Joe Gambino of Hopewell Babe Ruth and Mike Coryell of Ewing Babe Ruth. (Staff photo by Samantha Sciarrotta.)
Hopewell Babe Ruth coordinator Joe Gambino and Ewing Babe Ruth president Mike Coryell have known one another a long time.
They played—with and against each other—in Ewing as teenagers, and have been with their respective leagues for over 30 years combined. And their ties to local baseball history go even deeper. Coryell’s grandfather is Marius D. Bonacci, the founder of Babe Ruth baseball.
So when the two leagues were struggling with numbers, each man knew exactly who to turn to. After some discussion, they decided to merge, forming the Ewing Hopewell Babe Ruth Baseball League. They met with officials from Babe Ruth International, who they say approved the merger with enthusiasm.
Ewing had been actively searching for a league to merge with for the last two or three years, and Hopewell was also in the market. Enrollment was declining in both leagues to the point where Gambino said they were “making calls before games just to field enough kids in uniform.”
“It’s really come to a head in the last three years,” he said. “After this past year, we both said, ‘What are we doing here? Let’s just do it.’”
Ewing had previously discussed a merger with the Lawrence league, but the talks didn’t go anywhere. Representatives from both leagues met with some resistance when they proposed the move to their constituents.
“It’s change,” Coryell said. “It’s tradition. There’s a lot of ‘What happens to our league if this goes through?’”
Gambino and Coryell, though, knew the future of Babe Ruth baseball in Ewing and Hopewell depended on a merge. Both sides were working with four-team leagues, as opposed to other local leagues, which field eight. They would often find themselves choosing a 15-man All Star roster from a pool of 20 players, which makes it difficult to be competitive when matched up against teams from around the area with more robust participation. Larger leagues generally have twice the players to comb through.
The men hope combining the leagues will lift the level of competitiveness to another rank, for both the recreational and All Star tiers. They say this is necessary to help them keep up with their main competition: travel leagues. In travel leagues, skilled players and their parents can pay to have the All Star experience all year round.
“It puts in the mind of the skilled kids and their parents, ‘Hmm, why are we spending time in this league?,’” Gambino said. “The competition is always at a higher level over there … That’s why we feel like if we can raise the level of competition in rec and on our All Star teams, everybody wins. It’s a ripple effect. We don’t know for sure, but that’s our hope.”
Gambino said they’ve already seen some benefit to the new configuration. Some players and parents have already decided to come back to Babe Ruth this season, after spending time on travel teams.
Now that registration has opened, the leagues are working towards the merger’s final steps. Games will be played at both Ewing’s Moody Park and Hopewell’s Bacon Field. They’re focusing on last-minute logistical and financial issues, as well as smaller items like a postseason banquet (Hopewell has never had one) and online registration (Ewing has never utilized it).
“That’s the collaboration that’s going on here,” Gambino said. “There hasn’t been anything negative from anybody. There’s been give and take on both sides.”
It’s still a work in progress, but both sides anticipated that.
“It seems like all we have to do is come together and do it, but each week it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we forgot about that,’” Coryell said. “It’s a lot of little things. There’s still a lot more to be ironed out. The emails are flying back and forth on this and that.”
If the merger proves successful, they know they will have done what they had to do to ensure both leagues survive for future generations.
“If we can provide the level of coaching and the level of competitiveness, they’ll say, ‘This is okay,’” Gambino said. “At the end of the day, that’s what we’re looking for. We’re working hard to try to provide this.”
Registration is open through March 10. More information is online at hvbsa.org.
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