Baseball
Mid-Island 1964 Little League All-Star Team
Mid-Island’s 11 and 12-year-olds won the 1964 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., beating Monterrey, Mexico 4-0 behind a no-hitter by Dan Yaccarino in the championship game. The world champions: Yaccarino, John Currado, Ed Godnig, Frank Higgins, Greg Klee, Gary Kresge, Bob Nugent, Jeff Paul, John Porcell, Dom Quattrochi, Dick Smiechowski Mike Troiano, Mickey Wicinski (players); Bill Rogers, Bob Klee (coaches).(Read more...)
Glenby “Glen” Mosley
Glen Mosley, a baseball and basketball star at Tottenville High School, and the captain of his Army baseball team during the Korean War, played four seasons with the New York Black Yankees of the Negro Leagues. Mosley, a slick-fielding second baseman steered to the Black Yankees by a Brooklyn Dodger scout, witnessed the decline of the Negro Leagues after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier.(Read more...)
Larry Napp
Larry Napp, a baseball and football star at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn and a promising minor league outfielder, forged a 24-year career as a major-league umpire and a boxing referee. A crew chief for most of his umpiring career, Napp worked four All-Star Games and four World Series – including Don Larsen’s 1956 perfect game – before becoming the American League supervisor of umpires.(Read more...)
Harry O’Brien
Harry O’Brien coached the Curtis High School baseball team for 28 seasons, and the basketball team for 26, mentoring future major leaguers and establishing a dominating presence unmatched by all but a few coaches anywhere. O’Brien’s baseball teams won 20 Staten Island championships, including 10 in a row, made it to the city championship game five times, and won a city championship in 1941.(Read more...)
Sonny Ruberto
John “Sonny” Ruberto, a two-time all-city catcher at Curtis High School, made it to the major leagues as a player with the 1969 Padres and 1972 Reds, and as a coach with the 1977 and 1978 Cardinals. In between, he played all nine positions in a minor-league game; was a manager at 24; threw out 22 consecutive baserunners; and accounted for all three outs in an inning, throwing out two runners and picking the third (Read more...)