JERSEY CITY — You’d think Jersey City could keep the politics out of youth baseball.
You’d be wrong.
Tensions are flaring between two groups vying to oversee youth baseball at Pershing Field, with one group accusing the other of attempting to hijack baseball leagues for political gain, and the second group saying the first is fighting to keep men with criminal histories coaching baseball.
The battle has moved from the baseball diamond all the way to City Hall, with Mayor Steve Fulop asking Councilman-at-large Daniel Rivera to mediate the dispute as the city decides which group gets a permit to use Pershing Field’s baseball field in the upcoming season: the Pershing Field Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth leagues, which have received the permit annually for decades or a new Pony League started this month by Police Capt. Edgar Martinez.
The national Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken League approves charters annually for local leagues. Ralph Errico, state commissioner for the national group’s northern New Jersey division, said the Jersey City dispute is out of the ordinary.
“This is very uncommon,” he said.
Martinez attempted to take control of the Pershing Field Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth leagues last month after Joe Napolitano Jr. stepped down as president. Martinez, commander of the city’s north district police precinct, spoke to The Jersey Journal in February about changes he and a new group of volunteers were making to the leagues, including cutting registration fees and bringing in sponsors for children of families who can’t afford to pay. The leagues include about 25 teams and about 300 children.
Some of the volunteers who Martinez and his group replaced compare the takeover to a hijacking. They say Martinez fired volunteer coaches, took control of equipment the leagues had paid for and intimidated anyone who didn’t fall in line.
“I really can’t understand how they could possibly do this,” said Mark Matarazzo, a Pershing Field coach and a league trustee.
Martinez’s group attempted to get a charter from the Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken League to run the Pershing Field leagues, but Matarazzo’s group received it instead, as they do every year. Martinez then started the Pony League and asked the city for a permit to run it at Pershing Field over Matarazzo’s group.
Councilman-at-large Daniel Rivera is the administration’s point person in the dispute over who will host youth baseball at Pershing Field in 2016. Alyssa Ki | The Jersey Journal Rivera, who was first elected to the council in 2013 and was once a youth baseball coach, told The Jersey Journal he’s siding with Martinez in the spat because he believes the Pershing Field leagues did not submit their volunteers to criminal background checks, a charge Matarazzo denies.
“That’s a problem,” Rivera said. “You have to make sure that you have the right type of role models for these kids.”
A league trustee, Raymond Bremnar, pleaded guilty in 2010 to selling OxyContin near schools and a playground and was sentenced to six years in jail. Bremnar said he’s “paid he debt” to society.
Matarazzo said he finds it “ironic” that the city is touting its prisoner re-entry program while targeting baseball coaches with arrest records.
“If you go to any league, any league, you’ll find people with criminal backgrounds,” he said. “Everybody deserves a second chance.”
Matarazzo and his allies, who have former Mayor Gerry McCann on their side, believe Rivera and Martinez are involved in youth baseball only to win political support in the Heights for 2017, when Rivera may be a mayoral candidate. Martinez and Rivera dispute that politics is involved.
“I don’t know why they were so opposed to us doing this,” Martinez said. “We’re doing something good.”
Pershing Field is in Ward C, represented on the City Council by Councilman Rich Boggiano. Boggiano said he’s not taking sides and hopes everything is straightened out before “opening day” in two weeks.
“Everybody has a different story,” he said. “I’m staying out of it until I find out what the hell is going on.”
Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
