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By Max Jaeger
Brooklyn Daily
It’s a whole new ball game for a local little league.
The Joe Torre East Highway Little League received a $5,000 grant to replace a tractor damaged by superstorm Sandy a year and a half ago. Local sports television network SportsNet New York made the award, and the little league’s president said the money could not have come soon enough.
“For the league, heavy equipment is hard to come by,” said league president Joe Arena.
The league has had to cobble together necessary equipment since the record-breaking storm came out of left field and submerged much of the league’s lawn-care gear in briny water, Arena said.
But with the SportsNet grant, the league will purchase a new, all-in-one tractor that can handle jobs such as mowing and grooming baseline clay, which will make a world of difference, according to Arena.
“The stuff that we had prior was outdated, and losing it all didn’t help,” Arena said. “This equipment is going to maintain the field a lot nicer than before,” he said.
Joe Torre Little League is one of two leagues that received the grant, though more than 100 programs in the New York metropolitan area applied, a SportsNet spokesman said.
The league held a pre-season opening day on April 9 in Marine Park to celebrate the grant and drum up excitement for the coming season.
SportsNet, which airs Mets games, brought the team’s mascot, Mr. Met, to visit with kids and sign autographs. The sports network also announced it will take the kids and their coaches to a Mets game at CitiField on April 22.
Arena said the grant dedication ceremony and the attention from SportsNet was the perfect way to open another year of baseball.
“It really made the kids feel like they were at a big-time pre-season event,” he said.
