Syosset Baseball Association's annual awards dinner climaxed their 51st season servicing the community's youth baseball on Nov. 7 at Crest Hollow Country Club.

The buzz leading up to the dinner was, "Who's the guest speaker?" Following on the heels of last year's speaker, Mookie Wilson, who provided the crowd with excitement, energy, enthusiasm and encouragement as well as a signed photo of his now famous play in the 1986 World Series, this year's speaker wasn't announced until he made his entrance into the ballroom. Kept under wraps until 7:30 p.m. on Monday, President Rob Jolson quieted the crowd to announce that the speaker had arrived, however, there would be guidelines and ground rules to adhere to. Upon sharing this with the crowd, he announced the guest speaker is current New York Mets third baseman, David Wright.

The crowd went wild, and upon quieting the crowd from the excited and special surprise guest, David Wright took the podium to address the crowd. He imparted his thoughts on his career, success and stressed to the group how important getting an education is.

After talking for a while to the group, David then took questions from the group regarding his musical likes, playing with various Met players, his career pathing, how much he makes, dating, etc. David then enjoyed talking with the crowd as he gave each attending player an action photo of him at third base, signed for them to keep as a keepsake of this memorable evening. If that wasn't enough, David went in the crowd, mingling among the guests for personal photos before assisting in the raffle drawings.

The raffles, always a hit, provided many of our guests with great prizes including an autographed photo from Mariano Rivera, courtesy of the New York Yankees; an autographed baseball signed by Jim Leyritz, courtesy of The Syosset Advance; an autographed baseball signed by Luis Soho, courtesy of the Syosset/Jericho Tribune and an autographed baseball signed by Steve Torrealba, courtesy of the Long Island Ducks.

The popular silent auction, put together by Last Licks of Huntington and Steiner Sports, brought an array of signed and authenticated memorabilia pieces from all sports including baseball, basketball and football signed by our local sports heroes as well as a skateboard deck signed by popular icon Tony Hawk.

The Syosset Advance and Syosset-Jericho Tribune provided overruns of their respective issues for all attendees to take home, featuring on the back page, a recap of the 2005 Syosset baseball season.

The evening also brought local politicians in support of the event, taking time out from their busy evening of campaigning on election eve to congratulate Syosset Baseball Association on its 51st year of success with the community.

Throughout the evening, those in attendance who were to receive awards, were awarded their hardware from divisions 9-12, places fourth through first along with a championship trophy in each division, summer and fall travel. A special presentation was made to our Championship Cooperstown team who brought with them their 5-foot-high championship trophy.

With this year's dinner concluded and capping a successful and exciting season, registration for 2006 is already underway. A calendar of events and information on Syosset Baseball Association can be found on the website www.syossetbaseball.org.