A very good year

Stand-out ball player prepares to enter Babe Ruth League

Ever since he was five years old, Nicholas Cerbone has wanted to play baseball in the big leagues.
He will turn 13 this year, and has already racked up an impressive record of accomplishments. Cerbone will join the Babe Ruth League when the season opens next spring.
“This was a very good year,” said his father, Frank Cerbone, during an interview this week at the offices of the Bayonne Community News, where Nick talked a little about his stats and his aspirations.

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“Nick Cerbone is a coach’s dream.” – Coach Tom Guthrie
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“This young man has a great chance to go places,” said vice president and co-founder of the Cal Ripken League, Mike Miselis. “In my 34 years of coaching, I would have to rank this kid right up there in all around complete players. Not only did he lead the league in home runs and was as tough a pitcher as we have ever seen, he did some things on a baseball field that I have never ever seen anyone else do.”
One not-so-small feat was the no-hitter Nick pitched this year.

Performance at a high level

Miselis described Nick’s accomplishments over the last year as “some Superman kind of things.”
Not only is he loyal to baseball and the league, but Cerbone has done incredible things on the field in Bayonne and in other parts of the state.
“He took his act to the state of Maryland, where he performed at a high level as well,” Miselis said. “He’s been in our league since he was seven years old. This year, he was the most dominant player in the league. But he also will go down as possibly the most dominant player ever in our 13-year history and in Bayonne Cal Ripken history.”
For the past three years, he played for Nacirema Group. This year, Cerbone led his team to the Major League championship, doing it all with his arm, bat, glove, and his blazing fast speed.
Nick plays basketball as well as baseball, but said his heart is in baseball. His favorite player is New York Mets outfielder Carlos Ivan Beltrán.
Nick pitches and plays short stop, two of the toughest positions to play in a game. A student at All Saints Academy, Nick often plays catch with his older brother, Matt, who is also a standout athlete.
During this past season for Nacirema as a pitcher, he led the league with five wins and had only one loss. He also had the second lowest ERA with a 2.21 runs per game. The rest of the league batted only .133 against him.
“On the pitching side, Nick was easily the most dominant and scariest pitcher our kids have seen in a long long time,” said Miselis. “He led the league in strikeouts with 76, which is now the second all time high in the history books. Back in year 2000, Justin Fitzpatrick led our league with 81 strikeouts, but that was from the old standard 46-feet from home plate to the pitchers mound. Now with the new pitching dimensions established back in 2009, the pitching distance is 50 feet. So for Cerbone, it was a much more difficult task at hand. Up until this season, Justin Fitzpatrick from year 2000 had been considered by many to be the hardest thrower in terms of speed, but Cerbone easily takes over that spot.”
Moving up to the Babe Ruth League will require Nick to adjust to new changes when the pitching mound is moved to regulation 90 feet. Nick said he will have to work at strengthening his arm.

Out of the park

On the hitting side, he led the league in homeruns with six during the regular season and hit four more during the playoffs to finish with 10 homeruns.
During the tournament run (which started in late June and ended in July) he hit another 10 homeruns, including what Miselis called “a monster shot,” and all of these were against some of the best teams in the country.
“He was by far the league’s best hitter and most feared every time he stepped to the plate,” Miselis said. “Of his 10 homeruns (during regular season and the playoffs), several of them were the furthest balls ever hit in our 13 year history. One homerun he hit was the longest homerun ever at The Yard, estimated by some to be over 380 to 410 feet. It landed way back into the IMTT parking lot across the highway.”
If this wasn’t enough, Nick also led the league in stolen bases with 32 and was thrown out only once all season.
“Nick Cerbone is a coach’s dream,” said Head Coach Tom Guthrie of the Nacirema team. “He is dedicated, well mannered, hardworking, and just an all around fine athlete and a great kid.”
Guthrie called Nick “a real leader” to whom teammates look for inspiration.
“Nick was the core of the Nacirema team,” Guthrie said. “You can put him anywhere on the field and he will shine, not to mention he runs the bases like a cheetah.”
Nick’s father, Frank, said while the homeruns, pitching, and fielding are great things, he most admires the boy’s attitude.
“It doesn’t matter if his team is winning by 10 runs or losing by 10 runs, he goes out there and plays his best,” he said.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.

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