Any number of fields in Essex County would have made better sense than Don Bosco Prep to host Tuesday's Non-Public, North B final between MKA and Newark Academy, including Bloomfield's middle school diamond.
Remember the one about the River Dell girls’ basketball team whose bus driver somehow got confused as to which way to go on Route 287 to get to Vernon and ended up heading south?
He thought everything was peachy-keen until the players noticed signs for New Brunswick.
Alertly, he then turned his bus around and headed up to Sussex County. Of course, there was the inevitable bumper-to-bumper New Jersey rush hour traffic, not to mention the additional mileage he had already tacked on to a trip that was a ridiculously long distance to begin with.
The River Dell-Hanover Park game started about an hour and a half late and the Chatham-Pascack Hills Group 2 boys' semifinal began shortly after 9 o’clock at night on a school night, but, what the heck, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association knows what it’s doing, and that’s why it always schedules basketball state semifinals in Group 2 at Vernon in about as far as you can get in Northwest Jersey without crossing state lines.
With that little introduction of one of the traveling absurdities for New Jersey’s high school teams come the latter stages of the state tournament aside, how about the NJSIAA’s handling of the Non-Public North B baseball final, which continues to be scheduled for the last several years at another faraway locale, Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey.
This year’s contest, which is still set for 4 p.m., today ( Tuesday, June 5) pits local Essex County private school rivals Montclair Kimberley Academy and Newark Academy.
In 2004, when the two neighboring small-school baseball programs last met at Don Bosco Prep, a third-inning hail storm postponed action and the game was re-started a couple of days laters at-of all places-Northern Valley Regional High School in Demarest, another field that is about as much a medium point for MKA and Newark Academy as Perth Amboy was for MKA and Dwight-Englewood in last November’s Non-Public B North soccer final.
Bosco, which we can only assume is convenient because of its retiring athletic director Frank Rezzonico, who is winding up his last days as the NJSIAA’s Non-Public B North B representative, makes absolutely no sense for virtually any team in the state section it serves as a championship venue, especially when there are fields in Bergen, Passaic, Morris and Essex counties that would much better provide a suitable and accessible location for most of the member schools who wind up in the North B final every season.
As far as alternative sites which could have been used for this year’s Non-Public, North B final, before it was finally decided it would indeed once again be at DBP, could have included Essex County fields, such as Verona, Caldwell, West Essex, Bloomfield, Belleville or Millburn.
Certainly, one of the more local fields in terms of distance from both MKA and NA would have been available, even with some prodding, although we’ve learned that Verona’s Doc Goeltz Field was apparently not ready for hosting a game on Tuesday, which is curious indeed, considering it recently hosted a state tournament game and the American Legion season is right around the corner.
But, with that being said, Bloomfield or Belleville would probably have made the most sense at this point, although why couldn’t have some movers and shakers from MKA and NA have gone the extra base and rented out Yogi Berra Stadium for an afternoon?
As the rain of Sunday night continued into Monday morning, the folks at DBP were nervous about their field's condition, but that concern subsided as the sun was shining bright on Tuesday morning and all was ready to go for MKA-NA at the Ramsey-based ball diamond.
But, once again, the common sense approach for selecting logical venues has rarely been taken by anyone, not the gremlins in Robbinsville at NJSIAA headquarters or the Non-Public soon-to-be-retired North B representative, Rezzonico.
Meanwhile, how does Don Bosco assume status as a reasonable site for anyone in the Non-Public B North state section to have to schlep up to in order to play the most important game of many of these kids’ collective baseball lives?
Just as Vernon in basketball for an annual Group 2 semifinal site is absurd, Bosco for the Non-Public, North B baseball final has long ago worn out its usefulness, if there ever was any to begin with.
The sight lines are not great, the seating is erratic and field itself is inadequate. But, what the heck, it’s been the site for so long no one ever took the time to consider changing venues for the sake of-God forbid-the student-athletes and their traveling fans.
It’s bad enough to have to navigate through after-school traffic on virtually any major road in Essex County, but do we really have to further infuriate everyone by making them drive through the maze of cars clogging up Route 17 to get to Ramsey, which, like Northern Valley in Demarest is a fly ball away from the New York State line?
Many of those in Robbinsville calling the shots on sites for state tournament semifinals wouldn’t know Bloomfield from Bloomingdale, Millburn from Millville, Caldwell from Carlstadt or Belleville from Belvidere.
Bloomfield ’s Middle School diamond would certainly have been more than adequate; Millburn’s spacious and well-kept field would have been just fine, Caldwell’s great site lines and certainly decent ball field were more desirable, and Belleville’s excellent upgraded facility would have provided more than acceptable surroundings for a Non-Public, North B final.
But, then again, we’re not calling the shots. And, what the heck, why couldn't they have sent everyone from MKA and NA up to Vernon or better yet High Point, which is just slightly more difficult to find, even with directions?
Just make sure that the bus driver started out heading North.
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