As another summer of baseball and softball commences at the Ozone Howard Little League on April 13, most of the cries of excitement come from the fraction of 900-plus registered players — boys and girls as young as six and as old as 18 — who meander into the league’s complex as afternoon turns into evening. But don’t be fooled: Quieter as they may be, the parents are the ones who might be proudest of all.
Volunteers among them run the league, coach the teams, landscape the fields, and man the concessions. Their hard work, assisted by a bevy of sponsors including the New York Racing Association next door, has accelerated over the past five years or so. Fences have been erected, undeveloped land has been paved over, and plans for playgrounds and lights are underway.
“You’re definitely never going to find a place like this wherever you go,” says league vice president Ralph Wallace.
For an urban junior baseball complex, the park just west of Aqueduct Race Track is something special. Players sit in cinderblock dugouts painted red and blue. The grass is short but thick on all of the complex’s four fields. A concession stand to the side offers breakfast, lunch, snacks, cookies, candy, ice cream, ices, and drinks. Beyond the wall of the big field on the north side, the ‘A’ train coasts by quietly, a target for home runs.
Joe Rini, a parent and volunteer manager/groundskeeper who is a plumber by day, says he works on the fields seven days a week, a few hours each day. With the help of two others, he cuts the grass, apportions the infield dirt, and makes sure the grounds are neat after rain showers.
“I live across the street, so I figured I’d help out,” he says.
That’s the common tie among the families who have united around this league: They all seem to live close by. When parent Mary Finger casually points out, “I live right across the street,” not a second passes before coach Christopher Scharff rejoins with “So do I!”
“We want to make the kids not just better ballplayers, but make them more involved in the community,” says league president Joe Bode, whose numerous plans include hosting a tournament to promote breast cancer awareness. He says that the complex has become a sort of dropping-off place for local parents and kids. And why not? They’ve slowly earned considerable trust from the community.
“It’s definitely much nicer for the children,” says Finger, whose kids have called Ozone Howard home for more than a decade. “There have been big improvements, safety-wise also.”
As the families trickle in on April 13, Rini is tossing batting practice to son Nick, who thinks out loud about his stance as he shoots line drives the opposite way. One field over, a dozen softball players are fielding ground balls.
There’s no parade, no Opening Day ceremony on this afternoon. But there are, of course, the screams and shouts of happy ballplayers. As play begins, a few more come from the softball field, where Louisa Belfiore knocks the first home run of the season — a two-run shot over the centerfield wall.
“It’s five minutes away from the house,” says Wallace, calmly basking in the atmosphere. “This is what little league baseball is all about.”
