PAX Centurion - Winter 2016 - 2017

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • Winter 2016-2017 • Page 31 I want to thank all the captains of each team for their hard work helping put this year’s tournament together, especially Dave Malcolm. He works hard every year to make this tournament possible. I also want to thank the union for the great job they do every year bringing the food truck and feeding everyone all day. Thanks Matt Carey, Billy Flores, Paul Downey and Jimmy Callahan for slaving all day over the grill cooking for everyone. Even Hadji was observed flipping burgers between games. A special thanks to Javier and Louie Velasquez’s mother America who also helped cook all day and was a key reasonAreaAwon. She was AreaA’s #1 fan and gave great advice which helped leadAreaA to victory. She also would not allow anyone to forget about our donation bucket when they came to eat. It was a great day! We raised over $1,100 for Matt and Richie!!! O n 10/29/16 at M Street Park in South Boston, the BPD “World Series of Softball” was played, in case you guys missed it. You would not believe the outcome (and we will get into that later). Every year players come from all the districts and specialized units in the department to meet for bragging rights. I must not forget our friends from Eversource (Nstar) who always make for a tough team to deal with. This year was no different as it seems the teams have acquired very talented athletes. It seemed for weeks these games would never be played as God played games with the weather and sent teardrops from heaven every weekend making the field a pool of mud. Boston Parks and Recreation performed miracles to get the field in shape. These teams came to play and it was proven with some of the pitchers pitching over one hundred innings; fortunately these players had some well-deserved calories from the BPPA food canteen providing lunch and cold drinks (water, not the other stuff…). If anyone has complaints about the food it may have been a certain cook from B-3 (no names, Capt.). I’m sure no one is going to forget the helping hand the cooks had from two police officers’mother (Javier and Luis Velasquez). This hard-working woman deserves a very big thank you from EVERYONE: “THANKYOU for all your help, Mrs. Velasquez.” All the teams this year that played along with a number of civilians donated to our brother officers Matt Morris and Richie Cintolo. The support was overwhelming from everyone there as people continued to pitch donation after donation into Coach Eddy’s homemade magic blue bucket. (We also rolled out this blue bucket again at the hockey fundraiser on Thanksgiving Eve with all funds raised also dedicated to Matt and Richie. The Boston Police Hockey team played the Boston Bruins Alumni and friends on 11/23/16 at 7 pm. The game was played at the Porrazzo Arena located at 199 BPD Softball Champs – Area A! By Matt Carey, A-1 Last Half Representative/Pax Contributor Coleridge St., East Boston. There was also an after-party at Orient Heights Yacht Club with a 50/50 raffle for up to $10,000. Softball shirts donated by Javier Velasquez were also sold at the Hockey Tournament and raised several hundred additional dollars for the benefit. Please read more about the Hockey event in Bob Anthony’s article in this edition of the Pax.) After a grueling nine hours of almost professional- like softball, AreaAwas crowned the winner. This was not an easy task as they faced a fierce opponent inArea B. The game really could have been a win for either team as both teams put all they had into it. If not for the solid coaching this could have went south for AreaA. All in all, it was great to finally make the softball tournament a reality for another year. Not too long ago, the BPD had an intra-department softball league that played weekly, throughout the summer, meeting on various city fields every Sunday. Teams from one end of the city met for a few hours with fellow officers they ordinarily don’t see from the other districts, exchanging information, laughs and catching up on family milestones. (Retired softball-hero Joe O’Malley of Area A-15 recalled the games fondly as “The Five “S’s” – “ S ummer- S unday- S oftball- S uds- S ickline”). For a variety of reasons, (mainly unpredictable, forced, mandatory overtime sapping the team’s rosters at the last minute), the weekly games became unable to be scheduled with any sense of regularity and resulted in the current, once-a-year, annual Softball Tournament at M St. Park. It’s still a great event, and remains as one of the few BPD social events that brings officers and families together for a few hours and a few laughs. Thanks again to Coach Ed MacPherson (PDS) for organizing the event, the BPPA for the food truck, Mrs. Velasquez for her outstanding help in serving the food, P.O. Tim Callahan (A1) helping to flip burgers, and all who attended, played or participated in any way. (Apologies to anyone I forgot!) Agreat event for a great cause!