Former Garden City Bombers Player Signs with NY Yankees

In 2004, 13-year-old Leonel Vinas had never played organized baseball before. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, he and his two cousins, Delby and Jose, joined the Garden City Bombers.

The Bombers, a team formed initially of all Garden City residents, changed its mission that year so that half its players would be from Garden City and the other half would come from the adjoining underserved neighborhoods.

Delby Vinas, a standout shortstop and catcher, and the MVP of Hempstead High School, was the first new player recruited. Cousin Leonel would come to the games to watch Delby, and eventually donned a uniform himself.

"Leonel was the smallest of the kids on our team at that time," said Bombers coach and Garden City resident Joe Mohen. "He was about a foot shorter than all the other players, but he was enthusiastic. At that time, Delby Vinas was the superstar, but Leonel was good enough to contribute. The entire Vinas extended family are nice people. Leonel's aunt and uncle came to many of our games, and the Vinas cousins would watch my toddler, Matthew, on the sidelines so I could coach third base."

Leonel moved on from the Bombers shortly after the 2004 season, although his cousin Delby remained the Bombers' shortstop through the end of 2006, including when the team played its first tournament in Santo Domingo.

In the years that followed Leonel stuck with baseball. He pitched for Freeport High School, but in spite of his performance neither he nor his team got much attention.

Then he got a real break.

Leonel was recruited by Ray Negron, the coach of "Hank's Yanks," an 18 and under baseball team sponsored by Hank Steinbrenner. The team is comprised of kids from different socio economic backgrounds. Players are from Long Island, Bronx, Manhattan and Westchester.

Leonel was 12-0 with a 1.12 ERA in 84 innings pitched for "Hank's Yanks," striking out 168, recording  two no-hitters -- vs. Adelphi University and vs. Suffolk Community College. Last summer, Hanks Yank's won the Baseball Heaven championship in Yaphank. Vinas also outpitched Mariano Rivera Jr. in a game at Yankee Stadium.

Then on Dec. 21, the New York Yankees were impressed enough to sign Leonel to a minor league contract.

"I've been to China and Japan to try to bring back some players, and it's great also to be able to show that we can look right around the corner here in our own backyard and find players too," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said.

The Garden City Bombers league is now part of Major League Baseball's Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities Program (RBI). This past year, the league ran seven teams and is growing. Teams are generally half Garden City residents, with the other half being kids from surrounding communities like Roosevelt and Hempstead. Last summer, the Bombers were part of events with the New York Mets, the Brooklyn Cyclones, as well as the first ever governor's tee ball game in Albany.

"We could not be more happy for Leonel. The Vinas family has done more for us then we could have ever done for them," said Mohen, the Bombers' director. "In the early years, in spite of the broad support we received from the people of Garden City, there were a few people who tried to undermine our program. Garden City baseball field permits were given away to adult men's teams from Manhattan to Commack for their home games, to make sure we would have no place to play in the village.

"The only field permits remaining open were for Sunday mornings, which were also denied to us because we had not sought advance permission to play Sundays from one particular church to which none of us belonged. In one of the rare cases in which we actually got permission to use a baseball field, one lunatic showed up and screaming at the children, and unlawfully demanded the police throw the children off otherwise empty ball fields. As a last resort, there was a lawsuit in federal court, and even the New York Civil Liberties Union intervened, and the harassment of and discrimination against the children finally stopped."

Mohen added, "I think in time, most people have come to realize that there is a value to the community and to its children if there are a limited number of teams in which Garden City children can play on the same team with their age peers from Roosevelt, Hempstead and Freeport. The Vinas cousins may have benefited from playing with us. However, the Garden City kids probably benefited from playing with them even more."

RBI is administered by Major League Baseball and is designed to increase participation and interest in baseball and softball among underserved youth, along with encouraging academic participation and achievement. The Garden City Bombers RBI program is supported locally by Garden City Patch and Creative Designs.

For more information on the Garden City Bombers Baseball program, contact 637-8644 or e-mail GCBombers@aol.com.

For more information on the national RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) program, click here.