The House That Generosity Built: Staten Island Little League Plans Opener

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times Members of the Staten Island Little League on Monday sorted through a box of helmets donated by a nonprofit group, Pitch In for Baseball. Hurricane Sandy inflicted hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage on the league’s fields and equipment.

Opening Day arrives two weeks late for Staten Island Little League this season, but after Hurricane Sandy’s knockdown pitch, having any season is cause for celebration.

On Monday, the league took one crucial step toward yelling “Play ball!” thanks to an organization called Pitch In For Baseball, which donated a truckload of equipment, including gloves, baseballs, helmets and bats.

“We lost a million dollars worth of equipment,” said the league president, Michael Colini, a police officer who lives in New Dorp. The winds bent and turned the light poles while the flooding, which reached 12 feet there, crashed a container weighing two tons into one of league’s buildings. The storm ruined lawn mowers, tractors, electricity and irrigation, the entire snack bar, $13,000 worth of uniforms, 100 dozen baseballs, 50 bags of catcher’s gear and plenty of other equipment. The four fields on Seaver Avenue were utterly demolished.

“The storm destroyed the fences and the salt water killed the grass and washed the infield dirt away,” Mr. Colini said. “We needed 125 tons of new baseball dirt.”

The league, a community cornerstone since 1953, serves 550 children ages 4 to12, and includes a “Challenger” division for children with special needs.

“There were old-timers there with tears in their eyes,” Mr. Colini said. “So I just promised we’d eventually build it back bigger and better.”

The league’s fields in New Dorp were badly flooded.

The league, which sacrificed a lot of revenue when it waived fees for any child whose family was registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, received numerous donations, including $50,000 from Honda to renovate the fields. Then several parents heard former All-Star shortstop Roy Smalley telling WFAN’s “Talking Baseball” host Ed Randall about Pitch In For Baseball. Mr. Colini sent an S O S e-mail to the organization. “They just asked, ‘What do you need’,” he said.

Pitch In has shipped equipment to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Iraq, Poland, Serbia and other countries, as well as to American communities. But the recent spate of natural disasters â€" like a tornado in Joplin, Mo. â€" has shifted the organization’s attention toward home. Pitch In is helping more than 20 storm-tossed leagues in the New York region. In the city, it is donating to leagues in the Rockaways, Mill Basin, Gerritsen Beach and Staten Island.

“We are helping close to 10,000 children, which is a huge challenge for us,” said Mr. Smalley, Pitch In’s president. “It’s forcing us to grow, to keep up with demand.”

Mr. Smalley credited the organization’s executive director and founder, David Rhode, for realizing eight years ago that there was “both a need and a resource â€" there are kids who are not playing baseball only because they don’t have equipment and there’s a tremendous amount of equipment elsewhere sitting idle or getting thrown out.”

The organization also seeks cash donations to buy what is not donated. On Staten Island, Mr. Rhode said: “We get each league exactly what they’re looking for. For instance, today we needed five lefty catcher mitts.”

The children said the generosity helped revive their spirits. “I was really sad when I saw the fields, said Kevin Moylan, 10. “I was very nervous we weren’t going to have a season.”

The Little Leaguers’ relief at having their season salvaged â€" it opens April 20 â€" turned to excitement Monday afternoon as they headed out to help their coaches unload the equipment from Pitch In For Baseball. “Oh my God, look at these helmets,” shouted David Barrett, 10. “They’re beast,” said Kevin, as everyone stopped to try one on. It didn’t seem to matter that it was snowing. It felt like Opening Day.