Youth sports include a lot of incidental learning in addition to hitting, throwing, skating, running or swimming.

Young people from tots to teens are watching the grown-ups around them at practice, camps and games, and also are learning from their example regarding what it means to be an adult.

It is a sour lesson boys and girls are taking in at the East Butler Baseball Association, where the sports complex had been padlocked and the threat of arrest looms over the fields for association members who enter.

An article on Page 1 in the Eagle last week reports the complex was padlocked by the East Butler Borough Council, but Kevin Hesidenz, council president, did not return calls from the Eagle sports editor to explain why the complex was locked.

A follow-up article on Tuesday stated the padlock had been removed, but the association still may not play their games on the field.

We still have not heard from borough council or the mayor on the issue.

Juan Gonzalez, association president, said 16 youths are signed up for fall ball, and he expects more to sign up, as 70 played spring ball.

Drew Mooney, an association coach, said the association attempted to meet with council and have a contract signed to use the ball fields as they have for 70 years, but were all but thrown out of the meeting.

Dean Selfridge, director of operations at Historic Pullman Park, said the borough asked him to do the scheduling for Speed-O Field at the complex, which is the home of East Butler’s Butler County Area Baseball League team.

The East Butler Bulldogs, a summer collegiate team in the new Rust Belt League this season, also play its home games at Speed-O Field.

Selfridge said several leagues play at Speed-O Field and they all must pay rent, just like teams do at Historic Pullman Park.

Dess Schnur, who for decades welcomed young people onto East Butler’s fields and instilled in them a love of the national pastime, called the locking of the field “totally unacceptable.”

Schnur, whose contribution to youth baseball in Butler County cannot be overstated, said adults are not cooperating with each other and the young players are paying for it.

We couldn’t agree more.

Those involved in this immature standoff must behave like adults, work out their disagreements and open the fields immediately for all young people who want to play.

What good is a multi-field baseball complex with no players?

We recommend all parties involved sit down together as soon as possible, carefully listen to one another’s concerns, and do the right thing, which is to redeploy the key to the padlocks on the complex entrance without delay.

The next generation of baseball players are depending on it.

— PJG