The calendar year of 1969 was gigantic in terms of American history.
Richard Nixon was sworn in as the 37th President of the United States.
The man Nixon served as vice president, Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th President, died. The brother of the 35th president, Massachusetts Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy, drove his car into the waters off Chappaquiddick, killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.
The famed Woodstock Music Festival took place on a farm in upstate New York. On another farm in southern California, the Manson “family,” led by maniacal mastermind Charles Manson, went on a murdering spree, including actress Sharon Tate, grabbing national headlines.
On July 21, 1969, the crew of Apollo 11, namely Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, opened up the doors of a module with Armstrong taking the first steps on the moon, uttering the immortal words, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Actresses Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez and Renee Zellweger were born.
From a sports standpoint, quarterback Joe Namath made his bold prediction stick, as Namath’s upstart New York Jets defeated the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, making Namath a legend forever.
And one of the biggest underdog sports stories in history took place, when the New York Mets, known as the “Miracle Mets,” defeated the Baltimore Orioles to win the World Series, becoming the first expansion team in baseball history to win the World Series.
That same year, Washington Park Little League of Jersey City captured the District 7 11-and-12-year-old All-Star tournament championship, the first in the history of one of Hudson County’s landmark Little Leagues.
As it turned out, it was the last time that the long-standing league had ever earned the banner as District 7 champions.
George Lewis knows a lot about the history of Washington Park Little League. Lewis was a player in the league in the late 1980s. He’s been a coach in the league for the last seven years.
“I actually started by helping a friend of mine,” Lewis said. “I felt like dedication, like I owed it to the kids of the league. I played here. I felt like the kids deserved my help.”
When it came time for the annual District 7 All-Star tournament, Washington Park was a traditional also-ran. The Jersey City Heights-based league would generally make a quick departure in the double-elimination tourney, losing two straight games and then going home, leaving the winning to traditional programs like those located in West New York, either WNY American or WNY National, leagues that have won a combined total of 19 District 7 banners going back to the first tourney in 1958.
“Maybe we’d win one game,” Lewis said.
Lewis was the manager of the 2015 Washington Park All-Stars. When they lost their first game of this year’s tourney to Elmora of Elizabeth two weeks ago, it looked like it was going to be business as usual for Washington Park.
Except that the members of the team didn’t believe that they were ready for an exit.
“We thought we could make it all the way to the championship,” said pitcher/do-everything Luis de la Cruz. “We still believed. We knew we had a good team. We wanted to keep playing. We wanted to win the Little League World Series.”
Sure enough, the Washington Park kids might have lost one game, but they had the ultimate goal within their sights.
“We were going to keep fighting until we got all the way to Williamsport,” said pitcher/shortstop Roddy Hernandez.
Imagine that. Here’s a Little League that hadn’t won even a District 7 banner since the days of the Miracle Mets and they were thinking of going all the way to the home of Little League baseball in central Pennsylvania.
But to their credit, the Washington Park kids used that goal as motivation. They managed to win their way through the loser’s bracket, winning five games, more than Washington Park did in the last few years combined.
“After the first loss, I was a little worried,” Lewis said. “But after the third win, they were unstoppable. This team was hungry. They wanted to keep playing. They wanted the championship. That was all that was on their minds. They weren’t going to have it all end. We had momentum on our side.”
Washington Park made it all the way to the championship round, but needed to defeat tourney favorite and long-time perennial challenger West New York American twice to earn the long-awaited title.
Washington Park won the first game Saturday night to force the winner-take-all title game a day later.
“Once we won Saturday, we knew we were going to win Sunday,” Lewis said.
The confident de la Cruz almost took matters into his own hands. Pitching, he didn’t allow a run. At the plate, he slugged a pair of two-run homers, leading Washington Park to an 8-0 victory at Hoboken Little League field.
The talented right-hander almost hit a third homer, but it just sailed foul.
“The first homer went onto [Frank] Sinatra Drive,” Lewis said. “The second one was hit high into the net or it would have gone further. It was a great day.”
And yes, the unthinkable became reality. Washington Park won the District 7 title.
“It really is amazing,” Lewis said. “To beat a team like this, a great team like this, two straight to win it is amazing.”
More on that later.
The Washington Park team has a deep pitching staff. Other that the aforementioned de la Cruz and Hernandez, the team features right-handers Hansel DeSoto, Carlos Cedeno, Matthew Perez and Anthony DeJesus.
“Of our 14-man roster, pretty much any of them can pitch,” Lewis said. “They also can play multiple positions.”
Cedeno and de la Cruz have shared catching duties.
Joshua Figueroa and DeJesus are the first basemen.
Juan Fajardo, who Lewis called a “solid fielder,” is the second baseman.
“He made a great play, a diving stop behind the first base bag and held a runner at second,” Lewis said of Fajardo in the title game.
Hernandez has seen most of the action at shortstop, but de la Cruz plays there when Hernandez pitches.
DeJesus also sees time at third, with Aaron Larusso. David Bolanos is the left fielder, with Will Rodriguez in centerfield and Justin Venezuela and Xariel Sanchez in right field, along with DeSoto.
The champions were still ecstatic a day after winning the title.
“It’s a great feeling,” hero de la Cruz said. “When I hit the first home run, I said, ‘This game is mine.’ I’m so excited.”
“We weren’t going home,” Hernandez said. “We were determined to keep fighting and fighting. We finally got it. It was always my dream to win this game. It feels awesome, to finally win it, the first once since 1969. We finally brought it back.”
And the win brought back a memory of a prominent man who helped to put Washington Park Little League on the map.
A thoughtful and generous soul named Willie Wolfe was extremely instrumental to the success of the Washington Park Little League. Wolfe, a former Hudson County Sheriff, spent most of his life devoting himself to the kids of Washington Park for almost 40 years before he passed away in 2006.
Wolfe was also devoted to the Miracle Mets and called several members of the 1969 World Champs like Ed Kranepool, Ed Charles and Art Shamsky his personal friends. Kranepool was a regular visitor to Washington Park Little League and threw out the opening pitch on several occasions as a favor to Wolfe.
So Washington Park won for the first time since 1969, the same year the Miracle Mets won the World Series.
“There’s a great parallel there,” Lewis said. “Mr. Wolfe was a wonderful man and I was lucky to have known him. We like to think that we have some of our own angels in the outfield and I’m sure Mr. Wolfe is one of those. I wish the man was still with us to celebrate with us, but I’m sure he’s celebrating in his own way.”
Washington Park now moves on to the Section 2 tournament, which will be played in Secaucus Little League’s field beginning Saturday night. Washington Park will face Livingston in the opening round of the double-elimination, four-team tourney at 8 p.m.
“It’s really amazing,” Lewis said. “I still can’t believe this. Without question, this is the most talented team we’ve had since I’ve been coaching.”
“We’re going to keep fighting,” Hernandez said. “That’s just what we do.”
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.
You can also read Jim’s blog at www.jimhaguesports.blogspot.com.