By: RED BIRCH, Staff Writer
07/22/20088


HAMILTON - The Hamilton Lou Gehrig 16-year-old All-Star baseball team may not be the best known squad in a town booming with Little League, Babe Ruth and American Legion clubs, but by the end of this summer, they are hoping to prove themselves to be among this town's best.

That's because this season these New Jersey champions will head to the Mid-Atlantic Regional with plenty of experience, not only in Lou Gehrig play, but also at the high school and American Legion levels.

"There is no reason we can't represent this town and league to the utmost," manager Marty Clark told his team at a practice last weekend before league president Bill Lingrell also spoke to the all-stars at their home field at Trenton Catholic Academy.

The Hamilton Lou Gehrig squad will head to Bethlehem, N.Y., a suburb of Albany, this week to begin play in the Mid-Atlantic Regional with a pair of games against two New York representatives Friday.

Their high hopes took a bit of a hit last week when it was learned that leadoff hitter Anthony Verderese broke his wrist while finishing up his season with Broad St. Park Post 313 and will not be able to play in the Regional.

Verderese and Tim Dooling, another Broad Street Park player with an elbow injury, are two of the five players on the Hamilton Lou Gehrig roster who saw significant playing time with either their varsity high school teams or American Legion squads.

"I found out two days ago, so I'm quite disappointed," said Verderese, who still plans to travel with the team and provide whatever kind of aid he can to his teammates. "Playing with Hamilton Lou Gehrig has been a fun experience for me. All the kids are crazy. When it's time to play, we get serious. I want to win the World Series, and I think we have a shot. If we go that far, I might be able to come back."

Another reason for the high hopes of the Hamilton Lou Gehrig team is its pitching staff. Kyle Reed and Casey Clark each got playing time with their respective high school teams this spring, then also got to pitch with their Legion clubs this summer.

Reed went 1-3 with two saves for West Windsor-Plainsboro High North, then led the WW-P American Legion team in wins with a 4-2 record and strikeouts with 39, while also earning a save.

"I know I'll bring pitching to the team, but I hope I can hit the ball, too," said Reed, who has been chomping at the bit to get a bat in his hands, but did not get the chance earlier in 2008. "Compared to Legion, this will be a huge change. I really think we can make it all the way to (Lafayette) Indiana."

Reed was speaking of the site of the Lou Gehrig League International World Series next month. Before getting to that point, the Hamilton squad would need to win in New York, and then in Zone play in Greensboro, N.C.

"It will be weird without Anthony in the outfield, mostly because we'll have different kids at different positions. But if we play like we always do, we should do better than we did last year. We should be able to win and move on," said Casey Clark, who teamed with Reed and Verderese on the regular-season champion Port Sprinkler team.

This all-star squad has players from all of the Hamilton Lou Gehrig's teams like Haldeman Nissan, FMBA Local 184, Charlie Allen Auto Body and Lawrence Home Improvement.

Casey Clark, the son of manager Marty, went 1-2 for Notre Dame High this spring, then went 2-0 for the Lawrence American Legiion Post 414 team. While Post 414 heads south to Wildwood this weekend for the District 8 Legion Tournament, Clark will head north with his other team.

"The kids have made a commitment to come here, even though our regular-season games often didn't start until 8:30 p.m. They want to be here," said Marty Clark, who will be assisted by Paul Verderese and Mike Kenyon. "They all believe they have something to play for and know they have a chance to win this."

With Chris Wirth-Kenyon, who plays varsity ball at the Pennington School, and a wealth of up-and-coming junior varsity players, the Hamilton Lou Gehrig team hopes people will know better who they are whenever their summer officially comes to an end.