24 New eNglaND BaSeBall JOURNal November-December 2011

What are you thankful for this holiday season?”

It’s a question asked quite often this time of year. Of course, we’re all thankful for friends and family. But this year especially, I’m appreciative for what our troops continue to do overseas as they fight for our freedom back home. Perhaps that is be-cause one guy I’ve played base-

ball with for seven years was noticeably m i s s i n g this past season.

K e v i n Bell, affec-t ionate ly known as “K-Bel l ,” has played

in the Boston Men’s Adult Baseball League since 2004. He began his amateur career with the Quincy Grays, swapped to the Boston Orioles in 2006, and found a home with the Boston Blue Jays in 2009. This past sea-son, even though he was still

listed on the Jays’ roster, K-Bell missed the entire baseball sea-son to serve as a specialist in the U.S. Army, a firefighter with the 530th Engineer Detachment stationed at Forward Operat-ing Base Sakari Karez, outside of Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The U.S. Army always has been a part of K-Bell’s life. At the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Kevin’s father, Tim, al-ready had served 20 years in the Army. Bell was a freshman at Brockton High School, where he tossed three no-hitters for the Boxers and was heavily re-cruited to play baseball for Bos-ton College. He turned down this collegiate baseball oppor-tunity and others to start a fam-ily and stay with them at home. Today, K-Bell is 6,579 miles

from home, and a world away from his wife, Abby; his 6-year-old daughter, Kaylee; and his 2-year-old son, Zack. His father also is home, having just retired from the service one month be-fore his deployment.

It is only fitting that if Kevin isn’t throwing smoke in the MABL, he’s putting out fires in Afghanistan. Kevin explained via Facebook Chat:

“Other than playing for the Red Sox, becoming a fireman was just one of those childhood dream jobs that I’ve always had my heart set on doing,” he wrote. “The Army was an easy decision with my Dad having served for 27 years.”

In the desert, Kevin and his seven-man unit are first re-sponders in charge of reacting

to whatever happens on the air-field, ranging from containing chemical spills to putting out fuel fires to medical emergencies. Through it all, Kevin is thankful for his family and baseball.

“I follow Jays games and headlines on the website, and I still keep in touch with all the guys on Facebook and through email,” he wrote. “I do still feel

like part of the team. The guys all keep in touch and send me random messages just to see how I am doing out here.”

K-Bell added: “Baseball and family gets our minds off the obvious. Going out and throw-ing the ball around is a real good stress reliever. That and keeping in touch with my fam-ily since we’re not with them to help out with anything that goes on back home.”

K-Bell even brought the na-tional pastime with him to re-mind him of home.

“In coming out here, there was only so much room for per-sonal items to bring,” he wrote. “My glove and a bunch of base-balls made the trip with me. We don’t have any baseball bats, but we did manage to make our own using broomsticks.”

Kevin and the guys in his unit play baseball whenever they can. While Kevin is the only member of his unit playing ball competitively back home, he was able to recruit Joey Blais (Campton, N.H.), Rusty Che-sanek (Acworth, N.H.), Chris El-liott (Wilmington, Mass.), Mike Bellizzi (Candia, N.H.) and Ar-ron Rochette of (Ashland, N.H.) to join him for a Kandahar-take on sandlot ball.

aMaTeUR BaSeBall

BrettRudy

National pastime in AfghanistanAmateur playerkeeps game alive while serving asArmy specialistin Afghanistan

Kevin Bell (center) recruited fellow New Englanders and members of his 530th Engineer Detachment, including (from left) Joey Blais, Rusty Chesanek, Chris Elliott and Mike Bellizzi to play ball.

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Care packagesThose wishing to send care packages to Spc. Kevin Bell may ship to:SPC Kevin Bell530th EN DET (firefighters)FOB Sarkari KarezAPO AE 09313

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November-December 2011 baseballjournal.com 25

MASSACHUSETTSLEAgUE TEAM

BAmBUU New Hampshire 603’s

Baseball Clubs of Cape Cod (35+) Dugout Dawgs

Boston Amateur Baseball League (38+) Norwood Red Sox

Boston Amateur Baseball League (48+) Waltham Braves

Boston Korean Adult Baseball League Cambridge Bananas

Boston Men’s Baseball League (18+) Boston Cutters

Boston Men’s Baseball League (AL 30+) Milton Breakers

Boston Men’s Baseball League (NL 30+) Scituate Tides

Boston Men’s Baseball League (Masters) Acton Orioles

Central Mass Adult Baseball League Worcester Vipers

Central Mass Over 40 Baseball Richardson & Son Dodgers

Central New England Baseball Association Chelmsford Merchants

Cranberry League Braintree White Sox

Diamond Baseball League Brockton Reds

East Cost Amateur Baseball League Needham Phillies

Fall River Independent Baseball League Fall River Royals

Intercity League Lexington Blue Sox

Intertown Twilight League Baseball Rowley Rams

Men’s Night Baseball League Shamrocks

MetroWest ABL Triboro Cubs

North Shore Baseball League Peabody Champions

Over Thirty Baseball Red Sox

Over Thirty Baseball, Night Diamondbacks

Park League Carlson Club

Pioneer Valley Over-Thirty Baseball Dirt Dogs

Quabbin Valley Over 30 Athletics

Royal Rooters Boston Knights

South Coast Baseball League White Sox

Tri-County Baseball of Western Mass DiFranco Realty

Valley Wheel Orioles

Veteran’s League Orleans Pirates

Wakefield Twi League Baseball Loafers

Western Mass Wood Baseball League Southwick Dirt Dogs

Yawkey League Somerville Alibrandis

NEW HAMPSHIRELEAgUE TEAM

Coastal New England Baseball League Northeast Electrical A’s

Concord Sunset League Glove Works

Granite State Baseball League Lawrence Pirates

New England Legends Baseball League NH Mets

New Hampshire Baseball League Bow Falcons

Seacoast New Hampshire MSBL Cubs

Southern New Hampshire MABL Raphael Club Black Sox

CONNECTICUTLEAgUE TEAM

Bridgeport Senior City Fedell’s Mechanics

Connecticut Collegiate Baseball League Southington Shock

Connecticut North MSBL (A) Marlborough A’s

Connecticut North MSBL (B) Colchester Thunder

Fairfield County MSBL Monroe Top Hats

Greater Hartford IBL Rockville Royals

Greater Hartford Twilight League Ferguson

Housatonic Valley Baseball League Western CT Outlaws

Mohegan Sun ECML Goldy’s Restaurant

Northeast Baseball Association (38+) Thomaston Opticare Spartans

Southern CT Bridgeport NABA Bridgeport All-Stars

Tri-State Baseball League Litchfield Cowboys

Wallingford Twilight League Total Renovations

West Haven Twilight League American Steakhouse

MAINELEAgUE TEAM

Pine Tree Baseball League West Paris Westies

Southern Maine Men’s Baseball League (AL 25+) Braves

Southern Maine Men’s Baseball League (NL 25+) Orioles

Southern Maine Men’s Baseball League (35+) Diamondbacks

RHODE ISLANDLEAgUE TEAM

George Donnelly Sunset League Brother’s Oven

Island Baseball League Sakonnet River Royals

Rhode Island Charity Baseball DeadCat Gallery

Rhode Island Independent ABL Premium Tile

Rhode Island MSBL (22+) RI Mariners

Rhode Island MSBL (32+) RI Riptide

Rhode Island MSBL (42+) RI Salty Dogs

Rhode Island MSBL (50+) RI Red Sox

VERMONTLEAgUE TEAM

Connecticut River Valley Baseball League Saxtons River Pirates

Green Mountain League South Burlington Expos

Green Mountain MSBL Colchester Lakers

Vermont Senior Baseball League Burlington Cardinals

— COMPILED BY BRETT RUDY, BOSTON AMATEUR BASEBALL NETWORK

New England’s amateur baseball championsThere are more than 80 amateur adult baseball leagues with more than 700 teams scattered across New England. Leagues offer a broad range of competitiveness, from weekend warrior to aspiring professional. Some leagues have short and condensed schedules over the summer, while others are spread from spring to fall. Some consist of young men just starting out life on their own, while others cater to the seasoned gentleman with families of their own. The one thing they all have in common is that they are filled with athletes continuing to live the dream of playing baseball as long as they can. Provided are your 2011 league champions:

“Some nights we pull the fire truck out and put the scene lights on so we can play catch,” he wrote. “We have good games of Wiffle Ball and stickball a few nights a week. During the day, it usually doesn’t go much further than a game of catch, or throw-ing groundballs and stuff like that to each other.”

Kevin even kept up with the Boston Red Sox’ collapse.

“Unfortunately, we were able to keep up with the Sox in September. The fire inspec-tor here is from New York and a Yankees fan, so he helped us keep up with it,” Kevin joked.

Of course, the Sox and Yan-kees are both home now with their families for the holidays, as are the rest of us local ballplay-ers. I’m thankful for guys like Kevin for allowing that freedom.

Friends and family are able to send care packages to the sol-diers. It takes only about a week for packages to be delivered.

At least one company, Axis Sports, recently sent real base-ball bats to support the 530th once they heard Kevin’s story. Lou Ledoux, the founder of Axis Sports, often helps raise funds for troops and other worthy causes.

“After hearing about local guys playing baseball with broomsticks because they didn’t have baseball bats, I im-mediately cut bats for them and put their bats ahead of every order on our production schedule,” Ledoux said.

Axis Sports provided each soldier in Kevin’s unit a camou-flaged bat. On top of that, Axis is supporting the USA Military All-Star Baseball Team, and also is working on a specific type of bat that will be used by Wounded Warriors, a nonprofit that provides support to the families of those who have been wounded, injured or killed dur-ing combat operations.

Meanwhile, K-Bell expects to return home next spring.

“Neither Kaylee or Zack have made their way to Fen-way Park,” he wrote, “so hopefully next season when I’m home for good, that will be their first time. As for the Jays, I plan on being there Opening Day, ready to pitch.”

Brett Rudy is the founder of the Boston Amateur Baseball Network. He can be reached at bostonbb@bostonbaseball.com