St. Petersburg baseball league builds new generation of Rays fans amid World Series excitement

Youth baseball players at Northwest Youth Baseball and Softball in St. Petersburg are building a new generation of Tampa Bay Rays fans while preparing for their own league games.St. Petersburg youth baseballEleven-year-old Nolan Lyver, a catcher in the 12U league, and his teammates are honing their skills on the field while cheering on their hometown professional baseball team."I just like the love of the game. Everyone wants to play it. You can play any position that you want as long as you practice," said Lyver.Coach Brett Gerdes, who leads a 10-U team, works to foster a fun learning environment and support, so young players grow up as fans of the sport or into student athletes in high school or college. He said he believes having the Rays in St. Petersburg helps foster homegrown fans in the young players."Right now, we get of flack that there are a lot of Yankees, Red Sox and away fans at our games. That’s because there’s nobody really who grew up a Rays fan who has another gene