A LeAgue of Their Own
Everyone loves Buddy Baseball
Story and Photos By Jim Hague
W
hat started as a small idea has morphed into a spectacular event that brings the city together for needy kids. Since Pete Amadeo took over as Bayonne’s supervisor of recreation, he’s looked for ways to benefit children with special needs. “We were doing sports for special needs on a monthly basis,” Amadeo said. “We were having clinics for basketball, soccer, hockey, you name it. We were working well with the Board of Education organizing the events.” In 2015, a parent suggested a baseball league, much like Little League, for children with special needs. “Let’s do it,’” Amadeo said. That’s how Bayonne Buddy Baseball was born. The pandemic wiped out Buddy Baseball for 2020, but the league came roaring back in 2021, complete with an Opening Day parade in early May, where some100 boys and girls marched from 8th Street along Broadway to the field on 11th Street and Avenue E, aptly named “Bayonne’s Field of Dreams,” a dirt and grass field. The Bayonne High School marching band led the way, residents lined the streets and cheered, much like the St. Patrick’s Day parade, but not as green. Hearing the cheers, the kids felt the love and embraced the support.
in. I was really excited that we could do it.” The league fields six teams, ages 3 to 21, that play Saturday mornings. “We take everybody who wants to play,” Amadeo said. “We have different age groups. We play two innings, and everyone gets a turn at bat, hitting off a tee and then running base to base. We have a couple of kids in wheelchairs.” “The kids just love to get dirty,” Amadeo said.
Community Comes Together
Set in Stone
The Bayonne Police Department and Fire Department volunteer. The Bayonne High School athletic teams instruct and help. The parade kicks off a five-week season. “It’s been a home run,” said Amadeo, who played baseball at St. Peter’s Prep and New Jersey City University. “It’s great to see everyone coming out to chip
The Field of Dreams has a monument park, just like Yankee Stadium. The kids’ names are on bricks, much like CitiField, where the Mets play. Every kid who has played in Buddy Baseball has his or her name on a brick. Proud sponsors have bricks where the American flag flies. In 2019, the television network SNY, owned and operated by the New York
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Bayonne Supervisor of Recreation Pete Amadeo shows off the personalized bricks in Monument Park as part of Bayonne’s Buddy Baseball League.
Mets, provided the program with a $5,000 grant. Maureen Brown is the principal at Woodrow Wilson School, which has a program for autistic children, many of whom play Buddy Baseball. “You meet the parents of these kids, and you hear what they want,” said Brown, who has spent the last 12 years at Wilson, first as vice principal and then principal. “The parents just want their children to be treated equally.” Tom Jacobson is director of health, physical education and nursing vocational for the Bayonne Board of Education. Amadeo and Brown met with Jacobson to see if Buddy Baseball could become a reality. “Maureen and Pete just ran with it,” Jacobson said. “Dave Hoffmann wanted to get his kids involved.” Hoffman is head baseball coach.
