Jon Noble has an interesting philosophy. “It’s good to have friends,” he said. “It’s better to have friends with bulldozers.”
Words to live by if you are the Ewing Little League as it resurrects a township landmark this summer.
After 16 years of lying dormant at the end of Saratoga Avenue, Fasolino Field is getting back in the game this summer. The birthplace for so many Ewing baseball greats over the years, Fasolino fell into a state of disrepair that turned into nothing but an eyesore.
It was hard to believe that greatness once performed there on a nightly basis.
“If you played Little League before 2000, you knew about Fasolino,” said Noble, now in his first year as ELL president. “And then it was left to die. People tried to do stuff and it never took off.”
Noble grew up in Brooklyn and moved to Montgomery at age 14, so he was unaware of the Fasolino heritage. He played baseball and football for Notre Dame High School and went on to play football for the University of Delaware.
After moving to Ewing 10 years ago, he got involved with ELL when his son began to play. But as he attended games at Moody Park, a familiar refrain kept coming up.
“All I kept hearing about was this Fasolino Field,” he said. “My wife is from Ewing and my in-laws lived in those apartments back there. They used to see what it was like and all the time that people invested there.”
Thus, when he became president this year, Noble decided to take a visit.
“I was like, ‘Let me see this field everybody keeps talking about,’ because I knew nothing about it,” he said. “I never even knew what it really was.”
Upon arrival, Noble looked at the complex and then looked around for Rod Serling. He thought he had entered the Twilight Zone. “I go to this field and it looked like the world ended,” he said. “How does this happen?”
Noble was inspired. He already had an eager participant on board in Bob Bergner, whose son, Logan, is in his final year of playing for the league.
Bergner had been trumpeting the cause for revitalization long and loud. He is a five-year member of the Board of Directors and was appointed to head the Fasolino Renovation Committee by previous ELL President Karen Bauer.
“The field was damaged quite few years ago and became unusable, and many efforts have been made to get it back to being playable,” Bergner said. “(Former board member) Frank DiDonato started the renovations to the field and was able to get things off to good start with the upgrades to the exterior of the clubhouse and some on field. But it seemed that every time the project would gain momentum, the funds raised would fall short of being able to complete the project.”
When DiDonato stepped down, he encouraged Bergner to continue the Fasolino fight. Bergner quickly contacted some friends and said, “Brain Tulli, Eric Setiz and Anthony Povio didn’t hesitate to help out. The Ewing recreation department was behind us, as well as Kevin Horne, who brought the Ewing PBA in to support with anything we needed. The community has been behind us and now there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Bergner noted that the first key breakthrough came when former board member Lionel Everett collaborated with the Olden Avenue Home Depot, which made a large donation of materials. The biggest piece of the puzzle then came in the form of the aforementioned “friends with bulldozers.”
Ryan Barrett and Casey Burns both have young children in the league. Barrett runs the Richard T. Barrett Paving Co. in Ewing, and Burns owns Burns Landscape Group in the township. Together, they have brought the project to life.
“They’re both on the board,” Noble said. “We all have kids in the league between ages six and nine, and they said ‘Yeah, let’s rebuild this thing.’ Casey put the irrigation in there for a sprinkler system and re-sodded it. Ryan paved the fields. In four months, what these guys did to that field is unbelievable.”
Highlights of the duo’s contributions include re-sodding the entire infield, re-doing the pitcher’s mound and home plate, putting in a wind screen and new netting and repairing the surrounding fences. New batting cages have been installed where trees once stood. Fresh gravel is now on the warning tracks. The new dugouts have roofing and new fencing with fresh coats of paint. The scoreboard has also been painted.
The president also lauded Bergner as the major motivator. “He was the pioneer in terms of ‘Let’s do this.’ He was working with limited resources. When you say ‘Let’s do this,’ it’s great but when it falls on deaf ears it doesn’t mean anything. When you say ‘Let’s do this’ and then the bulldozers get it done, that’s a little different,” Noble said.
It’s more than hosting a clean-up day and raking the fields, Noble added.
“You needed heavy artillery,” he said. “You’ve got to rip it up, start from scratch. Bob never had the resources, we finally got a board that wanted to do this and could provide the resources. Ryan and Casey have been part of this league as long as I have, and after four or five years it gets to the point where you say ‘Hey, our sons love baseball, let’s get something done here.’”
Bergner insisted that “the most important event” was when Barrett and Burns came on board.
“They were determined to complete this renovation and became the driving force to transform our vision into a reality,” he said. “They have spent countless days and hours on this project. They donated their own funds and personal time so the remaining upgrades on the fields could be completed. Without their help, this project would have been difficult to complete.”
Bergner credited DiDonato and Russ Freda for initially getting the project off the ground, noting that they started renovations on the clubhouse exterior, the concession stand and visitors’ dugout. Bergner and Tulli are assisting Eric Seitz on interior renovation of the clubhouse and press box. Povio has handled the plumbing needs.
It doesn’t end there, as the league has applied to Major League Baseball for a grant to install an outdoor training facility, practice field, and lights.
Bergner said the field is now in excellent condition and the feedback has been encouraging. An Opening Day ceremony is set for May 15, and they hope to begin playing actual games on the field at that point.
“We just put the pitcher’s mound in,” Noble said in late April. “We’re making it pretty because we want to make sure when we do unveil it, people will like what they see. We’ve been working with the township, seeing what we can and can’t do. Our concession stand and clubhouse needs a lot of work. If we have a field, that’s an excuse to have people go there. We’re still asking for donations for certain things. Right now we’re using it for our equipment and we’re just trying to pretty up the field so the people in the township have something to be proud of.”
From all indications, it will be an incredible source of pride and will provide a throwback summer for longtime Ewing residents.
“I believe this field is part of Ewing Township history,” Bergner said. “Many memories were made here going back to the 1960s. We are excited for the children of our town to continue to make memories here for years to come.”
Noble estimates that the league has 250 members. He is not worried about increasing that number as much, as he would like the new field to keep the current players coming back.
“I’ve got neighbors sending their kids to Hopewell to play,” he said. “I pay taxes in this township, I’m not going to send my kid somewhere else to play. I want to be part of this community. We want these kids to come back. If everybody’s having a good experience, then they’re going to tell other people about it and more people will get involved.”
He also hopes this can start making Ewing more competitive when it comes to tournament play.
“We’re tired of being the third cousin of Mercer County baseball,” Noble said. “We’re going to start having more fundraisers. We’re going to have a movie night at the field. I’m telling you, Ewing Little League is going to explode.”
Let’s hear it for friends with bulldozers.
Anyone in interested in making donations or purchasing a sponsor sign for the outfield fence can call Jon Noble at (609) 439-8156.
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