Oh what a night!
It was an evening of celebrating the 2021 baseball season now that the book is officially closed on it.
We had over 130 guests at the beautiful Hilton Long Island in Melville; which included honorary guests Ray Negron, executive for the New York Yankees, and Super Bowl Championship Gary Brown. Additionally, there was familiar faces from across the Long Island baseball scene.
The night began with an inspirational keynote speech from Ray Negron who told his story of getting caught spraying graffiti at Yankee Stadium by then-Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. In a surprise turn of events, he offered him a job as a batboy. Negron worked his way up the organizational ranks and is now an executive with World Series rings, and he has also parlayed it into a successful career as a producer, best-selling author and motivational speaker.
We then recognized the All-Axcess team, which consisted of the top players from the 2021 season, this list of players was originally posted on social media back in late June following the Long Island Championships. We named Commack as the HS Team of the Year and Molloy as the College Team of the Year.
Next, we went into several individual awards such as coaches of the year, where Commack assistant Matt Salmon gave a heartfelt speech about Bryan Bonin, who was unable to attend. For those that don’t know, Bryan is facing an uphill battle in his fight against cancer. Bryan is an outstanding person and coach, and his players were inspired by his will to fight and were able to accomplish their team goal of winning the Long Island Championship.
Here were the rest of the awards:
Cy Young Award Powered by the Arm Academy: Hayden Leiderman, Roslyn
Silver Slugger Powered by Famous Swing: Tyler Cox, Clarke and Vin Mallon, Massapequa
College Player of the Year: Matt Alifano, Adelphi
Axcess Man of the Year: Dylan Johnson, Newfield
Service to Community Award Powered by Ken Kortright State Farm: Lou Bernardi, USMMA
Lifetime Achievement Award Powered by Valor Sports: Dan Palumbo
