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To help kick off the 2009 season, nearly 2,500 kids representing Brooklyn's 170 teams and their coaches and parents marched from Carroll Street in Park Slope and up Seventh Avenue into Prospect Park, for an opening day ceremony with local leaders and the city parks commissioner.

"Everybody in my family gets really excited about the whole baseball thing," said one Little League player.

"When I get close to my home, my mother and my sister are going to come out and wave to us. It's fun," said another.

Parents said they look forward to the yearly event, which began in 1994.

"It's been a long winter. They get to meet up with their teammates, and we get to see family and friends together in the park, just beautiful," said parent Lenny Rodriguez.

"This is so exciting. It's actually our first year. We just moved back to Brooklyn, I hear it's a big deal," said parent Jeanette Felix. "It's going to be a great day, a great year for baseball."

Organizers say the event is the largest little league parade in the city.

"It's so motivating. Everybody comes together. The businesses around here are our sponsors so they love seeing them come out. The kids are playing, the parents are all together," said parade director Ivonne Nunez-Rosario. "We have a lot of volunteers and parents and community-based organizations who volunteer to be coaches and sponsors. It's wonderful."

"It's a great way for them to work together with other kids, learn teamwork, patience and they have a lot of fun doing it," said coach Michael Maher.

The ceremonial first pitch of the Little League season was thrown in Prospect Park.