Ramsey Baseball Team Helps Rivals Get To Championship Game

Ramsey’s 14U Summer Select Baseball team made a pretty good showing this year. The team was the runner up at the state finals and made it to play in the New Jersey Youth League AABC Regional Championship tournament in Troy, NY.

But Ramsey’s youth baseball organizers say the community has a better reason to be proud of the team and its coaches and supporters.

According to Ramsey Baseball President John Dugan the team came in second place at the state finals to a team from Passaic. Both teams qualified to play in the regional championship tournament.

When the Ramsey team found out that the Passaic team did not have the funding for hotel stays in Troy, it decided to help.

The team’s four coaches - Jon Vatcher, Bill Kanwisher, Mike Blasius, Tom Franklin - asked to fundraise in order to help the Passaic team pay for hotel rooms at the tournament. After asking for donations from local residents, the coaches and team made enough money for the Passaic team to compete.

“The teams really did form a bond,” Dugan said. “They stayed in the same hotel we did [in Troy]. And, after the season was over, our kids wanted to play in another tournament in Staten Island. We had some kids who couldn’t play in the tournament, so our kids reached out to the Passaic kids to play with them. Kids from both teams played together in the tournament. [The bond they formed from fundraising] is pretty cool.”