On one of the hottest days of the year, Phil Loprete had the right idea. He headed to Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village, Queens on Monday. But the recent Archbishop Molloy graduate wasn’t there to soak in the rays or even people watch.
No, while friends were off to the area beaches, earning some pocket change at summer jobs or staying in their air-conditioned homes, Loprete was busy at baseball practice.
He wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Who cares about that stuff, I like to play baseball,” Loprete said. “Besides, I can hang out in the winter.”
The C.W. Post-bound third baseman, who earned New York Post All-Queens and All-City honors last week, was working out with an all-star team for the Greater New York Sandlot Athletic Alliance, which will compete against the United States Under-18 National Team in a series of games next week.
“It’s going to be great, great to see who’s around,” Loprete said. “It’s going to probably be the best team any one of us has ever played against.”
The Greater New York Sandlot Athletic Alliance was formed in 1961 as a successor of the Journal American Sandlot Alliance, which was founded by New York Journal American sports editor Max Kase in 1940. The mission then, and now, is “to serve the children of New York City and the Greater Metropolitan Area through baseball while promoting an attitude of professionalism and fair play.”
The Greater New York Sandlot Athletic Alliance serves 25,000 youth baseball and softball players throughout the five boroughs and greater metropolitan area.
A year ago, Loprete was selected to the Greater New York Sandlot Athletic Alliance team that played an 18-and-under squad sponsored by the Cleveland Indians. They played a pair of games at Poly Prep and another at MCU Park in Coney Island, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones, with the Greater New York Sandlot Athletic Alliance winning two of the three games.
“The whole thing was great,” said Loprete, the organization’s 2010 RBI Scholarship winner. “But this year it’s so much bigger. If it’s anything compared to last year, it’s going to be unbelievable.”
The Greater New York Sandlot Athletic Alliance team, which also features Monsignor McClancy slugger Lou Perez, will play five games against the U.S. Under-18 team. On Tuesday, July 6, the teams will play at MCU Park at 1 p.m. The next day, the scene shifts to Kaiser Stadium on the campus of St. John’s University with the first pitch at 1 p.m. and then it’s off to Hofstra University on Thursday, July 8 for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
On Friday, July 9, both teams will be honored before the Mets-Braves game at Citi Field and on July 10 the series wraps up under the lights at Farmingdale State College with the first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m.
“This will be the ultimate test,” Loprete said. “These are the best kids 18-and-under in the country. It’s a great way to compare yourself against those kids. It’s unbelievable. It’s going to be tough, but we’re going to go out there and play hard.”