S.I.’s Little League team of destiny
L’il League skipper, kin play for tragic bro
Joe Calabrese is a Little League manager with a big-league heart.
His family has been synonymous with Little League baseball on Staten Island dating back to the Nixon administration. Those three generations are one of the reasons Mid-Island Little League has become one of the most dominant in the country.
The league’s All-Star squad has captured the New York state title six times, including this year, and has twice been to Williamsport, Pa., home of the Little League World Series, most recently in 2006. They won the Little League title in 1964, an amazing feat that earned them a ticker-tape parade down Broadway.
This Sunday, Calabrese will be managing Mid-Island’s powerhouse 12-year-olds in the Mid-Atlantic regionals in Bristol, Conn., with the goal of again punching their ticket to Williamsport.
But this year the journey is extra special.
Mid-Island is playing in memory of Calabrese’s younger brother, John, a financial analyst who died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 45 in 2014, leaving behind an 8-year-old son, John Jr.
Like many kids, John Jr. originally played for his coach dad — with the South Shore Little League — but Nov. 22, 2014, “changed everything,” Joe Calabrese said.
“At that point there, it became my responsibility to take my nephew under my wing,” an emotional Calabrese said. “It was pretty messed up at the time . . . telling an 8-year-old, your dad passed away and went to heaven and you’re not going to see him anymore.”
For Joe Calabrese, the first order of business was getting a waiver from Little League officials to allow John Jr. to play for Mid-Island, which was out of his district.
“It was obvious I was coaching my nephew going forward, no matter what,” he said.
John Jr. is now 12 years old and an All-Star — and plays first base for what manager Calabrese believes is a team bound for great things.
“We’ve been chasing this dream for three years now,” he said. “In a way, I kind of think it’s destiny. I think it’s meant to be.”
And John Sr. is with them every step. John Jr. tucks his dad’s Mass card into his cap and wears his number, 23. And the rest of the squad wears a uniform patch in his honor.
Also making the journey is Joe Calabrese’s son, Joe Jr., 25, who starred on thehe 2006 Mid-Is-Island team thathat made it to the Little League World Series and is now “mentor” to this group. He’s helping keep the 11 players focused, which is hard to do when they are getting na-ational attention. ESPN recently sent each kid a questionnaire asking everything from their favorite MLB player to what they want to be when they grow up. Mid-Island enters the double-elimination tourney 11-0 in All-All-Star play, steam-rolling its opponents by a mind-blowing 132-16 cumulative score. “We dodo everything good, we really do. That’s the scary part,” the skipper said in his booming voice. “We swing it, we’re athletic ... I don’t want to come off as arrogant, but that’s the way it is.”
He makes sure to give props to his coaches, Al Bedford and Anthony Ferrante, as well as to Bill Rogers, who won the Little League World Series with Mid-Island in 1964, and Nick Doscher, who guided the squad to Williamsport 12 years ago.
Calabrese doesn’t take anything for granted. After what appeared to be a crisp two-hour practice at the team’s Travis complex on Wednesday, he told his troops, “That’s a ‘B’. You’d better pick it up in the next few days.”
Over the years, Joe has played for his dad, Nick, 80, a Mid-Island Hall of Famer who managed for 32 years, and coached sons, Joe Jr., who went on to star at Poly Prep Country Day School and played at Fordham University, and Rob, 22, a slugging catcher who was drafted by the San Francisco Giants last year. He was a proud parent in the stands when Joe Jr. shined at shortstop and pitcher for the “cardiac kids” Mid-Island club that made it to Williamsport in 2006.
“I talk to them as a player,” Joe Jr. said of his current mentoring gig. “What they are doing is incredibly special. I remember my time. It was amazing . . . The craziest thing is this team is more talented than my team.”