On June 23 members of Chatham White U-12  Baseball Team traveled to Cooperstown, New York to compete in a three day  wood bat tournament at the Cooperstown Baseball Camp in Beaver Valley, NY. The team (photo below) consisted of the following players: Jack “Wheels” Maguire, Jack “Hockaknocker” Nonnenmacher, Jack “ The Exterminator” Murray, Jack “All Heart” Greiner, Michael “Torts” Tortorella, Carter “Tobo” Tobin, Kirin “ Squeaks” Damodoran, Justin “Cosmo” Costello, Connor “Slinger” Winans,Donnie “Baseball” McCauliffe, Matthew “Diablo” Devlin, Connor “P-Shenk” Pashenko and Justin “Splinter” Contri. The team was coached by a group of friends who were announced at every game and throughout Cooperstown as John, John, John, John, Steve and Joe and consisted of John Nonnenmacher, John Maguire, John Tortorella, John Murray, Joe Greiner and Steve Costello.  The team competed against teams from Cooperstown, New Jersey and Connecticut on June 24 and 25 and competed in the playoffs on June 26. On June 24 the team took a memorable trip to the Hall of Fame. In addition to playing great baseball, the boys slept in a bunkhouse, had many meals together as a team, fished, played whiffle ball, told stories over bonfires, played miniature golf, played laser tag, ate a lot of ice cream and made lasting friendships. While there were a lot of amazing plays none compare to the one made by Connor Winans that resulted in a trip to the local emergency room and three weeks in a splint. It came during a very close game. The opposing team had boys on first and second with no outs. The batter hit a high fly ball to shallow left field. Surely, two runs would score had Connor not raced in, made the catch, tumbled over and , with a broken thumb ,threw out  the player who tried to advance from second to third. It was an amazing double play that will be remembered for years to come. This trip would not have occurred but for the dedication and hard work of Coach John Maguire and the organizational skills of Kathy Costello. John took the idea of going to Cooperstown next year a reality for this year. While most thought it couldn’t happen this year, John found a way to make it happen. Because of his hard work, we will have Cooperstown on our calendar every year for years to come. Many thanks to the Contri’s, Pashenko’s, Brian Tobin, and Mark Delvin for providing our boys with a fan base.