By: Michael L. Damon
mdamon@jjay.cuny.edu
(212) 237-8322
New York, N.Y. — The ninth annual Lou DeMartino Memorial Dinner was held on Saturday evening with over 150 people packing the main gymnasium to help celebrate a pair of award recipients in memory of the former John Jay baseball coach. John Jay baseball alum Ronald Genovese ('78) received the Distinguished Alumni Award, and Gary Perone, Director of New Business and Development for the Brooklyn Cyclones earned the Lou DeMartino Lifetime Achievement Award.
Many of the 150 plus in attendance included friends and family of the two award receipants as well as numerous friends of the John Jay baseball program and a number of professional scouts from various Major League Baseball teams.
"The Lou DeMartino Dinner was once again a very successful event,” said John Jay Director of Athletics and baseball coach, Dan Palumbo. “Sports in so many ways is such a positive aspect of life, and the two award recipients exemplify the positive aspects sports can bring to the various communities.
Genovese played under DeMartino during the 1977 and '78 seasons and was a member of John Jay baseball's first ever City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) baseball championship in 1978.
“I only play for Lou for two seasons, but I learned so much from him. He always wanted us to have fun and be together,” said Genovese. “My time with the John Jay baseball program were some of the greatest memories of my life.”
Perone has been referred to as Mr. Baseball because of his tireless work to helping the cause for New York City baseball.
Perone, a lifelong New Yorker, has worked for the Brooklyn Cyclones first as Community Relations Manager before serving as the Director of New Business and Development. He also worked for the Staten Island Yankees where he was Assistant General Manager for two seasons. While with the Baby Bombers, he founded the first ever Professional Baseball Hall of Fame which is currently located within the Richmond County Bank Ballpark.
He has received numerous baseball awards, including the Raymond Church Outstanding Lifetime Achievement award given by the Greater New York Sandlot Athletic Alliance and the Brooklyn Sports Leader Award for work in the community and baseball in Brooklyn.
“This award means so much to me, a lifetime achievement award, it means I have been around a long time, though I still believe I am a pretty young guy,” said Perone. “Working with John Jay is amazing. No doubt, the baseball players at John Jay have so often gone out of their way to make me feel like a million bucks. I have never seen a group of guys in baseball more respectful and helpful than the John Jay baseball team.”
The Lou DeMartino Memorial Dinner generally serves as the last official day of the offseason for the John Jay baseball program. Practice officially begins on Sunday as the team prepares for the 2010 season on a quest to compete for the conference championship for the fourth time in five seasons. Last season John Jay was regular season co-champions with an 8-2 record in CUNYAC play.
John Jay baseball has won CUNYAC's top prize 10 times in the program's illustrious history.
DeMartino, a member of the John Jay Athletics Hall of Fame, was a legendary baseball coach for the Bloodhounds. He coached the program from 1974 to 1999 amassing 424 career wins and guided John Jay baseball to conference championship seasons in 1978, 79, 82, 83, 84, 85, 96 and 99. He also led the program to the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament in 1982, 84, 85, 86, 96, 97 and 99, which included winning the tournament in 85. The former Bloodhounds skipper also earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Division III tournament in 1996 to become the first John Jay athletics program to achieve that feat.
