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Play (stick)ball

| 25 Jun 2013 | 08:16
    File photo taken by Roger Gavan in 2011. Gene Maloney, then age 85, proved he could hit as well as pitch.
    File photo taken by Roger Gavan in 2011. Gene Maloney, then age 85, proved he could hit as well as pitch.
    Photos by Roger Gavan wenty-five members signed up for the 2013 season and all wore brand new baseball caps donated by Dr. Barry Sussner in memory of his father, who loved playing stickball in the streets of Brooklyn.
    Photos by Roger Gavan wenty-five members signed up for the 2013 season and all wore brand new baseball caps donated by Dr. Barry Sussner in memory of his father, who loved playing stickball in the streets of Brooklyn.
    Ron Genovese (left) and Dr. Barry Sussner with the signed cap that was presented, along with a Gene No. 1 pin, to Barbara Maloney in memory of her husband.
    Ron Genovese (left) and Dr. Barry Sussner with the signed cap that was presented, along with a Gene No. 1 pin, to Barbara Maloney in memory of her husband.

WARWICK — On Sunday, June 23, team members and fans assembled outside the Warwick Grove clubhouse to celebrate the sixth annual “Opening Day” of the stickball season.

The celebration included hot dogs, soda and beer, a la Yankee Stadium or Citi Field, but without the steep price.

Warwick Grove Activities Director Patricia Starick and “Stickball Commissioner” Ron Genovese coordinated the celebration and a memorial tribute to Gene Maloney, an active member of the League since 2006, who passed away last December at the age of 86.

MVP Gene Maloney
Maloney, a retired attorney, was one of the league’s best pitchers and was voted most valuable player, a title he held for five consecutive years.

Twenty-five members signed up for the 2013 season and all wore the baseball caps donated last year by Dr. Barry Sussner in memory of his father, who loved playing stickball in the streets of Brooklyn.

Thanks to the efforts of Sussner, all the players signed a cap that was presented, along with a Gene No. 1 pin, to Barbara Maloney in memory of her husband. And all the players received the same pin to wear on their hats.

The stickball league was the brainchild of Genovese, a Warwick Grove resident who was raised in Manhattan, and his friend Ted Kastanis, a native of Brooklyn.

“We voted Gene Maloney our most valuable player every year,” said Genovese, “and he still is. Gene grew up on the upper West Side of Manhattan and he played stickball the true way it’s supposed to be played.”

Genovese then presented Barbara Maloney with a framed photograph of the league members with her husband.

The Warwick Grove Stickball League plays every Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at the Park Avenue School parking lot. And unlike the days when some of the team members played in the streets of the five boroughs of New York City, local police are unlikely to chase the players or confiscate the broom handle bats and Spaldeens.

Nor will anyone have to dodge traffic while fielding a solid hit.

Hand over hand
Just like the old days they still select teams and players by placing hand over hand on the bat to decide which team captain gets first pick. And, reviving practices that, as teenagers were an economic necessity, they still use chalk or old car mats for bases and broomsticks or even broken shovels for bats.

“When you’re 60 years old and you play golf you feel like 60,” said Genovese. “But when you’re 60 years old or more and you play stickball, you feel like 16.”

Everybody is so excited about this,” said Starick. “It’s just as popular with them as golf.”

At the close of the season the league will also name its most valuable player and home run king.

Warwick Grove is a traditional neighborhood home development just off McFarland Drive.

- Roger Gavan