PPBA Season Opens Saturday

Palisadian Actor Bill Hader to Throw Ceremonial First Pitch at Pancake Breakfast

The Field of Dreams complex at the Palisades Recreation Center will be a sea of bright colors Saturday morning and that can mean only one thing: baseball is back.

One of the community’s oldest sports traditions will be renewed when the Pacific Palisades Baseball Association hosts its annual Pancake Breakfast to  officially begin the local Pony League season.

Breakfast will be served beginning at 7:30 a.m. and opening ceremonies will begin at 9 a.m. sharp with the singing of the national anthem and the ceremonial first pitch, after which teams will flock to their respective diamonds to begin their seasons in hopes of reaching the World Series in June.

The pancake breakfast is being co-chaired by Liz Denham and Rene Rodman.

The ceremonial first pitch will be thrown by Palisadian Bill Hader, an actor, comedian, producer and writer best know for his work on “Saturday Night Live” as well as roles in movies, such as “Superbad,” “Pineapple Express,” “Tropic Thunder,” “Men in Black 3” and “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.” He also had the lead voice role in “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”

The  36-year-old from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was also a creative consultant on the 12th season of South Park and was a producer on the 13th season. Hader was among the South Park producers to win the 2009 Emmy Award for Best Animated Series.

The National Anthem will be sung by 10-year-old Coco Kennedy, a 5th-grader at Corpus Christi School, who has performed at a broad range of school and church events since she was in kindergarten. She takes regular singing lesson with Corpus Christi Music Director Julie Samuelson. Kennedy also takes piano and ukulele lessons. Her brother Ryan is on the Bronco Tigers this year. His Orioles team won the Mustang title in 2012. Coco’s father Joe has coached the regular season and All-Stars for many years and her mom Monica regularly volunteers.

“We are big supporters of the PPBA and especially love the Saturday atmosphere at the park,” she said.

Hader joins a distinguished club of local celebrities who have thrown out the first pitch — a list that includes actors Tom Hanks, Adam Sandler and Chris O’Donnell, actresses Goldie Hawn and Mary McDonnell, former Dodgers first baseman Wes Parker and former First Lady of California Maria Shriver.

The top prize, awarded to the PPBA player who sells the most  tickets, is the opportunity to be the bat boy at a UCLA or Pepperdine home game.

Tickets are $5 each and breakfast includes pancakes, sausages, orange juice, coffee and fruit. Breakfast will be served until 11 a.m. and tickets can be purchased in advance from any PPBA player or at the Rec Center on Saturday.

Games in the Pinto, Mustang and Bronco divisions will continue throughout the afternoon. The Pinto Yankees, Mustang Red Sox and  Bronco Tigers are the defending champions.

Other prizes include one week at a UCLA Baseball Camp, one week at a Pepperdine Baseball Camp, a three-day  session at Westside Baseball School and private sessions with SoCal Rays Coach Steve Gambale.

Here is the list of the 24 uniform sponsors: Palisades Patrol, Sons of the American Legion Squadron 283, Palisades News, Sue Kohl, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, Joy Stowell Designs, Optimist Club, Palisadian-Post, Dr. Jacobson, DMD, MS, Ronny’s Market, Spectrum Athletic Club Palisades, Movies In The Park, Palisades Garden Cafe, U.S. Bank, StorQuest Self Storage, Gerry Blanck’s Martial Arts, Bentons The Sports Shop, Amalfi Estates, Village 76, Sotheby’s International Realty, Kay ‘N Dave’s, Norris Hardware, Barney’s Beanery, Pacific Palisades Medical Group and The Yogurt Shoppe.