The best source for local news from Marbletown, Rochester & Rosendale
Published the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month | Vol. 26, Issue 19
Siblings reunited after 60-year search Page 20
October 1, 2021 | 75 cents
On the soccer field, senior leadership is the key
County Leg. Districts 18 & 21 races profiled Pages 8 & 11
Page 13
Town to build a pickleball court at the RMC NYStretch modification passed 5-0
2021 Mudville Maniacs team at Tongore Park on Sept. 26. Photo by Mark Gruber
Mudville Maniacs become the Comeback Kids Casey Kurtti Special for BSP There are three illustrious, long-running New York softball games. One, the Broadway League, has existed since 1955, where casts, crews and staff of Broadway/off-Broadway shows play softball in Central Park. Current teams include people from “Book of Mormon,” “Jagged Little Pill,” “Tina” and other productions. This past summer, at the 65th East Hampton Artists and Writers softball game, the artists beat the writers and raised big money for charity. And right here in Marbletown, the Mudville Maniacs, clocking in at over 30 years of consecutive play, had a bit of their own drama: Would they field enough players to continue the game? In 2019 it seemed that the game was out of gas. Then the entire 2020 season was called on account of Covid-19. Facing the bottom of the ninth, they needed divine intervention – fast and furious. They got it!!! A big rally of legendary players came back in force, and new players suddenly discovered the game. But we’ll get to that in a moment … First a bit of history. The Mudville Maniacs, aka “The Boys (& Girls) of Summer,” have played at the Town of Marbletown’s Tongore field forever. The games start in early spring and usually last until the first snow falls. (Except in 2001, when winter was so mild the game went on for 12 months.) The male and female players
– old hippies, hipsters, hell-raisers and artists, electricians, carpenters and lawyers, too – with a few seemingly normal humans thrown in – are legendary. So much so they have their own Hall of Fame for players like John Wonderling and F-Stop Fitzgerald. These players are immortalized on plaques that hang above a handcrafted scoreboard built by longtime player (and sometime soccer-traitor) Alex Wassell. New this year, a bench branded “Mudville Maniacs 2021” was built from black walnut trees milled by former Rosendale judge and team philosopher Bob Vosper. On a recent September Sunday, the soccer players are already in full warrior mode, flying across the field. They’ve been playing for an hour as the Maniacs start arriving. Currently, Roger Santerre is the keeper of the team’s bats, balls and the all-important scoreboard numbers (“because we never can remember the score”), including the red P (for protests; “it cuts down on the arguments”). Roger is a longtime player, a newly retired operating room nurse with a long braid reaching down his back. One of the most (possibly the only?) chill players, he tosses eight softballs on the grass haphazardly for those who want to warm up something other than their mouths. Roger shows players photos of his mushroom collecting the previous week as gallerist and very longtime player Mark Gruber and Vosper update their medical status. They vie for the most bionic player on the team. Vosper: “I’m vertical, that’s good. What’s
Sara Trapani BSP Reporter
not good is when the doctor says you’re not eligible for a clinical trial. I’m not allowed to put my hands above my head.” Someone suggests he move to third base. But he’ll ignore the advice, stay on first, and later has to be helped up when a batter slides in. Gruber has a toe injury from two games ago “Hitting the ball I hyper extended,” he says. “But I did finish the game and now I can’t run, bat or play in the field, other than that I’m fine.” A 20-something player volunteers, “I’ll be designated everything for you, Mark.” Other players arrive, and David LeVine (movie grip) notes, “Pete Head, former national softball league pitching superstar, Tom Sarantonio, artist supreme and retired professor, Chris Silva, who can get
Marbletown Town Board held its Sept. 21 meeting virtually. All five board members were present, including Rich Parete, chairman and town supervisor, along with board members Eric Stewart, Don LaFera, Daisy Foote and Tim Hunt. Also present was Tom Konrad, chairman of the Marbletown Environmental Conservation Committee, and Marbletown’s attorney, Tracy Kellogg. There were five resolutions on the agenda, and they all carried 5-0. The meeting opened with a public hearing on minor changes to the NYStretch energy code. No members of the public commented on the matter, and the hearing was closed a few moments after it began. The minor changes went on to pass unanimously later in the evening. The recently passed NYStretch code requires that new buildings as well as substantial renovations must adhere to improved insulation, air sealing and other upgraded energy standards. “There was a conflict with the wording between NYSERDA and the New York state code, and this cleans up any discrepancies,” Parete said, explaining the reasons behind modifying the language of the law. “The change that was made is basically saying that if there is a conflict in the stretch energy code and the building code that the building code will prevail,” said Kellogg. A resolution was passed to renew a contract with Lead Data Technologies of Nanuet, from Oct. 3, 2021, to Oct. 2, 2022, for $488, to ensure firewall protection, i.e., internet security, for the Rondout Municipal Center. The cost is split with the Town of Rosendale, which also has offices in the former elementary school building.
See Softball, page 12
See Marbletown, page 3
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