Local businessman hosts party for West Virginia’s Little League baseball team

Sam Satterfield, co-owner of Satterfield & Dempsey Jewelers, continued a summer tradition last week when he hosted about 50 Little League players and their families from Bridgeport, W. Va. It was the fifth year the West Virginia native hosted the event. It’s a lot of fun, he said. “Wherever I go, even here in Georgia, I’ll meet someone, start talking and find out we both know someone from West Virginia. Well, I’m from Fairmont, W.Va., and when a team from my hometown won the Little League state championship in 2011 and came here to play, I wanted to have them come over. And ever since then I like to have them come over, it doesn’t matter where they’re from in West Virginia, and show them a little Southern hospitality. I think a couple of years ago I counted 43 kids in my pool – and it’s not big at all. Most of the kids are 10 to 12 years old.” A lot of the teams from West Virginia are at a disadvantage compared to other teams, he continued, because they have a smaller pool to pick their team from, say 20 boys to select a team of 13. Other states have about 100 boys to select a team from. “They’ve done a fantastic job even to make it to here.”

They extended their stay here by beating North Carolina last Friday, but ended in third place in the tournament after losses to Tennessee and Georgia. Satterfield ended up in Warner Robins like many others – courtesy of the U.S. Air Force. He came here in 1984 and stayed, and has been doing jewelry since 1988, he said. Another passion is sports memorabilia, and he had autographed baseballs for the Bridgeport players. At times he’s had former players such as Ron Reed, Jeff Treadway, Otis Nixon and Damian Moss come by and talk with the kids.

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