November 26, 2019 2:30pm
The Dorell and Banafato Families have been close friends since Kenny and Tommy met in Kindergarten at 5 years old. I would always say that I had 1 brother by blood 2 by choice because the boys would always be together. It was a rare occasion to see the one with out the other so much so that Mom and Anne may have declared another dependent on their taxes for 15 years but it has yet to be confirmed.
The Banafato’s are the friends that are family and while over the last 25 years we have had many great memories, our family vacations are always the highlight. Many trips to Long Beach Island and multiple cruises later the common issue across the board is the resurrection of the tragic loss of the Little League Championship when the boys were in Grade School. There is no reason that this vacation should be any different and it sounds like the wound is still sore… 20 years later.
It did not take long before John and Ronnie were ordering Pina Coladas and this should be a sign to all surrounding parties to vacate the area for what is about to go down. Lucky for this one I had a fresh refill of Patron and a front row seat for the action but poor Tara had no idea what has about to unfold. I was able to capture a small part of the story on camera and Tara’s disbelief to what is happening around her is priceless. Welcome girl, this is Dorell Life!
I will start with this, there is no greater pride that these two have than the success of their kids. They were always involved in all sports and coached basketball and baseball for the boys for as long as they could before heading to a higher level. However, when it came to baseball these two ran a little league team like they were actually playing for anything other than a plastic trophy and bragging rights to the other Dad’s. They would spend countless hours coming up with plays and ways of working through different scenarios of who to play where and when. To this day, they still call each other Coach.
Well into the Pina Colada later the conversation escalated and they felt the need to explain to Tara what actually went down in the Spring of the early 2000’s. Ronnie has a teddy bear company and his manufacturing location is in China so he travels there very often. Unfortunately during the final game of the Little League Championship he had to travel to China on a business trip. John was left to coach with his team of assistant coaches but his right hand man was stuck halfway across the world. John starts the story with, “Ronnie and I never had a great team, we struggled. But this year we had the team and made it to the World Series.”
He continues to recall the story and as the game goes on Kenny was pitching, Tommy was in the outfield and John felt it was time to make some moves. Him and the other coaches were starting to think that Kenny was looking a little tired and he had thrown most of the pitches we was allowed to for their age group. After conversing with the other coaches John feels it necessary to call the coach… in China. John tries to explain the situation to him and ask his for his input and tells him that he thinks Kenny is tired and is going to take him out. He asks Ronnie what does he think and Ronnie replies, “I don’t know what he looks like, I’m in China!” Even though Kenny was on fire and didn’t necessarily agree on taking him out, he gave John the go ahead to proceed how he felt was best. A very long painful story later… they lost the game. John still takes responsibility for the epic loss but loves to relive the tragedy every time they are together.
I have been told that you remember the losses more than the wins and that seems to be true especially for these 2. That day on the field they lost the Little League Championship along with $40 for an international call to China to confirm a pitching change. 20 years later we will never forget.
