SAN DIEGO -- For a guy like Paul McAnulty, the mention of Little League Baseball brings up fond memories. A hard-nosed outfielder who took the long way to the big leagues, he remembers how it all started.

"I can't even remember when I fell in love with the sport, that's how far back it was," McAnulty said. "But ever since I was a little kid, even in Pampers, that's all I did was play baseball. My grandmother, when she would babysit me, I'd set up pillows like a diamond and she'd toss me balls. I even broke her nose. She got a little too close when she tossed me the ball so I smacked her right in the face with the bat. It's been a fun passion for me, and it's still a passion till this day."

McAnulty was in Oxnard, Calif., and it was his first year in the majors division. He stepped up to the plate with a career total of zero home runs. The pitcher threw a pitch McAnulty liked, and he sent it over the fence for his first career home run. He liked it so much that in his next at-bat, McAnulty went yard again. He was 11 years old.

Ray Peterson is a recently turned 13-year-old in the Lemon Grove Little League in Lemon Grove, Calif. He started playing baseball around 5 or 6 years old and played for the Lemon Grove Blue Jays during this past season. During the Tournament of Champions championship game, which is for the best team in the eight-league District 66, he hit three home runs and threw a shutout. Hitting home runs became a routine for young Peterson and his teammates, as he helped them total 55 homers for the season, with 20 coming off his bat. They've become his fondest memory.

"[My favorite part is] just jogging around the bases and being proud," Peterson said.

It's these kinds of dreams and moments, both past and present, that make Little League special for its participants and make what the Padres are doing and have done in the San Diego County community special as well. For the ballpark in Lemon Grove is one of 36 ballparks that the Padres have renovated in the San Diego area by turning them into "Little Padres Parks," which is fitting since their team is built around players who started playing on fields just like them.

"Our fields were not as good as what the Padres do [with this program]," said reliever Heath Bell, who played at Tustin Eastern Little League in Orange County. "I really wish I was playing Little League now, because we had all-dirt infields and we had only one field that had grass, and that was for the top of the top when you got older, like 12 years old."

The idea of the "Little Padres Parks" came about as a part of the Padres' 60th anniversary celebration of professional baseball in San Diego, which dates back to the 1936 Pacific Coast League Padres. Chairman John Moores came up with the suggestion of refurbishing baseball diamonds around the region to ensure safe and clean areas for young people to play baseball.

The Little League field at the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA in Southeast San Diego was the first to be dedicated on Jan. 31, 1997. Since then, there have been 35 more field dedications, including the Lemon Grove Little League on March 25, 2006. The Padres' goal is 60 refurbished ballparks. The parents in Lemon Grove are thankful.

"I thought it was very good that they would give back to the community, showing that their organization is willing to help each individual community in San Diego," said Joseph Banks, head coach of the Blue Jays. "When I look at some of the kids, I've coached most of them since they were 5 years old. So when I see how they've progressed throughout the years, both mentally and physically, it makes me very happy and I hope to see at least one, two or three of them at the next level."

Banks has seen what sports can do for kids, especially in areas where gangs can be quite prevalent.

"For one, it gives the kids something to do other than just hanging out," Banks said. "It keeps kids out of trouble. In this area, you have gangs and things like that. But when a kid is busy with a sport, they are learning teamwork, discipline, and they are learning how to be a part of something positive.

Banks has coached in Lemon Grove since 2001, when his son, Yusef, started playing at the age of 5.

"I like being competitive and trying to be the best out there," Yusef said.

Banks and other coaches and parents in Lemon Grove do not have to reach very far to find a connection to the big leagues to tell their kids. Just like Lemon Grove has benefited from the Padres, the Padres have benefited from Lemon Grove with reserve first baseman Tony Clark.

Clark started playing baseball in Lemon Grove at the age of 5 as a mere part of the myriad of sports his dad introduced him to, including basketball, football and tennis.

Clark said his fondest memory of Little League was "hitting a home run in an All-Star game when I was 12. I ended up hitting a walk-off. It was just one of those things where after the game, the reward for myself and my family was a trip to McDonald's."

Clark recently returned to Lemon Grove to visit his old stomping grounds.

"[Lemon Grove] was like any other Little League ballpark that I remember," Clark said. "They did their best to upkeep it, but it had its fair share of bumps and bruises. I went back there about a month or so ago, and they looked really nice."

The mentioning of Little League to big leaguers seems to always bring back fond memories of when the game was just a game.

"I think it's so innocent," said Padres pitcher Randy Wolf. "It's all about just having fun. I think the people that want to win the most are the coaches and the parents. The kids are out there having fun, and there might be four or five kids that want to win more than anything, but everybody else is like, 'Oh, this is fun, I like playing baseball,' or whatever. It's just a bunch of kids out there playing and having fun, and they aren't far removed from just playing in their backyards."

While Yusef and Ray played for the Blue Jays, All-Star teammate Michael Kaai played for the Astros this season. The one time during the year that they get to come together and play is for the All-Stars. The Lemon Grove All-Star team was selected on Sunday and all three were chosen. They won their first game, 3-0, on Wednesday.

"I have a lot of friends that play sports with me and go to school with me," Kaai said. "That's all cool. Everybody knows each other and stuff."

Each kid on the Lemon Grove All-Star team was notified by a star being put on the outside of their home.

"It was on the weekend and my dad was going to play golf, and a relative came by the house because they were going with him. They saw the star, but I was still sleeping so they just put it on my face," Kaai said with a laugh. "So I found it on my face and I was like, 'Ooh, All-Stars,' so that was pretty cool."

New memories are made every day at "Little Padres Parks" like Lemon Grove, and the Padres are looking to add to them. For 2008, the Padres have selected two fields at Allied Gardens Little League and one field at Ramona Pony League Field to be refurbished. The fields will look to be completed in late-July and August, respectively.

A new batch of kids will get the chance to play on fields with a big league logo on the scoreboard, which is always there as a reminder of a team that is behind them and of a dream that could one day be their own.

Lemon Grove All-Star team member Lawrence Dickens, 11, said: "They're generous to help little kids get started, to help them work there way up like them."