big league dreams come true:
News contest winners cherish their victory on Stadium field
DREAMS DO come true.
Nine pint-sized baseball fans were thrilled Wednesday as they raced onto the field with some of their favorite players at Yankee Stadium.
“It was so much fun,” said Isabella Ciaravino, 11, of Toms River, N.J. “We were on the field and we just had our hand on our hearts, pledging to the flag. It was so much fun.”
Isabella and eight other lucky kids, all between 8 and 14, won the chance to accompany their pinstriped heroes onto the diamond thanks to the Daily News/New York Yankees Field of Dreams contest.
Contestants were asked to write an essay about what Yankee tradition means to them.
The gleeful grand prize winners were beside themselves with excitement as they posed for pictures and chatted with players before the team topped the Cincinnati Reds, 9-5.
“It was so awesome when I was next to Gary Sanchez,” said Anna DeSilvio, 9, of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. “I was so excited.”
Vincent Pavlick, 13, of Staten Island, joined outfielder Clint Frazier and two other players on the ballfield.
“It was so awesome to meet the new rookie on the Yankee team,” Vincent said. “It just felt so cool to be with the Yankee players.”
The Intermediate School 75 student wrote in his winning essay about how his grandfather would collect coupons from milk cartons and exchange them for tickets to sit in the bleachers back in the 1950s.
“Grandpa Herb’s loyalty to the New
York Bombers has made me fascinated in the most successful team of all time and its traditions,” he wrote.
Others were similarly stunned by the spectacle of seeing Yankee Stadium in such an up-close-and-personal way.
“It felt amazing that I was on the field doing the pledge with the players,” said Jack Kavanagh, 10, of Orange County.
“It felt weird because they’re so big — and they’re so small on TV,” Bobby Hefner, 10, of Yonkers, said of his largerthan-life heroes. “I kept on asking people for balls, but they wouldn’t give (them to) me.”
But the youngsters didn’t leave emptyhanded — each took home a goodie bag containing two bobbleheads, a Yankees cap, key chain, towel, pencil and a card.
“It was really cool getting to stand next to the players on the field,” said Franco Aleo, 10. “I never thought I would do that.”
“It was awesome,” said 12-year-old Nasaiah Torres, from Peekskill, Westchester County. “My grandma is really happy.”
It wasn’t just an emotional moment for the kids — many nostalgic parents and grandparents were left teary-eyed watching their little ones bounding onto the field.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event. He’ll probably remember this for the rest of his life,” said Franco Aleo’s father, Vito Aleo, 57.
“I was nearly crying when I saw him on the field,” said Jack’s mom, Kerry Kavanagh.
“It brings back memories,” said Mike Kavanagh, Jack’s dad. “My cousin worked for the Yankees for 30 years, so I remember going in the dugout in ’77 and ’78. It was like a little repeat of history.” Anna DeSilvio’s mom agreed. “I got really emotional — that lump in my throat — brings a lot of memories back from when she was a baby because we brought her to so many games,” said Dina Kimsey, 49. “It really means a lot to all of our family.”