“This is probably the best thing we’ve done all year.”

That might sound like an odd statement coming from the manager of a minor league team playing .620 baseball, over thirty games over .500 and more than 10 games in front of the pack in the Eastern League’s Eastern Division, especially when his Binghamton Mets weren’t embroiled in a Double-A baseball contest.

But, that’s exactly how Binghamton manager Pedro Lopez called it as he moved around NYSEG Stadium enjoying watching his B-Met players helping facilitate a D3 Baseball Day. D3 Baseball stands for Disability Dream and Do – Pulling Each Other Along, the brainchild of an incredible guy, Dave Clark, the founder of the Dave Clark Foundation.

The Dave Clark Foundation brochure tabs Clark’s life story as likely the greatest “mostly unknown” professional sports account of our time. I can’t say it better than the description on the brochure, so I’ll borrow their words. Here’s how the brochure reads:

Imagine being 5-foot-2 and playing professional baseball. And not just playing, but also managing, coaching, scouting, owning a professional barnstorming team that toured the country, and traveling Europe as a representative of Major League Baseball. And along the way, he nearly got “the call” to the major leagues as a pitcher. Now imagine doing it all on crutches due to polio. That’s Dave Clark, an astonishing guy who grew up not that far from NYSEG Stadium in Corning, New York, a man as competitive as an athlete can be, a guy who used an indomitable will, an unfathomable work ethic, an undying love of baseball, and more grit than you might believe one man can have, to pitch for parts of ten seasons in the minorleagues compiling a career win/loss record of 30-15, with 31 saves and a 3.31 ERA.

Clark’s life story is told in an autobiography called “Diamond in the Rough” as told to Roger Neumann, a fascinating read any baseball fan would devour. And, Clark is still a master of the baseball game, working with professional organizations to sponsor D3 Baseball days, special events when the players on a professional team man baseball instructional stations encouraging special need participants to work on their strengths and focus on their abilities as they learn and play baseball.

I met Dave Clark at a B-Met game last Friday night, and he invited me back to NYSEG Saturday morning to observe a D3 Day. Pedro Lopez was right, there was magic on the NYSEG turf that day. The field was divided into five stations with B-Met players instructing participants at each site. Toss and catch, batting, fielding, two batting stations and the popular target
practice with B-Met players as the targets, kept participants enthralled.

At first, the B-Met guys appeared a bit guarded, maybe a little unsure of what to expect as the baseball fun got underway. It didn’t take long before the kid in the Mets emerged
then merged with the enthusiasm of the special needs kids to produce some very special moments. In fact, towards the end of the program one of the adults watching marveled at how much fun the kids were having. When I responded that it looked as if the B-Met guys were having a blast, too, he said, “Oh, yes, big kids, small kids, today it’s one and the same.”

There was highly touted Met pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard, a mountain of quiet reassurance, down in a catcher’s crotch working with an aspiring young pitcher or hoisting a thirsty participant high on his shoulder for a ride to the water station and a drink.

There was Darin Gorski, an unending torrent of positive reinforcement as he played toss and catch. “There you go. That’s all you gotta do right there. That’s perfect form right
there. There you go, perfect. Every time you throw a little better. Hey, you’ve got a better arm than I do.”

There was Josh Rodriquez, a master baseball instructor teaching participants at the fielding station the proper fielding mechanics, gently coaxing his charges to challenge themselves one step beyond what they thought they could do. Any parent with a young son wanting to learn how to play baseball couldn’t do better than gleaning instruction from Rodriquez. Like any great teacher, the B-Met infielder understands the role incremental steps play in successful learning, and he was all business working with his gang. “Since you’re already getting it done (catching the ball standing in one spot) I’m going to move you around to the right and left. I’m not going to tell you which direction the ball is going, but you’re gonna get it all right.”

There was B-Met rock-and-roll closer Jeff Walters moving in to pick up the pieces of a batting tee one young player had dislodged with a wild swing. “That’s it, keep hacking, man. Keep swinging. If you’re gonna go down, go down swinging.”

There was the gentle assistance of Alonzo Harris who had an innate sense when a player needed added assistance and almost glided in and in an unobtrusive manner joined hands on the bat and provided that little boost to help a youngster do together what they were unable to do alone.

All the B-Met players were fully engaged, smiling, encouraging, laughing, and playful. But, none were quite so animated as Darrell Ceciliani. Darrell Ceciliani would make an awesome camp counselor. He worked the target practice station and was a very inviting target. The B-Met outfielder prodded, goaded and dared the kids to hit him. “Come on, bring it, chuck it, is that all you’ve got?” The kids ate it up.

Once he moved in so close daring the kids to hit him, one youngster knocked Ceciliani’s hat off his head. The best moment was after the horn had sounded for kids to change stations. The kids didn’t want to leave the target practice spot with Ceciliani continuing his playful rants. “Come on, right here, right here, one more shot, you got one more shot,” he urged. One young lad took the bait firing a strike and catching Ceciliani where a comebacker caught LaTroy Hawkins during a recent game. Ceciliani didn’t miss a beat. “Ugh,” he grunted doubling over, then looked up smiling telling the lad, “Good shot, Man, good shot. Way to make it count.”

The kids were the real story. Watching a young fellow with only a tiny stub of an arm effortlessly picking up the balls and placing them on the batting tee with his feet, watching the looks of amazement as so many youngsters completed baseball tasks they hadn’t imagined they could do, and seeing kids being kids treating the B-Met players as older brothers not just baseball stars made for a very special day.

The closing ceremony capped off a remarkable morning. In the outfield along the left field line, a short diamond was marked off. One at a time, participants were called up to home plate over the public address system. A B-Met pitched. B-Met teammates lined the perimeter of the diamond leading to each base and back to home plate.

When a youngster hit the ball into fair play, they ran the bases, slapping palms with the B-Met guys as they did. The B-Met players hooted and hollered, clapped or chanted
each batter’s name. The announcer chronicled their journey around the bases with a “safe at home plate” finish where each boy or girl received their certificate for taking part in the 3D Baseball day.

They may be the talk of the minor league baseball world with their soaring win/loss record and their magical best ever season going on in Binghamton, but B-Met manager Pedro Lopez was right, Saturday’s 3D Baseball Day at NYSEG Stadium was the best thing his B-Mets have done all season long.