Loud laughter and the sounds of squeaking sneakers could be heard at the newly renovated basketball court at the Flagstaff Boys and Girls Club on Friday. The kids inside were playing a modified game of indoor baseball, with grown-ups who paired their catcher’s mitts with badges.
For three days this week, there’s been a Flagstaff Police Department patrol car in front of the Boys and Girls Club on Paseo Del Rio, as police officers volunteered to introduce neighborhood kids to baseball.
“We’re playing baseball with cops!” said Beau “Jr” Lootans, one of the elementary-school-aged kids at the Boys and Girls Club. “We’ve been starting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Monday we’ve been catching, Wednesday we did hitting, and today we are playing an actual game with the cops.”
Wearing a big red baseball glove and eager to get back to the game, Lootans told…
