Fort Lee’s Senior Circuit: National League Takes Pride in Tradition

The 130 or so kids who live north of Tom Hunter Rd. and comprise the Fort Lee National Little League—those who live south of the road play in the American League—and the numerous parents, coaches and league officials are proud of their little league.

Fort Lee National League president Donna Martini, who started out as a secretary with the league 21 years ago when her son played and is now in her third year as president, said that pride comes in large part from the league’s more than 50-year history.

While the American League will be playing its home games on its new turf field on Anderson Ave. for the second year, the National League will continue playing on the good old-fashioned, grass and dirt, Fort Lee Board of Education-owned field behind the football field off Stillwell Ave. as it has for years.

“Because we’re not playing on turf doesn’t make us any less of a family as the American league,” Martini said. “It doesn’t make our game of baseball any different than the American League. The only difference is we play good old-fashioned baseball [dating back to] when turf wasn’t even an issue. And our kids are happy there. And we’re here to stay.”

Martini also said she doesn’t see the American League as a competitor, although she does point out the National League’s four district championships compared to the American League’s two.

She said in fact that any perceived competition between the two leagues stems not from the fields on which they play, but from a friendlier form of competition—interleague play, which the two leagues started last year. In fact, out of the 12 weeks the pee wee, minors and majors divisions play this year, one-third, or four weeks, will be devoted to interleague play, during which each team play once at home and once away against American League teams, thus sharing fields and hosting duties.

“We’re looking forward to playing interleague again this year with Fort Lee American,” Martini said. “It’s a great thing, because it gives the kids the opportunity to play together. Even though we have our own charters. And in one way I guess you could call us rivals, because we’re all trying to win that district trophy.  But at the same time, these kids go to school together, and it’s great to see all of them on the field playing together, whether it be up there or down by us. And I believe it’s a great change for the Fort Lee American kids to be able to play on a grass field once in a while. By keeping both leagues going, we have the best of both worlds. When all is said and done everybody’s friends and it’s a great thing.”

But Jimmy Ross, manager of Franco’s Metro Restaurant of the National League’s majors division, said the players do get up for interleague competition.

“They want to win those games,” Ross said.

And winning is something Ross knows a little something about. Franco’s Metro has won four consecutive league championships in the majors division.

“This year, we’re going for the thumb,” said Ross, who bought “4-Peat” jackets featuring impressive win-loss records for each championship season for every member of his team last year.

Of his 23 years coaching in the league, Ross says, “I’m halfway to Morris.”

Ross was referring to Morris Ginsburg, who has been a Fort Lee National League coach for 52 years, “half a century,” he proudly points out. The World War II Veteran, who declined to give his age, once took a team to the state finals in 1965, losing 1-0 on a homerun in the sixth inning.

Ginsburg said his approach to coaching is to teach the kids not only the game of baseball, but “just to make friends, not to be bullies, not to curse and to get the best out of them you can.”

“Just learn the game,” Ginsburg explained of his coaching philosophy. “I tell these kids errors don’t mean anything. You can learn more from making an error than not. If a ball goes through your feet, next time you get that glove down there. And then teach them where they should be at certain times. Back up third, etcetera. So they can play the game when they get older.”

But Ginsburg has another kind of philosophy when it comes to playing time.

“Everybody plays, but they don’t get preference,” he said. “They’re not on the field if they don’t belong there… [everybody wants to play] shortstop, [but they play] further in the outfield they can get if they don’t rate it. And that’s why I haven’t had any problems with parents actually. They realize I don’t put a kid in to embarrass himself.”

As an example, Ginsburg, who’s had three kids play in the league, related one of his earliest memories of coaching in the league, when his 9-year-old son had just started playing. On opening day Ginsburg’s wife showed up with a camera.

“The game starts,” as Ginsburg tells it. “She says, ‘where’s Cliffy?’ He’s on the bench. ‘What’s he doing there?’ That’s where he belongs. He’ll play, but he won’t go in ahead of somebody else.”

Adds Martini, “So the father-coach thing? That doesn’t happen in Fort Lee National.”

Kyle Hooton, who managed in the minors last year but is moving up to the majors with his son this year, led his team to the division championship last year, and he did it with three girls on a team of about 12.

“The girls love it,” said Hooton, whose daughter played on the championship team but will remain in the minors this year when her brother and father move up to the majors. “They don’t want to play softball.”

There will be no girls in the majors this year—Hooton’s daughter is only nine—but there have been in the past..

“We’ve had some really, really talented girls over the years,” Martini said. “If we’re good enough to run the league, we’re good enough to play the game.”

Ginsburg remembers the first girl he ever coached. He estimated that was 30 to 35 years ago.

“This girl, when we had tryouts, she was my first pick, and she was great,” Ginsburg said. “But she deserved to be there. I wouldn’t have picked her first if she didn’t.”

This year, the Fort Lee National League will host the 10-year-old District 6 all-star tournament final, which will be dedicated Dominic Oliveri, whom Martini called “the National League’s number one fan for the past 20 years or so” and who passed away earlier this year.

“Everybody knew Dominic, because he was at Fort Lee National every night,” Martini said. “You would walk up to the field and there would be Dominic sitting in the stands with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. And he would do whatever he could to assist us, whether it was ripping up pizza boxes or checking light bulbs or picking up garbage.”

The town recently refurbished the clubhouse’s kitchen and concession area and put in a new ventilation system “so it’s going to make cooking a lot easier this year,” Martini said, adding that special thanks are due to Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and fire official Steve Curry for the upgrades.

Opening day for the Fort Lee National League is April 11. That will be preceded by “Field Day” on April 9, when “everybody gets together, pitches in, cleans up the field and puts up signs,” Martini said.

The winning teams from Fort Lee’s two leagues compete in the Mayor’s Trophy game at the end of the year. The National League’s minor league team won the Mayor’s Trophy last year. The majors won it the year before.

“It’s just teaching the kids the meaning of the word competition,” Martini said.