Together since childhood, Margate baseball players are still in the game and loving every minute

By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer
FORT MYERS, FLA. – There is something absolutely intangible about playing on a team.
Maybe it is the shared competitiveness and the drive to win, or maybe it is just the camaraderie and shared interest.
Whatever it is, a handful of guys from Margate have shared it for decades and enjoy it as much now, possibly even more, than when they first hit the infield dirt together when they were seven years old.
The Margate Hurricanes are a bunch of baseball buddies who spent last week in Fort Myers playing in an over-40 hardball tournament.
The team members from Margate are Margate through and through. They started Little League together back in the days when Lyndon Johnson was in the White House and wooden bats were the weapon of choice on the baseball diamond.
They were collectively a tough team: Terrence Gallagher, Maury Blumberg, Al Sacco, Earl Kenny, Fran Casey, Steve Marchel and Tom Hiltner. The balance of the team is made up of members from nearby communities.
When the time came to go to high school, the team split up between Atlantic City High and Holy Spirit. They enjoyed the chance to play one another all through high school, according to Hiltner.
Most of the baseball buddies went on to play Division I baseball in college: Steve Marchel at Yale, Blumberg at Vanderbilt, Sacco at Rutgers, Casey at Philadelphia Textile, and Hiltner at the University of Southern Florida. In the summers they would regroup in Margate and play for the Atlantic County Baseball League.
“We had a few years where we did not play back our early 30s,” Hiltner said, but then they all got back together and started playing in the over-30 and over-40 baseball teams in the area.
What they found was that they still loved the game – and they were still pretty good with a stick in their hand.
“We are really fortunate that we have managed to still play at our age without a serious injury,” said Hiltner. He added that some of the better pitchers are still getting the ball over 80 mph on a consistent basis.
Fran Casey is one of the pitchers for the Margate team, and he is still able to put a fastball over the plate at around 83 mph, and that’s a respectable feat.
This is the fourth year Margate has sent a team to play in the Roy Hobbs League in Florida. Margate brought home the championship the last two years.
Hiltner said that because of their previous success, they were put into a very competitive league and did not always have their way this time around. They went into the first seeding game with a record of 1-3. They won their seeding-round game 13-0, but stumbled in the finals 8-2 at the hands of the Border City Brewers from Detroit.
Hiltner said that a combination of things may have affected the Hurricanes’ play this season.
“The switch from the aluminum to wooden bats really tripped us up. I did not think it would be such a big deal, but it was,” said Hiltner. College teams have moved away from the aluminum bats, and the Roy Hobbs organization is following suit.
“No one will be getting any of the cheap hits anymore,” said Hiltner, explaining that the trend back toward wooden bats is a result of hits often coming so fast off the aluminum bat that the fielder could not react to the ball.
The weather was good; the friends headed south, hit the field and played some ball. Not a bad week for anyone. They did have one off day, and that is simply set aside to relax.
“I used to take my golf clubs, but now I just make sure that I take it easy that day. It’s the smarter and healthier way to do it,” Hiltner said.
Asked about the whole experience, Hiltner was almost at a loss for the right words.
“Being able to still go out and play competitive ball at our age after starting as young boys together is incredible, and the camaraderie – well, it is just really special. It is just a lot of good memories and a lot of laughs,” he said.
Look for the Hurricanes to be back and ready to play next fall in Fort Myers.
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