Bill Finger in Little League

Batman is in the Justice League. Meanwhile, Bill Finger is in Little League…or rather would have been, if not for the pandemic.

This year, my March birthday timed perfectly with the world shutting down. But before we realized how seriously COVID-19 would affect life as we know it, my friends had lined up a most special gift: they sponsored a Little League team, which gave them the honor of naming it. 

That name: “Bill Finger’s Bat Men.”

(Get it?)

Yet another first for Bill Finger…and probably also for youth sports.

I’m sure all those young athletes would have been thrilled to play for a team named for a comics creator. Sports and superheroes don’t always go together. Then again, these days, you do see lots more crossover than I noticed when I was a kid—now it seems almost everyone likes at least one superhero. (This is predominantly due to movies rather than comic books.)

This sweet gesture was fitting in a way beyond the double meaning of the team name: one of the few known photos of Bill shows him in a baseball cap.

Sadly, due to the virus, the season was canceled, and therefore so was the name (not to mention the T-shirts). 

But for a fleeting moment, Bill was at bat.