Niagara Power - A HOME RUN!

Niagara and Power! Two words that go together. But did you know that there is another "Niagara Power" in Niagara Falls? The Niagara Power is an expansion team in the New York Collegiate Baseball League (NYCBL) and is an Affiliate of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), a national, faith-based ministry. FCA partnered with Cal Kern (Grand Island, NY) and the city of Niagara Falls to establish the Niagara Power in 2007.

The Power provides opportunities for furthering baseball skills and abilities of collegiate players while also emphasizing the importance of character, integrity, and excellence in baseball and in the community.

The New York Collegiate Baseball League, founded in 1978, is a summer wood bat development league for professional baseball. Major League Baseball funds a small portion of the leagues annual budget. The league gives college players who have not yet signed a professional contract the opportunity to develop their skills at a higher level of play, gain experience with wood bats, and be evaluated by scouts. The NYCBL is located in scenic Upstate New York.

Teams play a 44 game regular season schedule with games beginning in June and ending in the last week in July. All games are 9 innings, with most doubleheaders scheduled on the weekends. The All-Star game is played in early July, and the League Championship Series concludes in the first week of August.
Niagara Power players come from all over the country and are housed in host family homes around the area. I am currently housing two fine young men, Danny Hall, from San Jose, CA, and Matt Van Slyke, of Oxford, MS. What a joy it is to have the power of youth again in the home!! (and in case you baseball fans wondered, yes, Matt is related to the famous major leaguer, Andy Van Slyke, formerly of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who coincidentally, was one of my favorite major league players).
The Niagara Power 2010 season began on June 4th at Sal Maglie stadium, where all their home games are played.

The best thing for area baseball fans is the reasonable cost to attend a game. Adult ticket prices run $3 or $4, with a dollar off for senior citizens, and youth (6-12)tickets are only $1 or $2. Concessions are available at very reasonable cost and there are many promotion nights during the season. You can check out the team rosters as well as the schedule and other interesting facts at the team's website:
http://www.niagarapower.org.

If you are a baseball fan be sure to take in a game or 10 during the next two months and if you have a spare room available next year, please consider hosting a couple of these fine young athletes. I have just made two new, wonderful friends and look forward to a winning season.


Jim Brunn

Hyde Park Ice Rink - circa 1950s

(Submitted by JB)

I received a phone call from Colorado this afternoon and the guy said, “this is a voice from the past and I saw you on StenzTV and looked up your phone number.”

It was a fellow from NF who I knew as a child when he was ice skating on the outdoor rink at Hyde Park (where the senior center is now) and I was the Rink Rat (the guard on the ice). We became friends and I lost track of him after he graduated from high school. In fact, he is one of the guys with his back turned in the photo at Carroll’s Drive-In on Main St I submitted. We had a nice chat and I pulled out my file of photos from when he was a kid (he’s a grandfather now) and scanned them and said I’d send the originals to him.

Back in the era of 1950-60’s there was an outdoor ice rink (artificially frozen) in front of the “big pool” and stadium at Hyde Park. The original warm-up building is now part of the John Duke Senior Center, and the ice rink extended from that building, north towards what was a line of poplar trees. One of the “stars” on the ice during that time was an elderly gentleman named Tom, who owned and operated a tie shop on Falls Street (before Urban Renewal). He was a fine man and wonderful figure skater and was always willing to show young folks how to skate. Being a camera-bug, I took many photos and these 4 are of a few of the kids on the ice with whom I became friends. Because of StenzTV.com, after 50 years apart, Jeff Walker, now a grandfather and living in Colorado, saw my name and contacted me. It was great to reminisce about old times and catch up on our lives.


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FOOTBALL in NIAGARA FALLS

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Prior to 1967 Niagara Falls didn’t have a youth football team. The Police Athletic League (PAL) wanted to begin some kind of fall sports program and football was suggested. We became members of the WNY Tyro Football League and were known as the Niagara Falls Knights. About 7 PAL members went door to door soliciting businesses to help sponsor the program, and Chuck Kenny, who owned a sporting goods store in Lockport, advanced us about $10,000 in equipment (we did eventually pay for it). There was no fee for the kids to play and we depended heavily on volunteers for our operation. Our first head coach was police officer John Gabriele (later firefighter and fire chief). Our teams were winners from the get-go. After our first season, played at LaSalle Jr. High School, complete with marching band and cheerleaders, we had a celebration dinner cooked by our volunteers in the YMCA on Portage Rd.

The second season we went “big time,” with a celebration dinner at the Como Restaurant with many dignitaries in attendance, including the Mayor E. Dent Lackey, and special guest speakers, Ernie Warlick and Al Bemiller, of the Buffalo Bills. Mayor Lackey even gave (volunteer) General Manager, Jim Brunn, the key to the city!

The first photo is of Ernie Warlick posing with running backs Gary McLaughlin and Sam Giancola (Sam is now a coach at NFHS).

The second photo is of Al Bemiller autographing programs for some of the players. Perhaps some readers might be able to identify themselves in the photo.

In later years the local program split into two divisions due to a difference in philosophy among the coaches, yet today, 40 years later, they remain an integral part of the youth sports programs in the city.