Thus…
By Dustin Brown
Baseball may be the national pastime, but for as long as anyone can remember, the diamonds at Queensbridge Park have gone without one of the game’s most beloved institutions: the high-pitched voices and pint-sized batters of Little League play.
Thus about 100 newly indoctrinated ballplayers made history Sunday afternoon when they donned their caps and stormed the field for the first time, part of an eight-team league for 6-to-13 year-olds established by City Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Woodside) in partnership with the Long Island City YMCA.
But the players weren’t interested in history — for them, it was about the thrill of the game.
“We finally got to do something that we dreamed of,” said 12-year-old Christian Cebollero as he made his way towards the park with his friend Ricardo Fernandez, 13, to participate in Sunday’s opening day ceremonies.
Gioia founded the league this year to fulfill a campaign promise to find positive opportunities for the youth of Queensbridge Houses and the surrounding Long Island City neighborhoods, where he saw “hundreds of kids looking for something to do.”
“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would have this much success,” Gioia said before throwing out one of the opening pitches Sunday. “This is a piece of small-town America right here in the heart of New York.”
The Gioia-YMCA All Stars League received funding from the city as well as corporate support from Silvercup Studios and JP Morgan Chase.
Queensbridge, one of the largest public housing projects in the country, has a rich tradition of nurturing celebrity athletes, having produced such players as Pacers basketball star Ron Artest.
But baseball has been sorely lacking.
“A lot of these kids have never been exposed to baseball before,” said Tom Sylvester, the sports director at the LIC YMCA. “Right now we’re just teaching them the game and getting them involved.”
Any pioneer faces the challenges that come with forging a new path, and in this case that meant filling in some glaring gaps in the baseball knowledge of kids who had never really had a chance to learn it before.
“They didn’t know how to bat, they didn’t know how to throw — they didn’t know what hand the glove went on,” said Stewart Jamieson, 23, of Brooklyn, a volunteer who coaches the Sun Devils with 26-year-old Ivan Tecuanhuey, also a Brooklyn resident.
Baseball is a game of strategy and patience, little of which the little athletes appeared to possess in the first days of practice.
“Many of them, they want to just hit the ball,” Jamieson said.
But the national pastime has grown on them, and two of the eight teams began the season Sunday with an opening game that showed off some of the skills they had acquired in their first half dozen or so practices.
The baseball diamonds at Queensbridge Park were filled with young players aiming their bats and perfecting their pitches beneath the sweeping outline of the Queensboro Bridge, with runs along the southern border of the riverside park.
“It’s the best thing they have done for these kids and the community for entertainment, self-confidence and enjoyment,” said Maria Diaz, 34, a single mother whose 7-year-old daughter Elicia plays for the Titans.
And it’s expected to expand. The first season of play will only last through the end of the summer, but in future years the season should begin earlier and last longer.
“We’re hoping it turns into something bigger than it is today,” Sylvester said. “This is something that we’re bringing to the community, hoping it takes off. I’m looking forward to a lot of years to come.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
