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| Bottom row: R Florczak, T Thomas, B Shumsky, R Corsini, E Winchock; Middle row: D Beatty, S Doremus, L Wegrzyn, R Schenck, G Gulyas, M Fassano; Top row: E Zujkowski, T Izzo, M Vischetti, G Barna, C Tomaro |
“If you want us to host the finals you gotta let us have the best players,” growls Charlie Tomaro from the corner of his mouth opposite a stogie clamped between lips and teeth.
“My Elks might be in last place,” counters Harry Frezza slipping off a red cap and rubbing a balding pate, “but they played just as hard as your Congers.”
“Now men,” laughs league chairman Ed Gabrielski waving away the cigar smoke, his gray hair and beard jiggling with a rotund belly. "We've always picked two players from each team.”
The Bound Brook coaches had selected their season-ending all-stars by taking two from each team for as long as anyone could remember. The league had eight teams and international Little League rules only allowed fourteen members on the tournament teams, leaving two alternate players that could be called up if needed. Those sixteen boys, led by current and previous league champ coaches, would enter a single elimination playoff for the New Jersey championship. To win it all a team would have to prevail in nine or ten consecutive games against local, region, and district winners. The square-mile town had never gotten past the second round, much less made it to the coveted national championships held each summer in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
The 1971 lineup of coaches and players read like a who's who of central Jersey history. There were old Dutch families (Doremus, Schenck, Winchock), the first to settle in what was called New Holland in the seventeenth century. Next were Italians (Corsini, Fasano, Frezza, Izzo, Pinto, Tomaro, Vischetti) fleeing poverty and finding new opportunity through St. Joseph Parish and school. Taking up the rear were eastern Europeans (Florczak, Gulyas, Shumsky, Wegrzyn) escaping inter-war oppression for a better life at St. Mary of Czestochowa church and school or the St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox cathedral. If you grew up in twentieth century Bound Brook you knew how to pronounce European surnames as well as how to curse in several old-world languages.
“It’s not for my Congers,” Tomaro expounds, the Philly Blunt bobbing with each consonant. “The Lions are loaded and we need all four of their twelve-year olds.”
“Well Zujk, what say you as the all-star manager?” queries Gabrielski.
"I'm with Charlie," murmurs the immense and soft-spoken Ed Zujkowski. "Teamwork starts at the top."
The 1971 Bound Brook Little League All-Star Team:
Catcher - Matt Vischetti, Bound Brook Trust Company
1st Base - Tony Izzo, Research
2nd Base - Eric Winchock, Ford Realty
Shortstop - Dave Beatty, Schofield Truckers
Left field - Rob Corsini, Lions
Right field - Mike Fassano, Lions
Backups - Glen Gulyas, Research; Billy Shumsky, Truckers; Tony Thomas, B.P.O.E. Elks; Larry Wegrzyn, Congers
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