Hosting the Cal Ripken Baseball state championship for first time
Richie Cassens remembers when he was a youngster growing up in Union City, when every kid was determined to play baseball no matter what.
But somewhere along the road, the sport lost a little bit of its luster with Union City’s youngsters. In fact, things got so bad that the city’s Little League program actually became non-existent for a while.
"A few years ago, Union City had nothing," said Cassens, who was a former athlete at Union Hill during his playing days. "It was sad."
However, when Cassens broke his association with the powerful West New York Little League to become involved in bringing youth baseball back to Union City, things started to pick up.
"At first, the problem was that we couldn’t get enough kids to play, especially from uptown," Cassens said. "Kids weren’t interested to come from up there to our field [inside Washington Park at the Jersey City/Union City border]. So we couldn’t enter any tournaments."
That is, until Cassens, who ran the Union City Little League for a few years, decided to make a break with the conventional Little League, based out of Williamsport, Pa., and joined forces with the Babe Ruth Baseball Association.
The Babe Ruth’s youth leagues – formerly known as Bambino Baseball but renamed three years ago to honor Cal Ripken, Jr., the former Baltimore Orioles superstar – do not call for border restrictions and numbers of participants.
For example, if Union City wanted to participate in the Little League District 7 All-Star Tournaments, they would have to field at least two teams because of the population of the municipality. Plus, there would be geographic limitations on where the participants could live.
Those restrictions handcuffed Cassens’ attempt to get kids to play, because the numbers from uptown Union City were not sufficient enough to field a competitive team.
But there were no such restrictions with Cal Ripken Baseball, so Cassens, the president of the league, made the move to Cal Ripken two years ago.
The shift has been a blessing, so much so that the league is now flourishing.
"We have 19 regular teams and 10 tee-ball teams," Cassens said. "That’s a lot of action on just one field, but we feel we’re doing real well. I’ve been very enthused by the turnout. The turnout was so good this year that we might have to add two teams for next year. A lot of kids now want to play baseball again in Union City. It’s really going well."
In fact, the New Jersey Cal Ripken Baseball representatives asked Cassens if Union City wouldn’t mind serving as the host for this year’s 10-year-old state tournament, which began Tuesday night and will run through next Tuesday.
Eight teams from all over the state have converged on Union City, with one coming away as the state champion.
Because they are hosting the tournament, Union City gets to put a team in the eight-team field, along with teams from Readington, Manalapan, Scotch Plains, Mount Olive, South Plainfield, East Brunswick and Elmwood Park.
Union City faced Readington in its first-round game late Wednesday night.
"We’re real proud to be the host," Cassens said. "People from all over New Jersey have come here for the tournament. I received compliments from people from Manalapan who said they were impressed with how the field looked. That really felt good."
Cassens is also helping to coach the Union City team, along with Juan Lugo and Willie Rodriguez.
Cassens, whose older son, Richie, Jr., was an All-Area infielder for Union Hill during his playing days, has another son, Raymond, on the team. Raymond Cassens is very similar to his older brother in that he’s an infielder as well as a pitcher.
One of the oddities about the Union City team is that there are two players with the very same name on the team, Feliberto Gonzalez. The two boys are cousins.
"Not only does it drive me nuts, but it drives the league crazy," Cassens said. "Other teams think we’re cheating or something because we have two kids with the same name. It’s hard to keep them apart."
To differentiate the two, one goes by the nickname of "Flaco" and the other owns the moniker of "Chino."
Feliberto "Flaco" Gonzalez is a catcher, while Feliberto "Chino" Gonzalez plays left field. Got that?
Other key Union City players include second baseman/pitcher Freddie Gomez and shortstop/third baseman Kevin Carballo.
The double-elimination tournament will hold games at 3 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. over the weekend, with single games scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, if necessary.
"I like the fact that we’re keeping kids off the street," Cassens said. "Maybe we’re catching up to other places like North Bergen and West New York. We once had nothing and now we’re bringing up the program."
All the way to state prominence…
We’re happy to report that Jersey City native Alberto Vasquez has made a triumphant debut with the New Jersey Jackals. The former Hudson Catholic and Rutgers standout catcher signed a free agent contract with the Northern League team last week and has played in three games to date, collecting at least one hit in all three contests.
"It’s definitely been exciting," Vasquez said. "It’s a job now. Things are working out fine. I’m playing professional baseball, which was always my dream. I’m having fun and hopefully, a scout will see me here and we’ll then see what happens. What else can I say?"
Vasquez believes he will get a chance to play regularly with the Jackals…
Jersey City native Willie Banks has left the Columbus Clippers, the New York Yankees Class AAA team, and has signed on with the Chicago Cubs’ Triple A team in Iowa. Banks had a clause in his contract that enabled him to seek another organization if the Yankees didn’t call him up to the big leagues by July 1…
The EXTRA INNINGS feature continues next week, focusing on the best stories that come from local baseball and softball leagues throughout the area.
The EXTRA INNINGS feature runs weekly throughout the summer months, featuring local baseball and softball teams outside of the high school season. If you have any noteworthy information to contribute to the EXTRA INNINGS, feel free to contact Jim Hague by voice mail at 201-798-7800, ext. 751, by general mail at 1400 Washington St., Hoboken, NJ 07030, or via e-mail at OGSMAR@aol.com. Please include a telephone contact name and number, in order to secure further information for a possible story. – Jim Hague