Malverne baseball groups agree to share fields

Mother Teresa once said that peace begins with a smile. In the case of Malverne’s two formerly warring baseball organizations, it was a bid to talk it out that achieved harmony.

About two weeks after clashing with village board trustees over a permit application, Malverne Little League President Joe Ariola extended an invitation to Mayor Patricia McDonald and Kenneth Rung, head of the Malverne Mud Hens traveling baseball team, to sit down, discuss and resolve the issue. Each accepted and the result was a peaceful compromise.

The year started out on a shaky note when, at last month’s board meeting, Ariola and Vice President Jim McDaniels declined to cooperate with trustees, who had requested the Little League’s 2012 schedule, saying they needed it to determine when the relatively new Mud Hens could use the village’s three fields (two baseball diamonds at Whelan Field and one at Harris Field). The board said it would not grant the Little League’s field-use permit application without seeing the schedule first.

For the last six decades, the board has granted the Little League permits for use of fields from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. from March to November. So when it requested the schedule this time around, Little League organizers were taken aback, and argued that it would be extremely difficult for them to produce a schedule so early in the year. They asked the board to grant the permit and allow them to work out dates with the Mud Hens. McDonald bristled at the suggestion, saying it is not the Little League’s place to determine use of the village’s fields.

Several days after the January board meeting at which trustees clashed with Little League administrators, Ariola invited McDonald to discuss the matter. “We sat down, we went back and forth, we explained to him the village’s point … [that] we admire what these volunteers do for the youth of the community,” McDonald said, “but, on the other hand, we also have other residents that also pay taxes, that also help maintain those fields, and they have a right to be able to use the fields at some point as well.”

Ariola said he understood and assured McDonald that he would meet with Rung to work the situation out. True to his promise, Ariola met with Rung, and the two worked together to determine when the Mud Hens could use the field. They settled on 16 dates throughout the spring and summer during which the Mud Hens would have access to the diamonds at Whelan Field from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“Joe is a man of his word,” McDonald said. “He did what he said he was going to do and worked together.”

But Ariola told the Herald he was sure from the start that he and the Mud Hens could work it out. “I knew we would,” he said. “We just feel that Little League should always get first priority because it’s a village-based organization. … [The problem] is that we have three fields. If we had five or seven fields, there would be a lot more leeway, but with three fields, it doesn’t give us much room to work with.”

Ariola went on to say that his initial reaction to the situation had nothing to do with the Mud Hens, even though the Little League “has always been opposed to travel baseball.”

“Our dilemma,” he said, “is we’re a growing Little League and we’re kind of bound by the amount of fields that we have. If we had more fields, then things could be much easier to work out.”

In a statement, Rung and the Mud Hens thanked Ariola, McDonald and the village board for agreeing to provide use of the fields. “We look forward to further cooperation and good will between [Little League], the board and the Mud Hens,” the statement read.

With that settled, Ariola summed it up simply: “Little League is a safe haven,” he said. “A child, no matter how talented … they come, they play, they laugh with their friends, and that’s what it’s all about. It’s about the kids having a good time.”