Hi Neighbor,
Were you with me last week? When we talked about skinny Staten Island streets? You know the drill . . . you in your little Toyota, sucking in your gut and holding your breath, trying to squeeze by a Lincoln Navigator.
Well, a bunch of neighbors had a lot to say about it and I planned to share their thoughts today.
But then I heard from our sports manager, Joe D’Amodio. He was excited.
“High school sports are starting up again on Staten Island!” Joe told me (explanation point Joe’s.) “Can you believe it? Public schools will jam 23 sports -- all in two-and-a-half months starting May 1! And Catholic schools have started already!” (explanation points Joe’s.)
“That makes for a crazy spring season for athletes, coaches, athletic directors, league officials -- and our sports reporters,” Joe warned me.
“It’s historic! We gotta cover it like a blanket!
“But after a year of mostly no sports at all, who is complaining?” he asked.
And that says it all. It’s news we love to hear.
Don’t get me wrong. Joe and I don’t think the pandemic is over by a long shot. Every afternoon at an online news meeting, a news manager reports the Covid statistics. “Yesterday, we had five deaths. One-hundred-sixty new cases. A hundred hospitalizations.” The next day, there might be two deaths – and that sounds like “good news” to some.
It’s not “good news.” I cringe when I hear people say it, just because the number is small.
Tell the families of those two Staten Islanders who fell victim to Covid that it’s “good news.” See the reaction you’ll get.
Yet, after Joe explained how the schools will handle each sport, it was obvious to us both that much thought went into the plan to keep kids safe.
Youth sports are part of the fabric of Staten Island and at the heart of what local journalism is about: Highlighting young people as they work together, compete, learn respect and increase self-respect.
We get to tell you all about it on SILive.com and in the Advance.
And this year, Joe has a very special plan to do that. More on that in just a bit.
I’ve marveled at the passion Staten Island Advance, and now SILive.com, sports writers have for what they do since the day I started working in the Advance news department.
They love local sports, from the littlest of Little League, to sandlot, to high school, to college.
I envied them.
“Who stops at a random Community Board meeting for a good time?” I often griped to my City Editor. “But sports guys? They’ll stop at the Berry Houses field for a random Little League game -- and they’re not working!” (explanation point mine).
The history of the Advance and local sports coverage is legendary. When we said, “We cover it all,” we meant it.
As a Staten Island Little Leaguer back in the early ’60s, I played for a team called Joe Darcy, and then Kent’s Delicatessen. Truth be told, no one told us who Joe Darcy was, and I was never in Kent’s Delicatessen. When I got older, I discovered if it wasn’t for Joe Darcy, I would have never played on Hy Turkin Field. Joe Darcy was a founder of the league in the early ’50s.
Of course, the next question: Who was Hy Turkin?
The point of all this? The day after every one of my games, I’d grab the Advance seconds after it hit my doorstep to search for my name in a box score -- at-bats, runs, hits, RBIs and walks.
The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was opening around the same time I was checking box scores and Staten Island’s population was exploding. Before the bridge there were only about 150 kids playing Little League. After? Let’s just say a lot more ball players, a lot more teams and that meant less coverage. It was impossible to keep up with the growth.
But this season is “historic.” Not only will it be played in the spring/early summer, indoor sports will be outdoors. What’s better than a good basketball game on an outdoor court?
“Since no indoor gymnasiums will be used because of pandemic protocols, high school basketball games will be played outdoors at the CYO Center courts in Pleasant Plains,” Joe said.
“Wrestling and volleyball matches will be moved outside, too, with some matches taking place in parking lot areas of the school. The Farrell wrestling team plans on hosting many matches in the concrete, covered “breezeway” between the school and the football field when they can’t lay down the mats on the Lions’ Oakwood athletic field.”
A historic season indeed that demands unique coverage.
We’ll bring back team previews, players to watch and can’t-miss games in a lot of the sports to lead into the season.
“Our reporters, photographers and videographers also plan to get to as many games as possible to bring the action and stories to the many folks who will not be allowed to attend the games, especially in the PSAL, because of pandemic rules,” Joe said.
If you love sports or if you have a daughter, son or grandkids participating, you’re going to want to devour this coverage. And if you’re a print reader, it comes with your Advance every day as part of your paid subscription.
Fairness – and financial reality – dictate that our SILive.com readers do the same.
If fans and athletes want to read our previews, some game stories and weekly top performer features in some sports, they’ll need to become subscribers.
There’s real value to news you simply cannot get anywhere else. Thus, we need to put a value on it to get access.
You’ve heard those old sayings . . . “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” Or just as grammatically challenged, “You don’t get nothing for nothing.”
Brian
Oh by the way: Thought you’d never ask! Hy Turkin was not a Staten Islander. He was a Daily News sports writer who covered baseball, basketball and track and collaborated to write the first Major League baseball encyclopedia. His Staten Island connection was how passionately he promoted Little League baseball. Hy had just died at age 40 when the field was built and named in his honor.
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