‘Yankees’ win!
Wounded Warriors a smash hit in Qns. softball game
THIS HEROIC lineup is a winner before the first pitch.
The Wounded Warriors Amputee Softball Team, composed of American veterans with limbs lost in the service and elsewhere, were winners Saturday after the last pitch, too.
The gutsy team — which plays close to 100 games a year — knocked off a local squad of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents by a score of 15-8 at Padavan-Preller field in Bellerose, Queens.
“We’re here to motivate, inspire and serve,” said unofficial team captain Josh Wege, 27, who lost both legs in a 2009 Afghanistan bombing.
“Everybody has a comeback story,” the Wisconsin native added. “Everybody on this team faced adversity and defeated it.”
Gene Reynolds, 33, was prepping for his second deployment to Iraq when a car slammed into his motorcycle. The Massachusetts man lost his left arm, shoulder, collarbone and scapula.
“It was one-in-2,000 odds of survival,” said Reynolds. “To be here today, to play this sport, is so far beyond anyone’s expectations.”
Juan Serrano, head of Military and Veteran Liaison Services for game sponsor Northwell Health, hailed the Wounded Warriors as an inspiring force.
“They are not looking at their injuries to determine the outcome of their lives,” said Serrano. “They get up and get out there to push their message, and we are fortunate.”
Wege says he looks back on the day when his vehicle hit the 200-pound improvised explosive device as a life-changer — for the better.
“Honestly, it’s OK because it’s been one of the biggest blessings of my life,” said Wege. “It’s a weird way to look at it, but it’s the way I do.”