It’s been half of a century since a group of 11- and 12-years-olds from Staten Island stole New York City’s heart, winning all 13 of their games in the summer of 1964 en route to the Little League World Series championship in Williamsport, Pa. And though those kids have grown older and grey, and the newspaper clippings and photos have faded with time, the memories of that magical summer remain.
The weekend of Aug. 22-24, most of the Mid-Island Little League team from 1964 will congregate in Williamsport for a 50-year reunion they insist doesn’t feel nearly so long, reunited for the first time since 1999, when they were inducted into the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame.
“It’s scary when you think of 50 years,” Jeff Paul — a pitcher, third baseman and second baseman on the team and who still lives in Staten Island — said this week while eating lunch with manager Bill Rogers and catcher Don Quattrochi down the road from Mid-Island’s complex. “That’s a long time. When Mid-Island invited us back [this year] for the opening ceremony, I told [Dom], ‘Look around, 98 percent of these people weren’t born yet.
They’re probably looking at us like, ‘Who are these dinosaurs?’ ”
They’re Little League royalty, that’s who — the city’s only Little League world champion.
Six other teams from the five boroughs have reached Williamsport since Mid-Island’s run — including Mid-Island in 2006 — but none have advanced to the championship game, let alone won it all.
Back then, the landscape was different. The games weren’t nationally televised until the final, when ABC broadcast it on tape delay. It was single elimination. One mistake could end the dream.
“Big difference,” said Paul, now a retired firefighter.
They were a confident group, after reaching the regionals the year before, and close-knit. Half the team attended school together at St. Rita Elementary. Rogers, then a 29-year-old former minor leaguer, was the architect — a disciplinarian who made changes he deemed necessary and treated the three weeks before district play like he was preparing his players to face the Yankees. He was a drill sergeant who put them through as many as three practices in one day in preparation for tournament play. For three weeks, they practiced twice a day, four hours apiece, from 8 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m. Sometimes, they even practiced at night.
“The third session was too dark to take batting practice, so we had sliding practice,” Nugent recalled. “I was practicing a hook slide. I didn’t know what the hell a hook slide was.”
When mistakes were made, Rogers grabbed a cool drink and sat in the dugout while his players were forced to run laps around the field until they couldn’t run anymore.
They didn’t complain.
“Back in the day, we just lived and breathed baseball,” Paul said. “We left our home in the morning and came back when it was dark. Baseball was our heartbeat.”
The day before the state tournament began in Rome, N.Y., all the other teams took tours around the city. Rogers wouldn’t allow it. They were going to practice.
“As three buses were pulling out, they were waving at us, they were laughing at us, and we said, we’ll see who’s laughing two days later,” said the 79-year-old Rogers, who now lives in Lakewood, N.J. “Two days later, when they all go home, we’re going to the regionals. All our kids were waving to them.”
Rogers, a former minor leaguer who was a part of Mid-Island for half his life, told his players Williamsport was the goal during their first team meeting. He also gave their parents fair warning about the immediate future of their children’s lives.
“Your child is mine the next two months,” he said. “If anyone’s going to go on vacation, you can go. Your kids stay home. If your kid goes, he’s no longer on the team.”
They traveled with shirts, ties and sports jackets, because, Rogers explained, “If you’re gonna play good, you gotta look good — just like the Yankees.”
He converted Quattrochi, a shortstop during the regular season, into a catcher because he already had a shortstop in John Currado. Third baseman Bob Nugent became one of his pitchers halfway through the tournament, though it was months since he had thrown a pitch, and Greg Klee, an accomplished pitcher, was used exclusively in the outfield. He scrapped Danny Yaccarino’s slider, having him throw what would become a devastating overhand curveball instead, the same one he taught Paul.
“From 12 o’clock until 6 o’clock,” Paul said proudly, his right hand raised to his forehead and left hand by his waist to illustrate the pitch’s movement.
Their confidence grew win after win. They outscored the opposition 70-9 in 13 dominant games and allowed the opposition to cross the plate just twice in three games in Williamsport. Mid-Island began the Little League World Series by routing West Germany, 8-1. Nugent went the distance in a 3-1 win over Japan in the semifinals, and Yaccarino no-hit the tournament favorite, a team from Monterrey, Mexico, to clinch the crown, 4-0, on Aug. 29.
“We weren’t a power-hitting team, but we had great pitching and defense,” Rogers said. “That always wins.”
Of their 13 victories that summer, there was one close call: the city championship against Glen Cove Little. Mid-Island trailed 1-0 with two outs in the fifth inning, its bats as quiet as the depressed dugout. The dream looked like it was dying before it could even begin in earnest.
“We were sitting on the bench and we were crying,” said the 62-year-old Yaccarino, now a golf pro in West Palm Beach, Fla.
In the fifth, the diminutive Currado — who Rogers joked was 2-foot-4 then — slugged an opposite-field homer, his only round-tripper that summer, and Klee plated Paul with the winning run in the sixth.
Mid-Island got its swagger from Yaccarino, the star left-hander whom Rogers recalled had the attitude that “nobody was going to beat him.” Quattrochi referred to Yaccarino as “Mr. Hollywood.”
“He was the one with the big cojones,” Paul said. “We were all laid back.”
The night before the championship game, Yaccarino wanted to sneak out of their barracks onto the field, a no-no. His teammate told him not to, but he was stubborn. Yaccarino dragged his catcher with him.
“Danny said, ‘We’re gonna be world champions.’ I said, ‘I guess we are.’ I wasn’t as sure as him,” Quattroci said with a laugh through his thick Italian accent.
Yaccarino rubbed off on his teammates before the championship game. ABC reporter Sonny Fox interviewed Nugent, who guaranteed victory against favored Mexico, hours before the first pitch.
Reminded by teammates what he had just done, Nugent refused to back down.
“No way we’re going to lose,” he defiantly said.
Mid-Island would be champions, after Yaccarino slugged a first-inning home run and tossed the no-hitter, carrying a perfect game into the sixth inning.
When it was over, Mid-Island celebrated by throwing Rogers — who wouldn’t let his players go swimming because he felt it drained their energy — into the pool. The following weeks would be a whirlwind — trips to Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium; a VIP tour of the World’s Fair, where they would meet Giants Willie Mays and Willie McCovey; and a helicopter ride around the city. They were given “Key to the City” tie clips from Mayor Robert Wagner and a private Staten Island Ferry ride. Louisville Slugger made custom bats for each kid, and Little League World Series varsity jackets were stitched for them before they departed Williamsport.
“Don can still fit in his,” Paul cracked.
The highlight was a ticker-tape parade up Manhattan’s Canyon of Heroes.
“My father used to say over and over, ‘You’ll see, one day you’re gonna realize you got a ticker-tape on Broadway like the president and the astronauts,’ ” recalled Quattrochi, 62, a retired postal worker who still lives in Staten Island. “No kids ever got a ticker-tape parade down Broadway. We’re still the only ones who did that, ever.”
Paul said, “It was overwhelming. I always said, I wish it happened when I was 15 or 16. I would’ve enjoyed it more.”
They were celebrities, toasts of the town, Staten Island heroes. Mid-Island’s championship was a source of pride.
“Back then, we were the forgotten borough,” Quattrochi said. “1964 was the year the [Verrazano–Narrows] Bridge opened. Before that, there was nobody there. They didn’t put us on the news half the time.”
These days, the players from the title team are spread out across the country — from Chicago to Florida, Virginia to Alaska. Four players still live in Staten Island. This time of year, their minds drift back to 1964. They watch the Little League World Series annually on television.
Only this August — 50 years after they made history — the Mid-Island all-stars will be back together in Williamsport — where they created a lifetime of memories, where they won a championship that still stands on its own to this day.
“The greatest thing is we’re still … around to appreciate it,” said Yaccarino, who has made a DVD of that final game for the occasion. “I’m sure there are going to be some great stories. Not only were we good, but we had fun doing it.”
Where are they now
Danny Yaccarino, P/2B
Golf pro in West Palm Beach, Fla., was selected out of Port Richmond High School by the Orioles in the 17th round of the 1969 draft and played four seasons of pro ball, reaching Double-A.
Don Quattrochi, C
Retired postal worker who still lives in Staten Island. Served in the Navy.
John Currado, SS
Living in Pennsylvania, played baseball at NYU and worked for Allstate Insurance.
Bill Rogers, manager
Lives in Lakewood, N.J., after spending over 40 years with Mid-Island Little League as a coach and administrator. Worked for Proctor & Gamble and drove a school bus.
Bob Nugent, P/3B
Lives in Cary, Ill., a Chicago suburb. Worked for Coca-Cola. Played college baseball at St. Michaels College in Vermont, where he threw the only perfect game in school history.
Jeff Paul, P/3B/2B
Retired firefighter still lives in Staten Island. Played college baseball at Long Island University.
Edward Godnig, RF/P
Living in Wasilla, Alaska, Godnig wrote a book about the team titled “Journey to Williamsport” and is an optometrist.
Richard Smiechowski, LF
Living in Virginia, played college baseball at Wagner.
Greg Klee, OF
Retired corrections officer now lives in the Poconos.
John Porcell, P
Retired living in Las Vegas.
Mickey Wicinski, INF
Retired postal worker living in Staten Island.
Mike Troiano, INF
Lives in Staten Island, runs his own construction company, Troiano Construction Inc.
Bill Ebner, 1B
Retired college professor and athletic director at Columbia, also played baseball at his alma mater.
Other team members: Gary Kresge, INF; Frank Higgins, P/OF (deceased); alternate David Intartaglio; alternate Steve Schaffer; assistant coach Robert Klee (deceased).