Baseball Player Magazine

It’s about 11:00 AM on a Saturday morning in March. Everyone is happy to be here since the snow seems to have interrupted many activities this past winter. The kids, the coaches and the parents know that the 2010 Little League season is almost here. The parade, opening day, barbeques and games under the lights are just around the corner. As I walk into South Side High School’s gym, the silence is deafening. I sit down and watch the young boys wait patiently, yet anxiously on the bleachers. They’re all waiting for their number to be called. The boy in the center of the gym floor is almost done with his tryout. The 11-year-old boy stands below the basketball hoop, pounds the inside of his mitt and gets ready to catch the fly ball coming his way. I can sense a sigh of relief as he carefully uses two hands to catch the ball. Almost immediately the next number is called. The 11-year -old, who forgets his name for the morning and is referred to as a number, jumps up, grabs a bat and positions himself to takes three swings. He then runs the length of the gym floor, back and forth and puts on his glove. He fields ground balls with ease and catches fly balls with no problem. “A can of corn,” as my grandmother would say. Coaches watch diligently as each ball player shows off their skills. This particular “tryout” doesn’t involve kids being cut, it provides fairness to how the teams are put together. Perhaps a bit stressful for the kids, but a necessity in balancing the teams and having a successful season. When asked about putting the teams together, a veteran coach replied, “We try very hard to make our teams as evenly talented as possible. We want the young kids of our village to enjoy being part of a team. We don’t want any team winning or losing by marginal amounts. We want the kids to have fun. We want them outside and being active in an organized and safe way.”

RVC Little League has a long, accomplished history. This season marks the 60th year of its existence. In the past sixty years RVC Little League, both the boys and girls, have had many successes. RVC has seen 78 District Championships, 19 Nassau County Championships, 14 Long Island Championships, and four New York State Championships. It was the 1978 twelve year-old team that went the furthest, playing their way to a third place finish at the Little League World Series in Williamsport.

What many people don’t realize is that John Nofi and Bill Seward, two of the founders, made it possible for more than 240 boys to participate each season. 60 years ago there weren’t enough teams to meet the amount of children who wanted to participate. Over 200 boys were left out of organized summer baseball fun. Nofi and Seward are responsible for starting the minor leagues. Eventually Mort Geller, a leader in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s expanded the league to consist of the Pee Wee Division for eight year-olds. Years later it was renamed the Mort Geller League in his honor. League presidents throughout the years have had great impact on the program, notably Tom Gallucci who started girls softball and Bob Klein who started the Munchkins Division, are just a few among the group.