There’s a bunch of Weehawken youngsters who have been together as a baseball team since they were eight years old. They’ve played together on every level, all the way up to the Babe Ruth level, where they currently reside. “They’re all friends and they all get along well together,” said Coach Bill Kallert. “There certainly is continuity,” said Manager Joe Light. And the group has done its share of winning along the way. As 9-year-olds, they won the first-ever Weehawken Invitational Tournament, defeating a solid field of 10 teams from much larger municipalities. A year later, they captured the 10-year-old District 6 Bambino championship. Two years later, they collected top honors at 12-year-olds. They also won an invitational tournament in Little Falls. So when the time came for the District 6 14-year-old Babe Ruth All-Star Tournament, it was only natural for the kids from Weehawken to start thinking about winning a championship once again. There was only one problem. No Weehawken team had ever won a Babe Ruth championship of any kind. Plus, the teams that Weehawken would be facing in the District 6 tourney all come from much larger Hudson County towns like Jersey City, Bayonne, Secaucus and West New York. “But you can never count the little guys out,” Light said. The manager was right. Because last Saturday at Kane Stadium in Secaucus, Weehawken managed to pull a stunning come-from-behind 7-6 victory over West New York to capture the District 6 championship, the first-ever such title for a team from Weehawken. The kids from Weehawken now move on to the 14-year-old Babe Ruth State Championships, which begin July 21 in Edison. Weehawken will be one of the nine teams participating in the double-elimination tournament. “I’m quite proud of these kids,” said Light, who was also the manager of the team when they won the 9-year-old championship five years ago. “I’ve seen these kids grow up and we’ve been together for a long time. It is no small accomplishment winning the District title, against much bigger teams. And we played everyone and beat everyone. They all had a shot at us and we beat them all.” The team’s two ace pitchers, namely Tito Veras and Christopher Jodice, were brilliant throughout the tournament, combining to strike out 45 batters in the four games, while allowing just four earned runs. Veras is the third in a line of talented brothers, joining older brothers Khendry (a recent Weehawken High School grad) and Wilson, who is a standout performer for the high school varsity team. But neither brother ever collected a Babe Ruth championship, so Tito owns family bragging rights. “I didn’t even know that we were the first, but I’m happy for that,” Veras said. “I want to be better than my brothers are, so that motivates me.” Jodice said that the team’s camaraderie definitely helped. “We’ve been playing together all our lives,” Jodice said. “We all know how each other works and that helps us get victories. And we all get along very well. If someone does something wrong, we encourage each other, cheer for each other, cheer each other up. It feels good that we’re the first team from Weehawken to go to the states. And I think we have a good chance.” Outfielder Danny Lopez agreed. “We’re working together like a family,” Lopez said. “We know how each other hits, how each guy runs the bases. It really helps that we’re close. And winning the championship has been the best feeling in the world. Of all the teams that Weehawken has had in the past, we’re the first ones to win. That’s just great.” The team has to be a little patient to await their opponent in the state tournament. After winning the District crown last Saturday, the team has tried to keep active with daily practices and scrimmages. Light has set up games with a Jersey City Mickey Mantle team, as well as the team from Elizabeth, that will play in the state tournament, just to keep the team ready. “We’re getting a little anxious, because we all want to play,” Lopez said. “But we’ll be ready. We’ve played against teams from bigger towns all our lives. We want to play against the best competition and we feel we can make it.” “We think we can compete,” Light said. “No doubt, it’s a big challenge. The talent level will be much higher than anything we’ve seen. It will be a big challenge for us to win it, but I like our chances.” Light credited the work of the many volunteer coaches that work with the youngsters in the town. “All the time that they put in, working with the kids, teaching fundamentals, is paying off,” Light said. “You look at what Weehawken has been able to do over the past 10 years or so. We’ve really stepped it up.” Especially this talented group of youngsters, who just keep winning and winning and winning… “Ever since we were little,” Tito Veras said. “We’ve been together. It helps that we’ve spent so much time together.” It shows.
Togetherness breeds success; Weehawken 14-year-olds win District 6 Babe Ruth title, heads to state championships
