Opening Day for the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center’s youth baseball league is a big event. Players, parents, coaches and league organizers, all gather together at the Center, on DeKalb Avenue and Gun Hill Road, to march as one to a nearby field for the ceremonial first pitch and the first scheduled games.

This year, things didn’t go according to plan.

For the first time since 2008, the parade was supposed to culminate at Bedford Park’s Harris Field, where the Parks Department recently opened new, synthetic turf baseball fields after much delay (half of the fields there remain under construction). The league had signed city-authorized permits for Harris Field and organizers were excited to finally return to what used to be their primary playing space.

But when Chris Pinto, who runs the league for MMCC, went down to check on the field early Opening Day morning, April 9, just to see if everything was in place, he found the gates locked. And when he called the Bronx Parks Department office to get some answers, he was directed to the Manhattan office. The staffers there had no idea what he was talking about and did not offer to open the fields by game time.

MMCC officials were irate. “We got no explanation,” said MMCC Executive Director Don Bluestone.

Pinto and other league organizers ended up improvising and taking the parade up to Shandler Field in Van Cortlandt Park and the kids played ball, but the episode speaks to a general disregard the Parks Department shows Bronx residents and organizations, Bluestone said.

“Again, the kids get screwed in this community,” Bluestone said, specifically blaming Borough Commissioner Hector Aponte. “Excuse me, where does the buck stop? The Parks commissioner is responsible.”

A Parks Department spokesperson acknowledged its mistake. “The district park staff made an error that morning in neglecting to unlock the gates,” said Parks spokesman Philip Abramson in an e-mail. “We will ensure that this does not happen again.”

When asked how they would ensure that it doesn’t happen again, Abramson didn’t go into detail. “We have spoken with our staff and will ensure that it will not happen again.”

So far, so good. Last Saturday, the league played a whole slate of games at Harris Field. As they should have a week earlier.