Sailors Honor Natale in Last Home Game

Before Hendrick Hudson hosted perennial power John Jay-East Fishkill on a perfect, sunny blue-sky Saturday afternoon at Sunset Field, the Hen Hud community came out in droves to honor Sailor coach Paul Natale in a pre-game ceremony.

Natale, better known as “Nate,” was coaching his final regular-season home baseball game after 42 years of donning the blue and white.

“I decided two years ago to retire now, it was just enough,” Natale said. “It just got to be where other things were more important--and that’s family. I want to spend more time with my grandchildren and I want to spend more time with my own life doing things I just want to do whenever I want to do them.”

Entering the sectionals, which begin with out-bracket games on Tuesday, Natale has coached 908 games, compiling a record of 546-359-3. He won 16 league titles, two sectional crowns and one regional title in 1976.

The above group included the 2000 sectional champions, which went 25-2.

Natale, who retires from his physical education teaching job at the school at the end of June as well, also coached varsity football for the Sailors, seven years as an assistant and 17 as head coach.

In addition, he was the head coach of the boys varsity soccer squad at Hen Hud for 18 seasons.

Players Return

Before the ceremony began, Natale got a chance to chat with his ex-players, something that never gets old for him.

“This is something I like,” said Natale, who is 66 this year. “I always love running into my ex-players and ex-students and especially ex-players. A lot of them stay in the area and I run into them quite frequently and it’s always enjoyable for me to see them.”

The most meaningful part of that ceremony came when ex-Sailor players gave their old coach one big heart-felt hug after another as they had their names called out by Hen Hud athletic director Tom Baker.

The line of ex-players stretched from home plate, down the third-base line to the outfield. That sort of appreciation is something that Natale will never forget.

“I was just astonished at the number of old vets that came out, the old ballplayers that came out,” Natale said. “I was also astonished at the number of community members that came. From the bottom of my heart, I meant what I said, I have grown to love this community. It’s a part of me, a big part.”

One of those players, who happened to be on that great 2000 team, was three-sport standout Kurt Thomas. Thomas played soccer, basketball and baseball at Hen Hud and is now the school’s softball coach.

“He taught us how to win,” Thomas. “He wanted to win every game. Coach trusted us to play hard every game. With my father, Mr. Pritts (JV baseball coach) and Nate, they all brought us up to be competitive. I owe all those people a great deal of credit to how they made me as a player and now as a coach.”

One of Natale’s trusted assistant coaches on the gridiron was Craig Solomon.

“He is just so genuine and so excited about being around kids and teaching them and trying to make them better,” Solomon said. “It’s contagious. He takes great pride coaching the baseball and the football and soccer back in the day. It shows with the effort he puts out there and the concern he has for the kids and helping them grow as people.”

As fate would have it, crosstown rival Peekskill’s head baseball coach from 1999-2006, Eric Frink, was on hand because he is now an assistant coach at John Jay-EF.

He said what made the Sailors so tough to play was their ability to hit the ball and the fact that they were so well-coached.

“They always hit,” Frink said. “They banged the ball. They had the year, 2000, they went to the states (quarterfinals) with Reynolds, Duquette, Thomas and Pritts, they had an all-star team. That was the measuring stick when I first got there, we had to beat them. They were one of the elite teams.”

“Then as we started to get better and finally beat them, I knew we had arrived,” Frink added. “Hen Hud always mashed the ball. They were always well coached. It’s a great accomplishment for someone to last over 40 years in anything. You have to tip your hat to Nate.”

Great Effort

The Sailors (5-15) were clearly the underdogs going into the game against the Patriots but you would have never known it by their effort.

They entered their final at-bat trailing 8-7, looked like they were going to have the tying run score before a perfect Patriot relay from right field prevented the run from scoring.

“The effort was superb, that is what we needed all year long,” Natale said. “We got it in these last two games and hopefully we can get in the (Section 1 Class A) tournament. The effort was there, I don’t give a darn that we lost. They played their behinds off, they gave everything they had and it took a great relay at the plate, otherwise we tie the game. It was perfect. I figured I gamble, what the heck.”

One of those players that put in that superb effort was starting pitcher Mike Cruikshank, who will go down as the last Sailor pitcher to start a regular-season home game for Natale.

“It must have taken a lot of faith in Nate to put me out on the field,” Cruikshank said. “I tried my best and I hope he was happy with it. It was a great honor for me to be out there for him.”

Getting the final hit at home for Natale was George Travis, whose sharp-single to right field appeared to have tied the game in the bottom of the seventh before the Patriots' pin-point relay.

“It’s heartwarming and kind of sad to see him go but we fought hard today,” Travis said. “We deserved this game but Nate deserved it more. We gave all we got for him.”

Cole Carson, James Molinari, Frankie Mele, Kyle Altman, Matt Solnick, Hunter Glashoff, Dan Bocek and Steven Chang joined Cruikshank and Travis in the Sailors' starting lineup.

The author of this story first saw Nate coach when he was a sophomore at Peekskill doing the scorebook for the Red Devils and covering their baseball game for the Peekskill Herald at Sunset Field against Hendrick Hudson back in 1987. 

Good luck in your retirement coach, you earned it!