Competition and camaraderie propel wheelchair softball team

The rain had begun to fall at Eisenhower Park when, with two outs and the tying run on third, a batter unleashed a hard hit grounder. Second baseman Larry Minei, 36, pivoted his wheelchair to the left, leaned over to scoop the ball up in his bare hand and hurled it to first for the out. His softball team, the Nassau County Aviators, had held on to win, 11-10.

Aviators manager Anthony Fitzgerald expressed delight: "It was a great game. Close. That's what we hope for."

Fitzgerald, 48, is in a wheelchair. His players, all in wheelchairs, are more accustomed to overwhelming their opponents - usually able-bodied men willing to give wheelchairs a try. Call it roll reversal - when players with disabilities outplay those accustomed to running, arm extended, to catch a ball.

For this game in East Meadow, the able-bodied team was assembled by Fitzgerald's boyhood buddy, Michael McGuire, owner of Floral Park's Trinity Restaurant and Bar. The two played street hockey together before the 1987 car accident that put Fitzgerald in a wheelchair.

This season is a particularly exciting one for the Aviators: The National Wheelchair Softball Association's national tournament will be in New York City for the first time in its 34 years, and for the first time the Aviators will be part of it. The tournament - Aug. 19-21 at Citi Field's parking lot E - expects to draw 15 to 20 teams, including teams sponsored by the Mets and the Yankees.

And while most of those play at the elite level, the Aviators do not: The team accepts anyone who wants to play and sends newcomers directly into games. "We're probably going to get clobbered but we hope to have a few surprises," Fitzgerald said.

Minei said he and his teammates admire Fitzgerald's dedication and his inclusiveness, which give the pleasure of team sports even to those who aren't the best athletes. "He's a great man," Minei said.

Long Island has one other wheelchair softball team, the Brookhaven Bombers, which plans to send several players to the tournament as members of the Mets team, according to Bill Hannigan, 39, director of adaptive sports for St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson. Hannigan plays on the Bombers and the Mets.

After the Eisenhower Park game, the Aviators gathered to grill chicken, sheltered from the rain under the eaves of a shed and their vans' open rear doors. They're an eclectic bunch: The oldest is a 68-year-old double amputee, Jack Beaulieu of Rockville Centre, injured in a construction accident 10 years ago.

The youngest is Danny Santos, 17, of North Merrick, who has femoral hypoplasia, or abnormally short femurs. Tom Kurz, 30, of Levittown, and Keith Newerla, 27, who grew up in Seaford and now lives in Philadelphia, were born with cerebral palsy.

Derek Teitel, 32, of Massapequa, and Dan Baum, 36, of Carle Place, have spina bifida, a birth defect of the neural tube. Minei of Miller Place, owner of a marketing business, was paralyzed at 19 after the last of 15 surgeries for spinal tumors.

The pitcher is Daniel Wallace of Garden City, a 39-year-old Northport High School social studies teacher who jokingly refers to himself as "spina bifida extraordinaire" and "chicken leg." Though he can walk, he said an atrophied leg made him a "C minus" player when he played on a church softball team.

The Aviators play with good-humored intensity once or twice a week at Eisenhower Park, on an asphalt field with painted bases - an old roller rink ringed by benches that lacks a backstop and functioning night lights.

The game uses adapted American Softball Association rules and a 16-inch Clincher Softball -- a bit larger and softer than the usual softball, but one that is used by able-bodied teams in the Midwest in what is called Chicago-style softball, Fitzgerald said.

Manual wheelchairs are required, and those designed for sports are typical: Their rear wheels are angled in at the top and broader at the base -- a design that assists the chair's stability, makes turning quicker and puts less strain on a player's shoulders.

Most team members fit the game into busy lives. Beaulieu volunteers to visit amputees in hospitals and trains injured troops for marathons. Santos is being recruited by colleges for his academics and his ice sled hockey skills.

Fitzgerald is an employment counselor for the disabled. He played on the 1998 Paralympics ice sled hockey team and still plays for two teams in season. Peter Panariello, 45, has a family and his own business.

The former school lacrosse and football player wound up in a wheelchair four years ago because of a hereditary degenerative disease. "I hate it," said Panariello, of Huntington. "However, I'm glad to be part of a team again."

Joe Slaninka, 39, of Roslyn Heights, born with spina bifida, never did get to play school sports. "My entire life I liked sports but never really got to be involved," said Slaninka, who was 19 when he first saw an ad for an adaptive basketball team.

Athletics "has made me grow as a person, become more outgoing, willing to take chances," he said. "It gives you a sense of being part of something, and keeps your mind off all the bad stuff that may be part of having a disability."

On the July night in Eisenhower Park, McGuire's 13-year-old son James hit for the Trinity team and said he had learned lessons of his own. "I used to feel bad for them," he said. "Nowadays, I realize they're just regular people. They just have wheelchairs."

His teammate at first base, Brian Mitchell, 27, said his own experience of maneuvering the sports wheelchair had been "exhausting - what a workout."

"I'll be sore in the morning," he said. "You could never imagine how hard it must be to do this all the time."