CRYSTAL LAKE – Crystal Lake’s Nick Fattori was more than willing to offer the Dominican Republic baseball team the hat off his head.
Drew Fattori, with the help of his son Nick, help distribute equipment donated by The Sportstation to the 13U Dominican Republic baseball team.
Fattori, 13, was serving as the Dragones’ batboy this week when a situation arose at the McHenry County Youth Sports Association 13U Summer International Invitational.
The Dominicans loaded the bases, but had only three batting helmets among their equipment.
No problem. Fattori, donning the required batboy helmet, gladly removed his and handed it to the next batter.
But Fattori didn’t stop there. He suggested to his father, Drew, the vice president of operations for Crystal Lake Baseball, that they help the team out with some of CLB’s equipment, even if it was slightly used.
“If you look at these travel teams, they have home and away jerseys, $200 bats, matching helmets, they have everything,” Nick Fattori said. “Even matching spikes sometimes. The [Dominican team] had three helmets, they couldn’t even play without using our [batboy] helmets. I just thought, ‘We have a bunch of stuff at our fields that’s not being used, so let’s throw them some helmets and shoes so they can play baseball.’ ”
“Everyone in the country should be able to play baseball. Everyone in the world.”
The spirit of the MCYSA tournaments, which includes the 15U and 11U Summer International Championships, along with the 13U invitational, is about playing hard, competing at your best and trying to win a major title. But also it encompasses sportsmanship and consideration to those less fortunate.
That attitude is on display this week with the Dominican Republic team and with Sri Lanka, which arrived several days too late to play in the 15U and 13U tournaments, but whose teams are playing exhibition games organized with mostly local teams that have been eliminated.
Dominican Republic Dragones catcher Frank Abreu put on equipment Friday in a USSSA Summer International Championships game against the Barrington Eagles at Lippold Park in Crystal Lake.
Both teams were short on proper equipment, but both have seen an outpouring of generosity on their first visits to the U.S.
“Nick’s a catcher and he said [the Dominican Republic’s] catcher’s gear is falling off,” Drew Fattori said. “He said, ‘We have to do something for them.’ I immediately called our board and we donated some helmets and other gear. I was so proud of my sons [Nick and A.J.] for thinking of that. The players were so grateful. They were ecstatic. It makes you feel good.”
Others jumped in to help.
Drew Fattori called The Sportstation, a sporting goods company in Tinley Park which supplies the league, and general manager Jack Felkamp arrived Friday afternoon with boxes of shoes and other equipment in a van. What the Dominican players didn’t use, Felkamp sent to Veteran Acres Park, where Sri Lanka’s 13U team was playing Lake in the Hills Thunder.
MCYSA executive tournament director Gregg Sibigtroth, who owns Players Choice Academy in Huntley, donated some gloves and used bats to Sri Lanka. Huntley Baseball Association is doing the same and will also pay to ship the equipment back to Sri Lanka.
Carlos Ortega, the treasurer and interpreter for the Dominican Republic’s team, said making the trip here was difficult. The team has to have sponsorship for each player, and finding good equipment also can be hard.
Carlos Ortega speaks to Northwest Herald reporter Joe Stevenson before Friday's game.
“In terms of what you can get there, it’s not that easy,” Ortega said. “Most of the shoes we are getting here will be passed on to other kids. When their feet cannot go into those shoes, they will hand them over to someone else. That’s the way it is, which is good.”
Ortega said coming to the U.S. will be a lifetime highlight for many of their players.
“Playing on fields like this, for us, is like playing in the major leagues,” Ortega said. “You see how well-prepared they are. You can find that in the Dominican Republic at one of the academies that major league baseball sponsors. But normally, a kid will not play on a field like this with the grass and field so level. That is the major difference.”
Ortega’s son, Carlos, ran over from third base between innings and shook hands with Felkamp as a team representative.
“Thanks a lot,” the younger Carlos said. “This will make us play better as a team.”
Sri Lanka’s players also have it difficult finding proper equipment in an island country where volleyball, cricket and soccer are more popular.
“We don’t have shops to buy most things,” said Nalaka Ambawatte, the general secretary and interpreter for Sri Lanka’s team. “Most of what we get are from donations from Japan and the U.S.”
Jack Felkamp receives a "thank you" from Carlos Ortega.
Sri Lanka finally arrived Wednesday after several snags in its travel plans, and when they arrived at Lippold Park Thursday, not all of the players had their own gloves or shoes. One player’s glove was held together with yarn and wire, until Bill Oeffling, the Glove Doctor who works a stand at the tournament, got a hold of it.
Tournament organizers said Oeffling worked his magic in a few minutes, handed the player back his glove and the boy looked as if he had found gold.
“There are no words to express how much we appreciate this,” Ambawatte said. “Thank you is not even enough.”
The Thunder won the game, 10-4, Friday afternoon at Veteran Acres, in a low-key, fun atmosphere. Thunder players batted from the opposite side, used a wood bat and didn’t take every extra base. The Sri Lankan players seemed thrilled just to be here.
“Baseball just bonds everyone together,” said Carolyn Schofield, an MCYSA board member who coordinated the bat kids for the tournament. “It is really neat to see, the common thing in baseball is there’s no barriers.”
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