Transcript: Mayor de Blasio, Senator Schumer, Borough President Oddo and Council Member Borelli Announce New Joseph A. Verdino Jr. Grandstand

May 15, 2017

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, good morning, everyone. This is – this is an important story because it’s a story of perseverance, a story of this family that has been through so much and wanted to give back to the community and to the children of the community, and a story of folks here in the South Shore of Staten Island who wanted to make sure that we had the best for their children. So, I want to thank everyone involved for pushing so hard to make this come together so we have an amazing facility for the kids of this community. For Joseph and Robin Verdino, they deserve our praise so deeply – lost their son, Joseph Jr. – and I can only imagine as a parent the pain they’ve been through, but I admire everything they’ve done to turn things around for everybody else to make sure that everybody else had an amazing experience for their kids. There’s something beautiful about that – committing themselves to so many families, even though they lost their own son. I was talking to Joe about his son and his love of baseball, which sounds outstanding – amazing commitment to the game, and knowing that so many other kids will now get to enjoy it because of this.

So, Joseph was lost in 2007 – but now we get to do something in his name, and announce the Joseph A. Verdino Jr. Grandstand will be open this next spring.

[Applause]

Mayor: And ball players all across this borough are going to benefit from this beautiful facility, and a whole new generation is going to come up, and they’re going to look up the name Joseph Verdino Jr. and they’re going to remember a good young man who came before them. A lot of people worked hard to make this happen. This was a complicated – amazingly complicated for something that should seem so simple. It took a whole lot of work and I want to thank everyone who has been involved.

You’re going to here from Senator Schumer in a moment and, when I introduce him, I’ll give you a flavor of what he did to make this day happen. But, I want to thank as well, John Iorio, the President of South Shore little League. John, thank you so much for you all you do. Give this man a round of applause.

[Applause]

Mayor: I want to thank – even though he is no longer an elected official, he’s still okay. Councilmember Vinny Ignizio, thank you for all you did to support this.

[Applause]

And from this administration, some people went above and beyond to make this happen – our Commissioner for Department of Design and Construction, Feniosky Peña-Mora. Thank you, Commissioner, for your hard work.

[Applause]

Mayor: And Julia Kursin who is the program manager, making sure that this could come off on time. Julia, thank you so much.

[Applause]

Mayor: So, listen to what this is going to have – it’s amazing. There’ll be seating for 275 fans, and those seats are going to be filled. There is a recess dugout, there’s even a press box. I can tell you, when my son Dante played travel baseball, we’ve played on a lot of fields that didn’t have these amenities. We would have loved them because kids deserve them, because it makes the whole experience better for everyone.

And it is a fitting tribute to Joseph Jr., who loved baseball so deeply, always had a glove in hand and was always talking about baseball. So, his spirit will carry on. And I’ve got to say, finally, to all the people who love this game and teach it to the next generation – I happen to have been a little league coach – and for all the adults who make this happen – it’s not always easy. Kids don’t always listen exactly to the way we want them to, but, we know they learn so much in the process, we know it helps to shape them into who they are later in life, and it gives them so many incredible gifts.

So, this is a good day for the South Shore of Staten Island and all of Staten Island. It’s a good day for New York City when our kids are getting this beautiful facility.

And now, as I turn to Chuck Schumer, I’ll say this – there was a log jam. This seems like a straightforward project, but it involves so many different city agencies, so many complicated legal issues, it would boggle the mind. But to the credit of Chuck Schumer, a man whose got plenty on his mind right now, as the Democratic leader of the United States Senate – you know, one thing that’s great about Chuck Schumer, no matter how high up he goes the ladder, he still remembers where he came from. And he called me during Staten Island week – where’s the Borough President? He called me during Staten Island week and he said, I am hearing about this field and we’ve got to fix it, and he said lets focus our energies and get it done. And, I got to tell you, when he – he is a dog with a bone when he wants to get something done, to his great credit. So, we pulled together all the agencies that next Monday. Literally, you’ve have made –there were like 50 people in the room to get this done, Chuck. But the good news is, it got done, and we celebrate and it’ll be open this next spring.

Ladies and gentleman, Senator Chuck Schumer.