The Garden City Bombers Baseball Club sent its 6 and under tee ball team to play in the Major League Baseball's "FanFest," which took place earlier this month in Manhattan.

Each year, the city hosting the Major League Baseball All Star Game, as part of the celebration, holds an indoor tee ball "All Star" game. This year, an astro-turf baseball field, complete with grandstands, a Jumbotron scoreboard, professional announcers and outfield wall façade, was set up inside the Jacob Javits Center. Event Sponsors included DHL and Aquafina, and the Bombers were sponsored by music website SpiralFrog.com.

The Baby Bombers were led by manager Don Landolphi, who was recently inducted into the college baseball coaches hall of fame. Landolphi was assisted by Frank DeMaria, Joe Mohen and Matt Sauli, all 19-year-old Bomber alumni who had played in the Caribbean baseball tournament in Santo Domingo last summer:

The Baby Bombers roster includes Chris Schwantner and Matthew Mohen, Liam and Kieran Dorney, Billy Willis, Tom and Brian Boland, Patrick Riggers, Billy Castoro, Dean Trapani, Grant Krawiec, Jim McQuaid, Jason Brown, Jack Thompson and Kyle Flynn.

The Baby Bombers uniforms consisted of standard issue Garden City maroon caps,with All Star Game shirts, the official MLB New York All Star logo on the front, and white names and numbers on the back. The team's local All Stars played up to their stylish uniforms, with the entire team going 2-2, and many impressive slides into home plate, itself a tee ball anomaly. While the final score versus Rockaway did not appear on the jumbotron, a number of Bombers players provided assurances that that their Rockaway opponents were handsomely defeated.

The Bombers were cheered on by a large crowd of home town Garden City fans, many of who traveled by bus for the game as well as people who came from as far away as France for the "real" All Star game, which took place July 15 at Yankee Stadium. Also on hand were former Garden City High School players, college baseball coaches and some baseball dignitaries.

The Garden City Bombers Travel Baseball Club currently fields teams in each age group, from 5 year old through teenage years. Last year, the Bombers have played internationally, and have sent players to Olympic tournaments in Europe and Asia, as well as the New York Metro Sandlot All Star game at KeySpan Park. The 6 and under program is designed to teach very young players baseball fundamentals from professional coaches, to keep them from developing incorrect mechanics.

For more information, email GCBombers@AOL.com.