The softball players play together at coach pitch levels. Older girls can opt to play in a Cape St. Claire league tied to the Anne Arundel County recreation league or with a Broadneck Softball organization playing under PONY Softball in the North County Community Girls Softball League.

Paul Reed Smith, the world-renowned guitar-maker who lives in Annapolis, wasn't taking any chances with the weather. Clutching his customized PRS guitar, he stepped gingerly on the new plastic sod that covered the Broadneck High field. "I do not want to get electrocuted," he exclaimed. "I'm wearing rubber soled shoes and I'm going to stand on the rubber track."

DJ Tre of Annapolis took a cue from the rock legend and covered his equipment with a burgundy tarp.

Seth Henderson, coach of a team called the Muckdogs, is Mr. Smith's chief financial officer. He asked his boss to come perform an electrifying rendition of "Star Spangled Banner" for the hundreds of ballplayers and the more than a thousand adults and kids in the stands.

"I used to do this at county pool meets when my kids used to swim for South River High," Mr. Smith noted as he glanced at the glowering clouds. "I've also done it for the opening of the Hard Rock Cafe in Baltimore and at the Grammys with Chuck Brown. Ted Kennedy and Quincy Jones were in the front row."

Mr. Henderson also arranged for the donation of an all-white PRS guitar, detailed to look like a baseball. On the reverse side, is a display of the Broadneck Baseball logo. People were lined up at a concession tent to purchase $1 raffle tickets for the guitar and a slew of other prizes, including an elusive Wii game, restaurant gift cards and tickets to Orioles and Bowie Baysox games. The winning tickets for all the prizes will be drawn on closing day.

On the field adjacent to the track, hundreds of kids milled around at 8 a.m. looking for their teams. Parents and coaches lined up tots barely taller than a standard aluminum bat alongside teens 12 years older and 3- to 4 feet taller.

Promptly at 8:30 a.m., Broadneck High's drum line stepped out onto the track. Following them were the tiniest of teams: the T-ball players from Cape St. Claire, Mago Vista and St. Margaret's and Arnold, barely big enough to peer over their team banners. Instead of cute names like Barney or Kitty, they were the fierce Bulls, Owls, Bats, Raptors, Sidewinders, Rattlers, Scrappers, Thunder, Blue Claws, Lugnuts, River Dogs, Rockhounds, Sand Gnats and Volcanoes.

A preschooler with the B-Mets yelped: "Yay! I'm in a parade!" Louie the Bowie Baysox mascot, more walking green bathmat than critter, stuck out a paw and the youngster eagerly shook it.

The Rookie level Hooks team carried pinwheels and the Cape T-Ball team the Raptors held tiny American flags aloft.

Several teams held slick, professionally produced banners while others were the clever handiwork of coaches and team parents. Broadneck High JV Baseball Head Coach Clayton Culp grinned and waved to the stands as his team sauntered by.

As promised, Mr. Smith delivered a unique riff on the "Star Spangeled Banner." It wasn't as rambling as the immortal guitar solo performed by the late Jimi Hendrix, but it was a crowd-pleaser. As the last note wafted over the crowd, the young ballplayers impulsively tossed their spanking new caps into the air - midshipman style.

Addressing the audience, Joel Tuttle, president of the Broadneck Baseball & Softball League stated: "All week people kept telling me we wouldn't be here today because of rain. Well, we beat the skeptics and the weatherman wrong. Thanks for your prayers. Someone up there likes baseball."

He commented on the merger: "This year children from what used to be Cape Baseball, Broadneck Little League and Mago Vista Baseball are all playing on one league. Their families will be sitting together on the sidelines rooting them on. They will not be Cape families, or Broadneck families or Mago Vista families, they will be part of one big community."

He observed the merger provided an opportunity for friendships to flower among kids at different schools and "we adults will be meeting neighbors from across town who we never would have met either."

Mr. Tuttle added the combined leagues have a total of 1,000 players at the recreation level, with 83 rec level teams, 5 select or travel teams, plus the high school's Varsity and JV baseball and softball teams.

Having noticed the litter in the area's parks - and the presence of Maryland Speaker of the House Mike E. Busch, a Parks & Recreation employee - Mr. Tuttle put in a strongly worded appeal for parents, coaches and players to begin recycling their cans and bottles into specially marked containers he hopes to set up on the fields this week.

Mr. Busch invoked the image of a younger Cal Ripken Jr. who paraded with his rec league team 35 years ago in Aberdeen. "He had a dream to grow up to play professional baseball and he did, for 20 years, with the Baltimore Orioles and is now in the Hall of Fame," said Mr. Busch. "He got there by working hard, listening to his coach, paying attention to his parents- and he drank a lot of milk!"

Conceding "kids today have a lot of competition for their time, like soccer," Jim Dyson, vice president of the Cape St. Claire Recreation Council, said "the merger is here because it's the right thing to do." He credited Mr. Tuttle; Rick Pleva, president of the CSC Council; and White Sox coach Steve Fox for bringing about the change.

Hannah McVey sang "God Bless America" to an increasingly wiggly crowd. Then, Alison Wilson and Crista Barnes handled the ceremonial first pitch for the softball teams and Luke Tuttle got off a fastball expertly snagged by his father.

"Whew!" said Crista's father Steve Barnes, "They did a 40-minute program in 20 minutes."

Two hours later, the concession stands at Arnold, Belvedere and Cape St. Claire parks were handling the needs of hungry ballplayers and their parents, arriving for games at noon.

By 1 p.m., a wave of scattered rain showers began to fall, swamping several fields and forcing cancellation of games for 2 p.m. and beyond. Most of the earlier games were terminated around 1:45 p.m. as ballfields became a quagmire of red mud.

At the Arnold Park food stand, one overeager volunteer wrapped up 40 hot dogs, only to see their intended consumers scatter in the downpour. Despite the chilly wall of wetness, preteens continued to line up for snow cones.

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Wendi Winters is a freelance writer living on the Broadneck Peninsula.