Brooklyn Baseball Summit Promises To Grow The Game in NYC

Last weekend on a frigid Saturday, the crack of the bat and sharp thud of baseball hitting leather signaled that spring is not far away, as young baseball players, coaches and parents milled about LIU Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater at the inaugural New York City Baseball Summit.

Featuring local coaches and former professional ballplayers, the Summit is the brainchild of John Franco, Gary Perone and Craig Carton of NYC All Stars Sports Group. Proclaiming “We are one city, one game!” Perone, the Brooklyn Cyclones’ Assistant General Manager, opened the day-long event which included Ed Blankmeyer, St. John’s head baseball coach and Tom Brasuell, Vice President of Community Affairs for Major League Baseball.

Providing perspective from the major leagues were Franco, who pitched for 21 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros and the New York Mets; Brooklyn’s own Willie Randolph, who won two World Series rings playing for the Yankees and four more as a Yankees’ coach; and Joe Rigoli and Billy Blitzer, scouts for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs respectively.

Ticking off the number of players he coached who have received professional contracts (120), major league players (15) and Hall of Famers (1: Craig Biggio, elected this past month), Blankmeyer, was blunt about the current state of youth sports participation.

“The most popular sport these days is doing nothing,” the St. John’s coach said, describing how screen-based activities monopolize kids’ attention. Blankmeyer then conceded that : “We need to drive baseball better than we have in the past.”

“The key thing is participation,” said MLB’s Brasuell. “We all have to be united by the same thing, which is to grow the game of baseball.”

Brasuell, whose background in youth athletics includes a long association with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, said that growing interest and participation in the game is the primary concern of Rob Manfred, incoming Commissioner of Major League Baseball. Citing industry statistics, Brasuell said that in 2007 16 million children of various ages played organized baseball; only 13 million participated this past year, a 25 percent decline.

One solution for reversing this trend is MLB’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program. According to Brasuell, RBI, which produced Phillies shortstop Jimmie Rollins, Yankee ace C.C. Sabbathia and Dodger outfielder Carl Crawford, is a pathway to education, community service and improving lives.

“The goal of the RBI program is to create major league citizens,” Brasuell said, by using softball and baseball to get kids “off the street, into school, and into a productive program.”

Besides capturing young athletes’ interest, any Brooklyn sports initiative faces the daunting task of finding places to play. Brooklyn has the least amount of green space per capita of any New York City borough.

“Baseball will support whatever we can to make sure kids are playing,” Brasuell said. “I worked for the [New York] City Council for 15 years before getting into baseball and we were always looking for space… [B]ut there’s enough space for everybody to have both passive and active recreation space.”

Franco, who grew up in Bensonhurst, understands that youth baseball has a ways to go recover its former popularity.

“Baseball has taken a backseat in the city the last couple of years,” Franco said, “but we want to get the word out to all five boroughs that we’re trying to bring this game back to the way it was in the ‘80s and ‘70s.”

Acknowledging that playing ball is “a lot harder now because it’s hard to get the baseball fields,” Franco was specific regarding the source of his group’s political clout. “One of the guys who has been behind us from day one is Jimmy Oddo, Borough President from Staten Island. Whatever we need he’s been there to support us.”

Franco mentioned the annual Borough Cup Baseball Tournament—which last July and August showcased local youth baseball at sites throughout New York City—as well as proposed clinics with major league ballplayers as ways to increase the sport’s visibility in local communities.

Willie Randolph, the latest addition to the NYC All Start Sports team, is also keen to promote the sport that he has greatly benefited from.

“There’s a lot of talent in the city and we need to tap into that,” Randolph said. “We’re losing a whole generation of kids to other sports. There are ways we can organize things so that kids get the right fundamentals first and to keep a perspective on how to teach and nurture their ability.”

Randolph, who managed the Mets to within one game of the 2006 World Series, emphasized the importance of qualified coaches in fostering young athletes.

“It’s how you communicate with your kids that’s most important to me,” Randolph said. “You don’t want to take away confidence, you want to teach them to be young men who can compete at the highest levels,”

Alex Trezza, new head coach for LIU Brooklyn’s baseball team, echoed the Summit’s primary goal: “We’ve got to get kids interested in baseball and this event is the momentum that will help with that.”

Trezza, who arrived in Brooklyn last July after a 12-year minor league career and six years of college coaching, might have the most direct impact on the future of local baseball talent. As a Division I program with a history of success, including sending former Blackbird James Jones to the Seattle Mariners, LIU is a natural destination for talented New York City players.

“To be able to play baseball with the Empire State Building in the background is pretty cool,” Trezza said. “LIU is in a really good spot to bring in the right type of kid who can handle the city.”

The Blackbirds already feature a local success story. Sophomore Charlie Misiano, a graduate of Brooklyn’s Xaverian High School, has a shot this spring to take over at shortstop for John Ziznewski, picked by the Chicago White Sox in the 2014 baseball draft.

After meeting Saturday with local youth coaches from all over Brooklyn, Trezza is prepared to help grow the sport in the borough that gave the world Jackie Robinson.

“If it’s going to take us volunteering some time, we’re more than happy to do that,” Trezza said. “Our goal is to remind everyone that it’s a fun game.”

PHOTO CAPTION: Willie Randolph at LIU Brooklyn
PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Randazzo for Patch