Syosset Baseball Association held its 53rd Annual Awards dinner at Crest Hollow Country Club on Monday, Nov. 5. This event culminates the year of baseball with the presentation of awards for the intramural season in the 9- through 12-year-old divisions, places first through fourth as well as the championship trophies. Additionally, acknowledged during the evening were the travel teams both summer and fall including the 8-year-old travel players. Furthermore, the Senior League Champions and first place teams were also presented their trophies.

As always, there was a featured guest speaker to share their stories, field questions, take photos and provide a memorable autograph of the evening. Talks leading up to the dinner were 'who's the speaker' .." I bet it's ... " It is a Met or a Yankee." The past few years, our featured speaker had played for The New York Mets. This year's featured speaker was "Hughes" as in Phil Hughes, pitcher for The New York Yankees. The crowd was kept in suspense throughout the evening as they arrived until five minutes before Hughes took to the podium. President Rob Jolson welcomed the crowd and shared that our special guest has asrrived ..." He's a Yankee." The place erupted with cheers and then Rob announced Phil Hughes which added another level of cheers.

Phil arrived into the room with his 6'5" stature capturing the room and those players eager to make it to the majors in their baseball careers someday. Rob shared some guidelines that had been provided by Hughes and his agent regarding any additional items to be signed during his visit with us, his accessibility for photo opportunities and the answering of questions during the Q&A session. On the tables were questionnaires with pens for the players to fill out and submit to be asked. Going around the room, randomly, players asked very direct questions of his young baseball career with the Yankees, including "who encouraged you to play baseball," facing Manny Ramirez of the Red Sox," what position he played in Little League, "toughest batter he has faced" among others. After the Q&A session, each paid player had the opportunity to personally meet Phil Hughes and received a signed photo of Phil, stretched out ready to mow down another batter. As each person met with him to receive the photo, he was more than accommodating to take personal pictures as a keepsake of this cherished moment.

After Hughes' Q&A session, Rob Jolson had identified a very special group of people that were presented with the President's Award for sportsmanship in the 9-year-old group. After the plaque presentation, Hughes graciously joined this photo opportunity for this select group of 9-year-old's to remember the evening by.

The evening continued with the presentation of trophies for the 9- to 12-year-old intramural divisions first through fourth places, championship trophies and Senior League first place and championship trophies. Additionally, all players participating in summer and fall travel enjoyed the opportunity to pick up their participation plaques.

Always a highlight of the evening is a silent auction of memorabilia through Last Licks of Massapequa, a Division of Steiner Sports Memorabilia. Unusually selected pieces for the guests to bid on included a signed Reggie Jackson/Billy Martin photo, Tony Hawk skateboard, Eli Manning full-size helmet, Rick DiPietro/Shawn Bates photo among others. Final bids were recorded towards the end of the evening and the winning bids took these keepsakes home with them.

On the evening prior to Election Day, Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto and his team stopped by Crest Hollow to thank everyone for a great season of baseball at Syosset town parks as well as sharing their commitment to the league and town.

After the trophy presentations, under the direction of board member and director of sponsors Kim Ott, the raffles were called and distributed to the winners. Thanks and acknowledgements to the following for their contributions to this year's raffles, board member Tony Maracic - two sets of New York Mets box seats; board member John Persichilli, one set of tickets to the New York Rangers; Last Licks of Massapequa, a division of Steiner Sports Memorabilia, framed/signed Joe Smith photo and framed/signed Brad Smith photo; Syosset Advance, former New York Mets Kevin Mitchell signed baseball; Syosset/Jericho Tribune, former New York Met Roger McDowell signed baseball; New York Mets Baseball Academy, one free week of New York Mets Baseball Academy Camp in 2008 at the Syosset facility and four tickets to New York Mets Baseball Academy Night at Shea in 2008; the New York Yankees, signed Heidi Matsui photo; the New York Mets four reserved mezzanine tickets to a game in 2008; the Long Island Ducks, a signed Edgardo Alfonso baseball and a bag of cheer - bat, seat cushion, foam finger included.

An article featured in the Syosset Advance and Syosset/Jericho Tribune recapping the season from January online registration until the evening's events was published in the current issue of both publications with an overrun of papers distributed throughout the tables for all parties to read and take home, reflecting on the year just concluded.

As the evening unwound to the conclusion, a fun, memorable evening was had by all as the board of Syosset Baseball Association starts gearing up for the 2008 season with online registration for the 2008 season kicking off on Friday, Nov. 2 just prior to the year-end dinner.

Syosset Baseball Association and President Rob Jolson would like to extend our sincere appreciation to all those players attending the dinner for respecting and cooperating throughout the evening with the guidelines and policies our guest speaker had set forth to ensure that the evening was as successful as it truly was.

Online registration is currently going on for returning players. Those players who desire to play in spring 2008 intramurals who haven't played before, must register in person, dates, locations and times to be announced.

Syosset Baseball Association would like to thank all its board members involved for making this year's dinner another Hughes success and eventful evening to remember as well as those sponsors who contributed raffles.

A calendar of events and dates for Syosset Baseball Association can be found at www.syossetbaseball.org.