It was the first inning in a life-long love of the game.
More than 80 kids came out to a free baseball clinic at Kaiser Park in Coney Island on May 2. Organizers pitched the practice as a way to revive the sport, which they say has fallen out of fashion in the People’s Playground, and they were blown away by the response, one coach said.
“That was beautiful for Coney Island — to get that many kids in Kaiser Park just for baseball — that was beautiful to see,” said organizer Max Guadalupe. “You talk about Coney Island and you think basketball, but years ago baseball was fully alive. We want to bring baseball back.”
Kids learned to run, throw, and catch, but first, organizers had to school the pint-sized first-timers on the most fundamental aspects of America’s pastime.
“We taught them the name of the game — terms, scoring — because some of these kids have never picked up a bat before,” he said.
Guadalupe, the athletic director for PS 288, organized the clinic with partner José Serrano, PS 288 principal Qadir Dixon, and the Our Lady of Solace youth baseball league. The latter has been on the rebound since Hurricane Sandy destroyed much of its gear in 2012. Abraham Lincoln High School baseball coach Herbie Cruz brought some of his players to help run the clinic, and players from Bay Ridge’s High School of Telecommunications complemented the core of coaches, Guadalupe said.
The Our Lady of Solace league donated gloves let kids keep the mitts if they didn’t have their own, he said.
Guadalupe hoped the clinic would get area youth interested enough to sign up for the Our Lady of Solace club. And it worked, according to one parent.
“He was all for it,” parent Octavius White said, referring to his six-year-old son, Octavius, Jr. “He was up early in the morning waiting to go. Now he wants to sign up for OLS.”
Guadalupe said the ultimate goal is to stir up enough young interest to reinstate long-dissolved baseball programs at area elementary and middle schools.
For information about upcoming clinics, call Max Guadalupe at (917) 309–7362.
