Dakota Albritton is from tiny Ellaville, Ga. His Schley County High School baseball team played for a state championship at Savannah’s Historic Grayson Stadium in 2019. Albritton thought he had hung up his glove for good after the tournament.

ALBION, Mich. — Jerry Sacharski crafted his first batting tee from metal piping, some pieces of rubber and part of a garden hose. Half a century later he still was coaching T-ball, a game that ...