Pine Plains fine tunes ball program, hopes for Little League charter

PINE PLAINS — Even if they weren’t raised on America’s favorite pastime, there are a number of Pine Plains residents who remember the days when baseball was a constant in their community. 

When Pine Plains town Supervisor Darrah Cloud announced in one of her town newsletters this May that the town’s Recreation Department was off to a great start with its revamped baseball and softball program, residents rejoiced. The thought of the town’s rich heritage of baseball program reemerging, especially now that a new committee has been formed to get its baseball program a Little League charter, was pretty exciting.

Having personally played on Pine Plains’ state championship baseball team in 2002, Rich Tamburrino, the liaison for the town’s baseball program, remembered what an amazing experience it was when the town won the championship. 

Considering how heavily invested his family is in the sport — Tamburrino currently coaches Pine Plains’ Coach Pitch team while his wife, Ashlea, coaches the T-ball team. He said he wants to make sure his and other children get to experience and fall in love with the sport just like he did.

To date, Pine Plains offers a handful of town ball programs for rising players in the area, including T-ball for children up to 6 years old and Coach Pitch for children between the ages of 6 and 8. 

Tamburrino said the town also has a tremendous softball program “that’s been slowly built and maintained over the years and slowly grown,” for young girls in the community. It’s been so successful, he hopes the town can use the blueprint for the softball program and apply it to the baseball program next year. 

The softball team recently finished another season on the field, having started on Saturday, April 17; Tamburrino announced the team is now involved in the All Stars baseball program.

For many years, Tamburrino said the town’s baseball program was a part of a separate, local competitive league, the Tri-Valley League, during which time the Pine Plains baseball team would travel to nearby Millerton, Amenia and over the border to Sharon and Lakeville, Conn., to compete against other teams in the league. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last spring, Pine Plains began losing players when the league’s teams started dropping out, whether because parents were deciding not to have their children play or because the other towns were deciding not to have a recreation program during the pandemic. While Pine Plains still had an active team, Tamburrino said the league ultimately folded.

“What’s happening now is Pine Plains wants to get into Little League,” he said, “so if, say, COVID-19 hits some of the surrounding towns, [we can] see if we can work with them, and we might need to travel a little bit more, but there’s always going to be teams to play.”

This March, the town started a new committee to focus on its baseball program. Tamburrino said Pine Plains Recreation Director Mike Cooper got interested parents and community members together and asked them what they wanted to do — which led to the creation of the committee. Tamburrino is now president of the Pine Plains Little League Baseball and Softball Program.

With the committee now pursuing its goal of getting a Little League charter, Tamburrino said once it does so, they’ll be able to “stand on our own two feet and be a baseball town again.” 

The next step is for the committee to fill out an application and submit it to the Little League organization based in Pennsylvania. He believes Pine Plains’ baseball history is “a very valuable asset for us going forward,” and getting a charter won’t be an issue.

He added the town “very generously funds our program and therefore funds our charter,” noting the program would be free, apart from the cost of gloves and equipment. He said if approved, Little League would allow Pine Plains to offer “competitive baseball… [with] great coaches, a great facility.

“We have a committee dedicated to making sure this program is successful, and we have a stake in this,” said Tamburrino, adding he wants the Little League powers that be to know: “Pine Plains has what it takes to get a team, give it to us.”

Currently comprised of five members, the Pine Plains Little League Baseball and Softball Program committee is looking for new volunteer members as well as team managers, coaches, umpires and volunteers to help with fundraising. 

Go to the “Pine Plains Recreation Committee” Facebook page for more information on the baseball program or contact Tamburrino at 845-416-4471.