PCYBL 12U Pirates make it to Cooperstown to play in prestigious age group tourney in historic village
August 14, 2024 at 11:29 p.m.
They lost 6-1 to Croton in the first round of the 12U age group Greater Hudson Valley League Summer Season playoffs, finished the season with an 8-4-2 record that included tying for first place in the prestigious Sacred Heart Slugfest Tournament in Hainesport, N.J., and didn't have the kind of season they wanted to have, but now it is a whole new ball game for the Port Chester Youth Baseball League (PCYBL) 12U Pirates.
Because on Sunday (8/18) they will be checking into the All-Star Village at Cooperstown, the hallowed Upstate home of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. And on Monday (8/19) through Wednesday they will begin playing two games a day against some of the nation's best age-group teams during a week-long tournament that will start single elimination one-and-done games Thursday (8/22) to select the best of the best participating teams.
But win or lose, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the local kids to play at that level before they age out of PCYBL ball at the start of their teens.
Price of the ticket
Getting there wasn't easy and didn't come cheap.
It cost anywhere from $20,000 to $25,000 to provide the local Pirates team with room, board, and all the other expenses needed to bankroll that one-week stay in Cooperstown.
Their coaches essentially bet on them so they could go out in style because they had to make an initial $1,000 deposit to reserve a Pirates spot in the Cooperstown tournament for the end of August 2024 with the rest of the money due before they got to play.
That meant they had to come up with approximately $20Gs to pay the $1,500 minimum cost per week for each of the Pirates players and their coaches with five more monthly installments of $3,960 due on the 15th of November, January, February, March and April.
Money still needed
And in blue collar Port Chester, it hasn't been easy to come up with that kind of money. So they went in for various kinds of fundraisers including car washes, bake sales, raffles, Facebook posts, a Venmo account to which people can submit dollars, even ran a special Halloween Fall Baseball League Tournament for area age group teams at Lyon Park in early October. And they asked for ongoing donations to the PCYBL with a notation that the money should go towards backing the 12U tournament team play at Cooperstown.
That fundraiser is still going on so the 12Us can play in the Cooperstown tournament.
Players, coaches raise funds
Head coach Fabio Garcia and assistant coaches Steven Rytelewski, Dan DeBari, George Varbero and team motivator Rob Brenzel set out to raise the funds needed to make the Cooperstown dream a reality. And they are still dreaming because the funds have trickled in and the fundraising is still going on with requests for donations that are still needed. Donations should be sent to the Port Chester Youth Baseball League, Box 3, 222 Grace Church St., Port Chester, NY 10573. But whatever happens, even on a shoestring budget, the kids will have their shot at playing in what promises to be a tournament to remember.
The Pirates will line up with a roster that revolves around the Malhotra twins (Aaron and Alexander), Juan and Fabio Garcia, Louis Rytelewski, Tyler Varbero, Joey Bologna, Braden Squillace, Ross Kantor, Michael Vernace and Spencer MacFarlane. They will have time to sightsee, visit the MLB Baseball Hall of Fame, tour the historic town, bunk, bond and eat together in the All-Star Village player dorms as they come together as a team. But mostly, the play's the thing and they hope to ring down the curtain on the season by playing the game the way it is supposed to be played, win or lose, on their way out of their tweens before they graduate out of the PCYBL that has taught them so well.
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