I can feel something electric as Kyle VanDeventer starts to speak about the Royal Oak Sandlot League. And I can almost smell the fresh-cut grass, and hear the familiar chorus of kids yelling across the diamond. All my senses are telling me that, across the parks and fields of Royal Oak, something special is being rebuilt.
The venerable Royal Oak Sandlot League—a nonprofit, all-volunteer youth baseball and softball league—has been around since 1959. But as Kyle describes the league, it doesn’t feel like a dusty old institution. It feels alive.
Kyle, a longtime board member and one of the key voices behind the league’s recent transformation, didn’t grow up dreaming of baseball diamonds. Football was his sport. But life has a way of making you pinch-hit when you least expect it—and in Kyle’s case, his at-bat came with a T-ball schedule.
“I got involved because I was frustrated,” he laughs. “I was that parent who complained—and they said, ‘Well then come help.’ And here I am, five years later.”
In those five years, Kyle and the rest of the league’s board have helped breathe new life into the Royal Oak Sandlot League—turning it into something a kid might dream up after watching The Sandlot and chugging a Capri Sun.
From Stale to Electric
In recent years, the league had started to fade. “It needed a reset,” Kyle says plainly. So the new board treated it like a business—with heart. They rebranded. Launched social media. Created clean logos, modern merch, and touchpoints kids could get excited about—like walk-up songs, sticker rewards, and tournament rings for even the youngest players. “We wanted it to feel big-time for the kids,” Kyle explains.
He describes the transformation like a game without rules:. “When we stepped in, there were no instructions. No process. No playbook.” So the board wrote one. Line by line. Sponsorships, umpire scheduling, registration workflows—nothing was too small to fix. And everything was built with the future in mind.
Now the league’s thriving.
All Are Welcome Here
If there’s one thread running through every decision Kyle and the ROSL board have made, it’s inclusion.
“Everybody plays,” Kyle says. And they mean it. “We’ll work with your schedule. We’ll work with your budget. If your kid wants to play, they belong here.”
That’s the kind of philosophy that turns a game into a community. The league is for everyone: the kids who’ve never swung a bat, the goofy ones, the shy ones. Every child gets their turn at the plate and in the field. “We want them to feel successful, no matter their skill level,” Kyle adds.
So life may not always be fair, but this league sure is.
A Living Legacy
Though the league’s revitalized, it still honors its roots. There’s a corner of Memorial Park, the beacon of Royal Oak baseball, named after beloved Sandlot League coach Terry Farllo. Opening Day is a holiday in its own right. And on movie night, when the team plays The Sandlot on a big screen and the kids curl up on blankets with popcorn and juice boxes, something magical happens. “That’s the kind of thing we want to keep growing,” Kyle says.
And growing it is. The league is now in conversation with other local sports organizations to build a seamless seasonal schedule—so kids can try multiple sports without burning out or missing out. Kyle calls it “the ultimate youth sports calendar,” but I get the feeling what they’re really building is a city-wide village.
What You’ll Hear on a Game Day
I’ve never been to a game (yet), so Kyle paints the picture: “It’s chaos in the best way. You’ve got baseball and soccer happening across different parks. Music playing. Kids choosing their own walk-up songs. Families cheering. It’s alive.”
And in that aliveness, something else blooms. Confidence. Teamwork. Belonging. The kind of things you don’t always know you’re learning until you’ve grown.
Legends Never Die
So what would the kids say if you handed them the mic?
“They’d probably say it’s fun,” Kyle smiles. “But I think they’d also say they feel like part of something. That they matter.”
And more than the wins, the stickers, or even the rings—isn’t that the whole point?
There’s a line in The Sandlot I never forgot: “Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.” If that’s true, then what’s happening in Royal Oak isn’t just a comeback. It’s a legend being passed on—one ring, one walk-up song, one joyful swing at a time.
For more info, or to be a part of the league, visit royaloaksandlot.com
[The Royal Oak Sandlot League] needed a reset…we wanted it to feel big-time for the kids.