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Photo Credit: Newsday/Bill Davis
29-0.
There’s a beauty in perfection. It is elusive in the game of baseball – a game that is designed to include failures and to humble every player.
For Division Ave HS in 1996, there was no such failures.
The Blue Dragons went wire-to-wire not losing one game. In fact, they only played in one game that was decided by one run. They scored 325 runs during the regular season and often were up by double digits before their starting pitcher took the mound. And their starting pitchers usually only needed one or two runs to begin with.
One of their starters, James Bailin, was untouchable that season as he fired 4 no-hitters – including three in a row at one point. Bailin was the recipient of the coveted Diamond Award given to the top pitcher in Nassau County. All he did was follow that up by winning it again in 1997.
Bailin finished his HS career with one of the most dominant runs in Long Island history. Division has produced some great players and Bailin is up there with the best of them.
Twenty eight years have passed since that perfect season, one that is still talked about among die hard baseball fans within the Long Island community. How did it come together? To fully understand, we have to take it back to the beginning.
The Early Days
James Bailin was born and raised in Levittown, NY, He is the older of two boys. The Bailin household was die-hard baseball fans – Yankees to be specific. They were always on the TV at home and they idolized the Yankee greats – Dom Mattingly during his younger days while also greatly appreciating the legacy of the late great Thurman Munson.
Baseball was in his blood, and he wanted to be a pitcher as long as he could remember. In fact, in his high school yearbook there’s a picture of him in his pitching motion when he was just 3-years-old.
Once he was old enough to play, Bailin played his little league ball with Levittown West. The program featured many players that would grow up together and wound up being a part of many great Division teams under legendary coach Doug Robins.
By the time he was 11 the rivalry between Levittown and Massapequa was already in full swing. They lost in the regional final against Massapequa Coast, a team that featured Rob Cafiero – who eventually would play at Massapequa and was a finalist for the Diamond Award in 1996.
Bailin recalls Robins coming down to those little league games to familiarize himself with who the top players in the area were.
“Robins was very aware of all the players – that’s why he became a legend and his shadow will forever loom large in Levittown. Tom Tuttle does a great job of honoring the past. Tuttle has a great model of brotherhood. It’s the truth. Division is one of those team. Levittown is a brand of baseball that is one of the great programs.”
Division HS
Fast forward to high school and the wheels were already in motion for a dynamite run for the Blue Dragons. Bailin was playing summer ball for the LI Tigers so he was around the top players in the area – who would eventually become his competition at the varsity level.
“In those days, if you were worth your salt you either played for the Long Island Tigers or the Bayside Yankees,” said Bailin. His coach was Don Whiston and his assistant coach was Tom Abruscato, who was just starting out his coaching career which has now includes 500 wins.
As a freshman, Bailin played on the 9th grade team. The next year, he played JV as a sophomore due to the presence of Dennis Schneidler, Rob Bosworth and Shawn Fagan. He wound up going 8-0 on JV with 3 no-hitters. When he finally did get the call-up. he pitched in a non-league game against Locust Valley and faced Peter Terrana, who pitched at Rice University. They would lost 5-4 in that game.
Division would capture the Class B Long Island Championship against East Hampton but ultimately lost in the NYS Championship to Corning East.
Following the loss, Bailin noted that he was crying in the dugout. He was the only player on the 25-man roster to not play, and that was because their starting pitchers all threw complete games and he was left warming up a few times. Despite that, the loss resonated with him and he was disappointed.
One of their assistant coaches called over Bailin and told him, “Keep your head up. Next year you’re pitching this game and we’re winning it.”
It was a bold statement about a player that had virtually no varsity experience to that point.
It turned out to be prophetic.
“It was a dream season,” said Bailin in regards to 1996. “For me individually and as a team. The Division Blue Dragons put together one of the most dominant seasons in Long Island history as they went a perfect 29-0 record. They received national recognition and were ranked as the No. 4 high school team in the nation. Incredibly, 7 of those 9 starters played Little League together and many of those played together since they were 6 and 7 years old.
Shawn Fagan and James Bailin took home the prestigious Diamond Award. Fagan, a player who is often overlooked in terms of the great Long Island baseball players of all-time, was the first 4x All-County player in Long Island history. He wound up attending Penn State and played in the minor leagues for 6 seasons.
Bailin compiled an unblemished record of 11-0, 122 strikeouts (72 innings) with 4 no-hitters including three in a row. During his stretch of immortality, he nearly fired a fifth no-hitter but allowed a leadoff single to Warren Johnson in the 7th inning in a win against Floral Park.
Every game that season was a gem for Bailin who singled out his best performance was a 7 inning, no-hitter with 16 strikeouts in which he needed only 81 pitches.
To put their dominance in perspective, there were some games that season that Division had scored 10 or more runs in the first inning and Coach Robins took out the starters right away.
Bailin was also on the mound for Coach Robins’ 500th career win which came against Westbury. At the time, it was a record among high school coached in the northeast.
Their pitching staff was otherworldly, their rotation of Bailin, Fagan, Rob Bosworth and Billy Curry was lights out. Bosworth and Curry split the second games of series. Bailin estimated that those two would’ve been the ace of “probably 90% of teams in the county.
Behind the dish, they had Tony Balcan. Bailin spoke extremely highly of him:
“To this day, he’s one of the best high school catchers I’ve ever seen. He knew how to call a game, he had a great arm. He was a really good hitter (.475 SVG, 27 RBIs), he was just the total package.” Balcan ended up attending C.W. Post where he played soccer and was the kicker on the football team. His son plays at Half Hollow Hills East now.
They also had Pat Rock who was Bailin’s best friend from childhood. They grew up 4 houses apart and were friends from kindergarten and played little league together. He also attended C.W. Post where he was the QB of the football team.
He also noted Ian Beller, who played third base and would slide over to SS when Fagan pitched. Their first baseman, Dave Feldman, batted .630 during his senior season. Their cleanup hitter, Scott Lineman, played RF and third base and Bailin joked he had more RBIs from suicide squeeze than RBI singles. He wound up being head coach at North Shore HS for many years.
All told, they had 4 All-County players which was unheard of at that time, and they had a case to have 5.
Their only one-run game of the season came in the County Championship against Garden City. It was Game 2 of the series after Division trounced them, 18-3, in the first game. In that second game which was at Garden City, they trailed in the seventh inning before taking a lead. They brought in Fagan from SS to close the door. Bailin recalls the game being absolute bedlam, with the entire lacrosse team from both schools standing behind the outfield fence.
“It was tense…I’m pretty sure some of them got kicked out by security.”
They played Hills West in the Long Island Championship at East Meadow HS. They faced Rob Rizzo, who would go on to win the Carl Yastrzemski Award that season. Bailin fired a shutout in a 4-0 game to send them to Little Falls, NY for the NYS Tournament. They defeated Plattsburgh, 4-0, before a rain out on Saturday pushed the championship game back a day. On Sunday, they defeated Queensbury in the NYS Class B Finals by the score 6-1 against future MLB player Brendan Harris to put a cherry on top of their undefeated season.
That summer, Bailin was pitching in his first summer league game. To that point, he was uncommitted – as was the case with most players in that era. He had received interest from some schools but it was relatively quiet until this day.
Playing against Our Lady of Grace in the Connie Mack League, he went against Jason Marquis – who was just drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft out of Tottenville HS in Staten Island.
It was an excellent game. He recalls rain coming down in the later innings, which fired up Marquis as he began throwing 93-94 MPH. Bailin out dueled him by the score of 2-1.
In the Empire State Games, Bailin pitched in front of 75-80 schools and he performed very well there as well. He received interest from many schools. At that time, he estimated he was probably topping out at 82 MPH, but he was a lefty with great command which is always a valuable commodity.
At that time, Providence was actively recruiting him but the coach went over to the University of Maine to take the head coaching job, He decided that was the best fit for him and committed there.
He still had his senior season left and Division had to defend their crown.
Entering 1997, Division had their undefeated streak at 29 games. They began the season by rattling off 18 consecutive games to run their record to a Long Island record 47 games.
They were in the same league as bitter rival MacArthur who were at the peak of their powers as well. MacArthur entered the final series of the season at 16-1. Division won the first game of the series by the score of 8-2 in 10 innings. Bailin started and pitched all 10 innings on just 103 pitches. They lost a close game in Game 2 to end their winning streak. In the third game, Bailin estimates there was 2,000 people in the crowd, as the sea of people went all the way to Salk Middle School. Despite being on 1 day rest, Bailin told coach Robins that he would be available idc needed. They took the lead in the 6th inning and he told his bullpen catcher he was going to start warming up.
“Of the 2,000 people, it felt like 1,500 of them turned and watched me walk out of the dugout to start warming up.”
MacArthur wound up coming back to win the game, with Bailin not coming in to save it. He later asked Robins why he never brought him in and he said, “We didn’t need you to pitch on 1 day rest.” Bailin said, “That’s the kind of guy he was, he wasn’t going to put me in jeopardy.”
The teams rematched in the County Finals with Division sweeping the series.
“I was like nothing I’ve ever seen. It was like Texas High School football with the atmosphere. The rivalry was intense.”
They advanced to the Long Island Championship, but were defeated 5-4 by Deer Park.
Following the game, the team went out to celebrate their season at an event hosted by one of the teachers at the school. Bailin headed off to the Coral House in Baldwin for the Nassau County Coaches Association Dinner where he was the recipient of the Diamond Award – becoming the first player in the history of the award to win it twice. Since that time, that feat was matched by Bryan Verbitsky (2009, 2010) and Adam Heidenfelder (2013, 2014).
He finished his senior season with 11 wins and 109 strikeouts over 88 innings. His two-year varsity record was 22-1 with a 0.96 ERA and 238 strikeouts.
Remarkably, baseball was not the only sport that Bailin competed for a State Championship. In fact, he went to three New York State tournaments as a bowler as well and he coaches the Great Neck North team currently.
College
Upon graduation, Bailin headed off to the University of Maine to begin his collegiate career at the Division-I level as he was hoping to take the next step towards playing professionally.
Unfortunately, that was not in the cards. Bailin had a good but not great collegiate career as he compiled a record of 13-10 during his three seasons at Maine. He pitched 50 innings as a freshman.
After three years, he decided it was time for a change. He transferred back home to attend Adelphi University for the 2001 season. Jeff Tyler, a graduate of MacArthur HS and an excellent pitcher for Adelphi during their World Series runs, was the pitching coach.
“I told my coach at Maine and he okay’d it. He wasn’t thrilled but he okay’d it.”
The move made sense as Bailin decided if he wasn’t going to play professionally, he wanted to pursue a career as a physical education teacher and Adelphi had a great program for it. Additionally, legendary coach Ron Davies was friends with Coach Robins which was a plus.
Adelphi made the playoffs during the 2001 season, but not the World Series as they had hoped to do. They had gone to the Division-II World Series in 1999 and the sophomores on that team were seniors during Bailin’s year.
“I had gone 6-2 during the 1999 season and some of the guys on the team told me if I was there, they win the World Series. But I can’t look back and say I have any regrets with my decision. Coach Robins always stressed the importance of going somewhere where you can play and that’s what I did. I started for three years, I wasn’t on the bench.”
Jeff Tyler had left the program and got a full-time job teaching before the spring semester which left a vacancy for the pitching coach. Bailin wound up being a player/coach and he noted there was two times during that season where he made a mound visit and had himself warm up to come into the game.
The Next Chapter
After graduation, Bailin remained the pitching coach for the 2001-’02 school year and into the 2002-’03 season before he left in January when he got a full time job teaching in the Bronx. He then took the JV head coach job at Great Neck North for one year, before switching schools in the district to be Ciro Ambrosio’s assistant at Great Neck South for two years.
He did that until 2006 when he became the varsity assistant back at Great Neck North and eventually the head coach prior to the 2012 season.
“I’m proud of my coaching career there. I won 9 games in 5 years but we never went into the countywide league even when everyone wanted us to. I ran practices as I would have at any school. My best player was Jake Guggenheimer, who was a 4-year varsity catcher that went on to play at McGill University in Canada and win three National Championships. I’ve known him since he was 13 years old, he’s 27 now and coaches with me at B1.”
His next step was Bellmore JFK taking over for Eric Passman who had just led Bellmore to the Nassau County Class A Finals against Wantagh and took the head coaching job at Mepham.
They had a rough year in 2017 but they recovered to make the playoffs in 2018 behind Jason Coules’ outstanding season.
Bailin resigned during August of 2018, and he was unsure of what he wanted to do. Legendary coach Bob Hirschfield had just retired as pitching coach at Chaminade to move to Florida.
“I interviewed with Mike Pienkos and Jack Lyons for about 2 hours. They called me the next day and said they were recommending me for the job. It was a great opportunity for me. I’ve known Hirsch for a Lon time. To work with Mike and Jack, I felt very blessed. To play for Doug and coach with them, I mean not many guys can say they spent time with two legends. They got more out of kids than anyone I know. They’re so smart. They paid attention to so much detail. The kids were prepared for everything. When I got hired I felt like I had something to prove. I pushed them daily – our routine, our prep. When they took the field, there was nothing they couldn’t handle. We had so much talent for so long. My first year, our ace Logan Koester got drafted. I can’t take credit for that but hopefully I had a little impact on him. The guys that came after him – I’m hopeful they learned a lot from me. Every day we spent 8-10 minutes spinning breaking ball so they were so comfortable throwing it at any count. I will always love my time there because of the players and the camaraderie.”
Following the 2024 season, the entire coaching staff was dismissed. Mike Pienkos retires with over 650 career wins and 20 CHSAA Championships, including the first ever New York State Catholic League Championship in 2022.
Bailin gives private pitching lessons at an undisclosed locations with about 20 young pitchers throughout the offseason. Additionally, he has coached B1 Seminoles for the past 7 years. He stated he “bookends the organization” with teams at the youngest and oldest levels. He is assistant coach on his son’s 10u team along with Hills East Head Coach Tim Belz for Ricky Russo. He also coaches the B1 Ghost team in the Blue Chip Collegiate league.
“Those kids re-energized my love for the game.”
When he’s not around the game of baseball, he is also spending time with his wife – whom he met at Adelphi and is approaching 21 years of marriage – and his daughter who is a sophomore in high school.
“Family is very important to me. My wife is incredibly supportive of me. She supported me through all the coaching changes. We’ve been married 20 years and been together for 25 years.
As the years go on, the memories may fade from the collective conscious of Long Island baseball fans of Division’s historic run in the mid 1990s, but the records will be engrained for many generations to come.
