising costs of medical care related to his condition put that plan on hold as well, and Perry began working as a custodian at Mills Lawn. By 1959, this job had netted him enough savings to begin attending Central State University, and upon graduat- ing, he immediately took a job teaching in the Columbus Jimmy Chesire with Tristan Holyoke in 1988, two years after he began leading the village’s T-ball program. The image is from “A Thousand Srikes: T-Ball Yellow Springs Style,” a collection of Chesire’s observations of T-ballers over the years. The book was published in 2004. | PHOTO BY IRWIN INMAN Public Schools in 1963. During this time, a com - panion program to the Little League was established: the Minor League, for boys ages 6 to 9. Meanwhile, Perry was still working in Columbus, but his condition was worsen - ing, and he spent weekends undergoing dialysis. By 1966, his health had so declined that he had to stop work- ing altogether. In August of 1967, the community held the “Don Perry Summer’s End Sports Carnival” to help fund a kidney transplant operation; his sister, Patsy Perry, would donate one of her kidneys. On Sept. 6, 1967, the siblings underwent the trans- plant operation, the first to be completed at University Hospital, now Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. Though the transplant was an appar- ent success, Donald Perry PERRY LEAGUE Continued on page 34 232 Xenia Ave. YSO • 937-767-2091 www.Epic-Bookshop.com New & used books on most subjects Specializing in the Spiritual, the Mystical & the Meditative est. 1974 Open weekdays 12-6 Sat. 10-6 Sun. 12-6 CLOSED WED . www.WanderAndWonderYS.com NOW IN KINGs YARD! 220XeniaAve.shop3 937-769-5015 Stocking brands that care about the environment and keep it healthy, clean and safe for generations to come! sustAINAble & lOcAl OutDOOR lIfestYle clOthING & GeAR.