Carew to speak at Lincoln today

Newport Harbor Baseball Association and Newport Beach Little League

will hold opening day festivities today.

NBLL teams will parade around Lincoln School at 3101 Pacific View Dr. in Newport Beach at 9 a.m., rooted on by cheerleaders from Corona

del Mar High.

They will be followed by guest speakers Rod Carew, a member of the

3,000-hit club who played for the California Angels and Minnesota

Twins on the way to the Hall of Fame, and Mark Cresse, a longtime

bullpen coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers, at 10 a.m.

A carnival will be held beginning at 10:45 a.m., and one Majors

game will round out the festivities at 2 p.m. The game will pit the

Reds against the Diamondbacks, the two teams who faced each other in

the Majors title game last spring.

First-pitch ceremonies will begin at 10:30 a.m. at Mariners Park

for NHBA. Councilmen Gary Monahan (Costa Mesa) and Tod Ridgeway

(Newport Beach) will attend the festivities.

Prior to the first-pitch, players will be able to receive

instruction from members of UC Irvine’s team.

Hot Cakes will provide food for a cost and teams from several

divisions will begin games at various schools including Kaiser and

Newport Heights, in addition to play at Mariners and Bob Henry Park.

For the first time, NHBA 7-and 8-year-olds will play games on

opening day.