Rally saves season

Teams chip in for Bed-Stuy League

BY ELIZABETH HAYS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER


Little Leaguers Jayquan Weeks (l.) and Kristopher Castillo (r.) with founder Michael Harris (light shirt) and fellow commissioner Damon Cuspert.

A cash-strapped Bedford-Stuyvesant Little League that had $3,500 worth of equipment stolen and destroyed last weekend may be able to play ball this spring after all.
Fellow Little League teams and other supporters came forward to donate money and equipment to the beleaguered Inner City Little League after the Daily News chronicled its latest setback.

"It's the right thing to do," said John Petito of the Mid-Island All Stars on Staten Island, the team that got famous this summer for making it all the way to the Little League World Series.

"That's the worst thing you can do, stealing from a child," added Petito, whose league plans to donate equipment.

Inner City had stored the scores of baseballs, mitts, catchers masks and a $2,000 concession stand inside a locked storage shed inside Herbert Von King Park since the season ended in August, officials said.

Parks Department officials said they are investigating the incident with the local precinct.

"Dinner dances, car washes - we'll do whatever would raise the money for the kids," said Charles Marino, president of Queens Lightening in Ozone Park, who hopes to donate the full $3,500 or possibly more.

The theft was the latest hurdle for the struggling team, which was founded four years ago to keep kids off the street. It relies almost entirely on local donations because it tries to keep registration fees low.

Last spring, $1,500 worth of pennants were stolen from their field, and recently $400 worth of protective tarps also went missing.

"It just hits close to home," said Michael Wolfe, president of the Roslyn Little League on Long Island, which also wants to donate equipment.

Inner City founder Michael Harris said the outpouring of support "means a lot to us. It has been a little bumpy in the road but we're not discouraged."

Gil Ortiz, whose son Robert played on the Mid-Island All Stars last summer but has now grown out of Little League, also came forward to donate equipment, while Daily News reader Gayle Turner said she wanted to donate $1,000 to the group.

"It really bothers me that someone would take from little kids," said Turner, an actress and singer from Bedford-Stuyvesant who is raising her 8-year-old grandson.