The sign on the clubhouse behind Trenton Catholic Academy’s baseball field needs replacing. It reads: Home of Lou Gehrig Baseball. That’s no longer the case, however, and members of the Hamilton league are crying “foul ball” on the TCA administration.

For the first time since the early 1970s, the recreation baseball league for players 12 to 19 years old is without a base site this year. Both sides blame the other for what they say was subpar upkeep of the field and facilities, and TCA told the league it doesn’t want the league playing there anymore.

With the field located on a corner of TCA’s property, many people in Hamilton Township may have the misconception that the field belongs to the Lou Gehrig league and TCA’s baseball program uses it. It belongs to the parochial school, however. When it was built, Monsignor Michael M. McCorristin worked closely with the league to make it its home, though technically it more was the league’s “home” site. There wasn’t a formal agreement between the two sides and the league didn’t pay the school rent to play there. Along the way, it paid for utilities (about $13,000 last year, according to league president Bill Lingrell) and some of the structures, like the clubhouse and scoreboard.

TCA is trying to upgrade its baseball program, however, and that means upgrading the field. And school officials believe the league, which has spring, summer and fall seasons, plays too many games and does too little to maintain the facilities. Township officials were brought into discussions throughout the winter, including Mayor John Bencivengo, but in the end TCA had the right to tell the league not to return to the field.

“It would have never occurred to me that one day we would be told that after 35 years in the facility that we’re out,” Lingrell says. “Not even given, ‘Hey, you’ve got one more year.’

“Over the years, Lou Gehrig has provided everything for the school. We pay all the utilities, we pay for the lights, we pay for the water, we put as much money into the field as we can, whether it’s seeding and grass and sod, where the school has done zero. I’ve been involved since 1988 and the school really doesn’t do anything other than play games and go home.”

TCA administrators feel otherwise, that the Lou Gehrig league didn’t maintain the field enough.

“That’s always been the property of the school, when it was St. Anthony’s, McCorristin and now Trenton Catholic,” athletic director Mark Eckel says. “Lou Gehrig got in their heads, since we let them use that property, that it became theirs. And they didn’t treat it the right way.

“My new coach, Fred York, wanted to work with the Lou Gehrig people. Fred has spent his own money, time and effort (in the last year) to rebuild that field. Our goal is to make it as good as Steinert’s field because we feel Steinert has the nicest field in the area by far. It’s going to take a few years to get to that point. But I think by the time we’re done this year, it will be the second- or third-best field in the area. We’re not going to put time and effort and money into our field and then watch a league come in and not take care of it. And they don’t take care of things. The press box and concession stand are a disaster, the bathrooms are disgusting. And from what I’ve been told, they’ve been told about this in the past.”

York adds that it would be hard to develop a high-quality field if it continues to host as many games as in the past. "You hit the nail on the head,” he says. “Some of it is a matter of quantity and the amount of players that it gets.”

During this winter’s talks, Lingrell offered that the league could work around the schedules of the TCA program, which has a varsity team under York and a new eighth-grade team, and the North Trenton Post 458 American Legion League team that is moving there and will rent the field for its season, which begins in June. Meanwhile, TCA officials offered free use of its old junior varsity field at the corners of Leonard Avenue and Kuser Road, but the Lou Gehrig league wasn’t interested because it lacks the facilities, including lights, of TCA’s main field.

Hamilton Babe Ruth, which plays at Switlik Park, and Nottingham Babe Ruth, which plays at Veterans Park’s DeMaio Field, have stepped up to the plate, if you will, and will provide use of its fields to the Lou Gehrig league, whose season begins April 17. But the township is scrambling to meet the demand of games and will have to place the league’s games elsewhere as well, like the middle school fields.

“It’s just my job to make sure the kids keep playing,” says Judy Warner, Hamilton’s recreation supervisor. “Wherever I have to schedule them. If I could magically invent a field ...

“For right now it’s continue (to get) them playing so there’s no disruption in their schedule. We’ll worry about long-term after we’re through this. Just right now our immediate problem is just getting them playing.”

There were 205 players in the Lou Gehrig league throughout 2009, including 174 in the spring when it affiliates with PONY Baseball, according to Lingrell. Ironically, many graduates of the league have gone on to play for TCA teams. As recently as 2006, Lingrell says there were nine former league members on TCA’s varsity team, though he adds it dropped to three last year.

Clearly, the warm feelings between the two sides have declined as well.

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