"All right Richie, throw that overhand curve just like we practiced," exhorts Coach Tomaro kneeling to catch for our right-handed pitching ace warming up before the second game of the post-season.
"You got it Coach," retorts Richard Florczak with a big grin at the manager of his regular season championship team, the Congers.
There’s a special relationship between a player and the first coach who recognizes his or her talent. Mine as an eight-year-old playing organized baseball for the first time was Officer Frank Cornaccione. Coach Corni saw that I was better at fielding groundballs than pop flies, installing me at shortstop where I’d stay until done with college baseball. It might have been the bloody nose I got trying to catch a pop up in the first game, but the move to infield gave the boost in confidence I needed to run with a baseball identity.
Coach Tomaro had noticed a diminutive 11-year-old who could consistently keep the ball over the plate. He taught Richie Florczak the grips and arm motions needed to throw a slider, screwball, changeup, and sinking curveball. Not many little leaguers could deliver these pitches so the Congers started winning games and Richie became an all-star. He’s the youngest of the four Florczak boys who all looked alike except for height. Bob was the oldest and tallest as the six-foot-three-inch former center for the Bound Brook High School basketball team. When he left for art school, identical twins Ron and Mike took up the hoops mantle at six-foot-one. Richie was the shortest but made up in style and craftiness what he lacked in size.
Piscataway would be our first home game of the post-season and it was against an out-of-county team even though the Middlesex County township adjoined the southeastern tip of Bound Brook. In the late eighteenth century New Jersey had been organized into a system of townships for areas that weren't already defined as town, borough, or city. As housing close to New York or Philadelphia started to fill in all available land in the former garden state, the once rural townships became population centers. Piscataway High School is still one of the largest in the state, and any sports competitions between the large township and the tiny borough of Bound Brook left the latter as a decisive underdog even at our home field.
“All right Richie, finish em off!” calls Coach Tomaro from the dugout with two outs and one on in the top of the sixth inning.
The count is one ball and two strikes as Florczak assumes the stretch position and nods to the catcher Matt Vischetti’s flashing down of three fingers to signal a slider. Richie grips the ball along the seams, kicks his left leg up, and whips a sidearm throw as he turns the wrist and forearm leftward. The ball spins toward the middle of homeplate and breaks four inches to the left as the hitter flails, dribbling a weak grounder down the first base line. Richie charges over, grabs the ball bare handed, and flips it to second baseman Eric Winchock who's covering first. We all charge over to celebrate an unexpected 4-0 win over heavily favored Piscataway.
“Now you’re firing on all cylinders!” proclaims Coach Zujk with the first smile we’ve seen on his stoic face all year. "We'll take it one game at a time, and next up is Bernardsville."
Final score: Bound Brook 4, Piscataway 0
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