to players and fans of the capital district men's senior baseball league:
thank you for your donations of used equipment for kids on sunday and for the generosity that underlies them.
steve and lisa pindar, founders of roberto's kids, drove to new scotland town park from oneonta on sunday and collected what steve said was "much more" used baseball gear from us than the previous collection three years ago. our goal was to reach a 1,000 pounds of equipment and, while steve said he wouldn't be able to give us an estimate for about a week, he thought we came very close to 1,000 pounds, if not topping it.
in 2006, in their first visit, steve said they collected about 750 pounds of used equipment here. "then," he said, "we filled the back of our jeep." sunday's collection filled the entire covered flatbed of his large pickup truck and the backseat of the cab.
"tell the league that we're very pleased and grateful," steve said. "it's much more than we expected."
steve and lisa founded roberto's kids 10 years ago with a single donation from the oneonta little league. the organization, named after the late hall of famer roberto clemente, was originally set up to collect used baseball equipment and ship it poor kids in latin america. last year, the group run by steve and lisa out of their house and done solely with volunteer help collected 50,000 pounds of used equipment, from 26 states, and shipped it in container ships to the dominican republic, puerto rico and nicaragua. this year, the group is expanding its focus and considering requests from a U.S. Indian reservation and from a U.S. inner city program.
at new scotland on sunday, we filled three big boxes of bats, a huge box of shoes, and slightly smaller boxes of gloves, uniforms, catcher's gear and baseball bags. we had four buckets of balls.
it's a fine sense to know that you're helping others in need, but what struck me as much about this year's drive is the generosity i encountered here. it seemed like almost every time i turned around someone was coming up to me at one of my games and giving me something. often, it was an individual item, an old, worn glove or a pair of dusty shoes, but three times, i had individuals walk up to me and hand me big bags - twice, duffel-sized bags - of equipment.
the funniest gift, the one that got a good laugh sunday at new scotland, came from my friend and teammate al hart. al is a deacon in the episcopal church and one sunday, he used a box of balls to help with a sermon he was giving on the 13 evils (from the gospel of mark, 7: 14-23); i don't know how he structured his homily, but he illustrated it by writing the names of each of the sins in big red print on the balls. so, somewhere south of us, in the not too distant future, i can see a handful of kids on a diamond looking puzzled at some baseballs and asking a coach: "'lust'? que?" or "gluttony? que es eso?" or "adultery? donde juega el(where does he play)?" other than that, they're fine, white regulation baseballs.
there were gifts that made me feel especially good to see them given. marc tryon, who was a fine pitcher for the pirates until knee troubles took him out of the game, pulled up in his pickup and deposited several bags of equipment. marc said he'd been following the league from afar, on our website, and when he read about the collection, it made sense, he said, to stop by. doug zmyewski, another knee surgery victim and former long-ball hitter for the marlins, also stopped by about the same time, dropping off about 10 gorgeous bats (ash, maple, birch), and got chatting with marc. i said they should convince each other to come back and play next year. it sounded from their talk, after they finished comparing surgeries, they were doing just that.
maybe the most fitting donation came from an 8-year-old girl, sigrid montagano, the daughter of cougars' manager frank montagano. she heard about the drive from her mother, sandy, while the two watched frank and the cougars against the dodgers at new scotland sunday sigrid came by and asked, "would you like this?" and handed me a small black glove. sure, i said, and i asked where she got it. "it's mine,'' she said. "i have two. one's at home. i don't need two, and some kids don't have any."
i know the people who gave donations did so without asking for or perhaps even wanting recognition, but i feel i would be remiss if i didn't thank them. so a grateful tip of the cap to rob currier, dave foreman, al hart, kevin jackson, sigrid montagano, tony nardacci, jim porter, john reel, gene rodriguez, tony scanu, read shepherd, marc tryon, bob weitz, don wixon and members of his 45+ black sox team, and doug zmyewski.
i didn't write down guys' names as they gave me their donations, so i fear i may have left one or more names out. if so, my apologies. apologies, too, for any misspelled names. if either are called to my attention, i'd be happy to edit and correct this note.
i know this isn't the first time this league has given donations for good causes. that thought, and the support i felt from everyone as i talked about this drive, whether they donated or not, made me proud, again, to be a member of this league.
thank you.
-mike
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I'd love to give a donation next year too, but I'm afraid that I'm out of old equipment now! I guess I could always give up my old softball glove, my beat up pair of cleats or something, but I'd be embarassed if someone actually ever ended up having to use those!
I think that the league could help out that Mike doesn't have to do this himself, if each team can designate their own rep it could be less stress for Mike. Just a thought. I know I would glady coordinate for the 45 Dodgers...
thanks quentin & rob for your comments. maybe next year we can also turn it into a party of some sort? but for the rain, we would have done it this year at the father-son game, which seems to me a perfect time for it.
gino, that's a nice idea of having team reps. the more guys who want to become involved the better. it's pretty easy. all it takes is for one person from each team - or a fan from each team - to say he or she is the collector, and then just keep the stuff in a garage until collection day.
things would be really improved if we broaden the effort to get the younger age divisions involved - the 18s & 25s - and have them at the father-son game/party too. the more events in which we all get to know each other and celebrate each other's play and contributions, the stronger we'll be as a league.
Mike , thank you again. felt good knowing even the old stuff would be used and with glee I'm sure. it felt like giving back to the game. Lisa said to me it was our chance to show other countries the values we learned playing baseball. by the way its Doug ZMYEWSKI , i just learned that after 20 years of spelling it wrong. ( i'm no champion speller) ....guess thats why we call him "Z". he is a good and well ordered man, but his vowels are all over the place. Mike you showed once again why you were named the first Jim Jordan award winner. jreel belmonts cafe mgr. '91 (2-13). ...the baseball team not the restaurant.
