For the first time since March, there was joy in Mudville – and at baseball facilities all over New Jersey – on Tuesday.
And no one really cared if Mighty Casey struck out.
The sights and sounds of high school baseball returned, albeit with face masks and hand sanitizer in the dugouts, when the Last Dance World Series presented by RWJBarnabas Health opened with the first of three days of pool play and continued into the night.,
Umpires yelled “play ball” and players actually did. The 222-team Last Dance created and turned into reality by a dedicated group of high school baseball enthusiasts, was developed with the goal of giving Class of 2020 seniors one final opportunity to take the field with teammates and classmates.
The tournament is divided into North and South brackets. Each team will play three pool-play round games at one of 53 sites (26 for the North and 27 for the South) being used around the state. The championship game is schedule for July 31 at 7 p.m. at Arm & Hammer Stadium in Trenton.
Reactions for the return of high school baseball were enthusiastic to say the least.
“Amazing, absolutely amazing,” said Christine Anderson, whose son Michael is a pitcher/outfielder for Union Catholic, which played Newark Central in Cranford. “When this came about, it changed everyone’s mood in the house. It was pure excitement when we found out this tournament was a reality.”
“It was such a letdown not to play this spring, but it’s phenomenal to play in a tournament like this,” said Chris Pierro, a junior on the Newark Central team. “It’s gonna be a great experience.
“We wondered if this (tournament) could happen and now it’s here and it’s fantastic.”
Soon to be Seinert graduate Ryan Stromberg (his school’s ceremony is July 29), who will not continue to play in college, is using this tournament to get one last chance to play the game he loves with his friends.
“I am not going to play at TCNJ,” Stromberg said. “It means a lot being with teammates again. That was the one thing I missed, the camaraderie between each other. I think that is all that we are looking to gain out of this tournament.
“I think we are all looking forward to playing with each other for the last time. I think we are all happy for the opportunity, because a couple months ago, I didn’t think this was imaginable, to be able to go out and play with each other. Everyone on the team was looking forward to that.”
In most regionals, the winners of Tuesday’s games will meet Wednesday. The same holds true for the losing teams. On Thursday, undefeated teams or teams with the best records and winning tie-breaking criteria from connected regionals (1A-1B as an example) will cross over and meet for the right to play for a spot in next week’s Round of 16. In regionals with more than six teams, records and tie-breakers will determine advancement.
Updates from NJ.com reporters in the field at Tuesday’s early action indicated crowds were decent at many sites. There were an estimated 350 fans at Gilder Park in Bordentown for the game between area rivals, the Hamilton Spartans/Steinert and Mercer Stars/Nottingham.
There were an estimated 100 fans at both Memorial Field in Cranford, at the first pitch of the game between Union County Vikings/Union Catholic and Essex Co-Op (Newark Central), and the rivalry game game between North Hunterdon and Voorhees at Brown and Ingram Field in Whitehouse Station. At TD Bank Ballpark, Bridgewater, there were about 65 fans in the stands for the game between the Gill St. Bernard’s Knights and the River Dogs/Pingry.
However, Tuesday was about the glorious and long-awaited return of high school-level baseball – the ping of bat on ball, slap of a fastball in the catcher’s mitt and clay-stained uniforms.
“Mike Murray (tournament director) did a great job of putting this together,” said GT Highlanders/Highland manager Bill Blessing after his team scored a 3-0 win over Moorestown at Washington Lake Park in Sewell. “These kids lost half of their senior (school) year (because of COVD-19). The kids are really up for it. This is a great thing for all the kids.”
“It was great to see the kids back on the field having fun with their friends,” said Bridgewater-Raritan coach Max Newill, who watched his team scratch for an extra-inning win over Somerville at Prince Rodgers Park in Bridgewater.
While the mood around New Jersey and Last Dance games was predominantly upbeat, the days will include at least one somber moment. At Tuesday night’s game between Cliffside Park and Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, a ceremony was scheduled to remember the life of Ben Luderer, the Don Bosco Prep alum and former head coach at Cliffside Park High School.
Luderer, a member of Don Bosco’s undefeated team in 2008, died in late March at age 30 due to complications related to COVID-19. A moment of silence and eulogies by his former teammates and coaches were expected to be part of the pre-game program.
The Last Dance has attracted the attention of at least two former big leaguers.
At Gov. Livingston, former Met and Yankee pitcher Doc Gooden was expected to throw out the first pitch at the Tuesday night game between BH Mountainside White Sox/Gov. Livingston and the OP Rams/Oratory Prep at Snyder Park in Berkeley Heights.
On Wednesday night, Piscataway native Eric Young Jr. will throw out the first pitch at Piscataway’s Day 2 game at Columbus Park. The game will be at either 5 or 7:30 p.m. Young donated the uniforms and tournament entry fee for the Piscataway team.
Players, coaches and umpires underwent temperature checks by athletic trainers at every site. Anyone with a temperature of 100.4 or higher was sent home.
Tournament organizers went to great lengths to keep players, coaches and fans safe with COVID-19 statistics on the rise around New Jersey. Players and coaches in dugouts were required to wear masks. Fans were asked to wear face masks and spread out as much as possible to maintain social distancing requirements. Hand sanitizer was available in dugouts at every facility.
While the players honored the masks in the dugout regulation, fans were less cooperative. Most of the fans in the big crowd at Steinert-Nottingham were without masks. The same was true at the North Hunterdon-Voorhees game, according to NJ.com reporters. At Becton Regional in East Rutherford, NJ.com baseball writer Rich Greco said there were “about 50 spectators” with only “about 10 wearing masks” before first pitch.
After Gill St. Bernard’s coach Dave Pasquale and his team members underwent temperature checks at the top step of the dugout at TD Bank Ballpark, the veteran skipper strolled out the infield warning track and took a deep, satisfying breath as he watched his players sprint to left field for warm-up tosses.
"It's a beautiful day, this is a beautiful field - I have to say, the Somerset Patriots have done a fabulous job getting this field ready - and we're playing a baseball game again. I've got a senior on the mound today (Chris Boney) and the kids are ready to go. What could be better," he said.
“Of course I want to win today. Every team in this tournament wants to win. But, you know, it’s not something I’m truly all that concerned with right now. Being back on the field on a day like today is what matters.”
The Last Dance is sanctioned by the United States Speciality Sports Association and not the NJSIAA. Each team is independent and purchased its own uniforms, insurance and provided its own transportation.
While the players are of high school age and some team names may mirror those of New Jersey high schools, none of the teams in the Last Dance are affiliated with any member school of the NJSIAA.
“This is like a dream come true, a once in a lifetime thing and it means the world to us,” said Union Catholic’s Christopher Leon.
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